(Posted 03rd June 2024)
Courtesy of African Elephant News / Stenews and Nam Kyung-don, The Korea Herald
Illegal trafficking of plant and animal wildlife remains stubbornly prevalent, according to a UN report, and it is critical governments focus on more than just “iconic” species like elephants, where progress has been made.
While seizures reported in 2020 and 2021 were around half that of previous reports, that could be attributed to pandemic-linked disruptions rather than a decline in actual trafficking, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Wildlife Crime Report said.
Wildlife crime, “such as the illegal collection of succulent plants and rare orchids,” and the trafficking of many kinds of reptiles, fish, birds and mammals, has played a key role in local or global extinctions, it said.
