A new survey revealed the size and complexity of wildlife traffic across Africa, and a network of intertwined corruption, organized crime and regular failures which lead to the erosion of environmental preservation efforts and illegal marketing.
The survey on “Turmous and chaos: an analysis of the size of the bingan (ants) and ivory traffic 2015-2024” is a complex and disturbing images of the African fauna traffic in Asia between 2015 and 2024, before and after the Kofid-19 pandemic.
The report prepared by the “fauna justice committee” is one of the most complete studies to date on how to allow legal gaps, political intervention and institutional weakness to prosper in illegal trade of endangered species.
The figures mentioned in the survey increase the amazement, because there are 8 types of large and small banglades. On average, the weight of Bangols reaches approximately 5 kilograms and transports a bench between 500 and 600 grams of protective scales, and one tonne requires killing more than 1800 bengol.
Traffic
In 2024, Nigerian customs seized more than 9.4 metric tons of bench scales in dark cargo containers, hidden under wooden layers or bags inside hidden of cashews, with thousands of elephants, and the size of the shipment indicates that more than 18,000 bengul animals were killed to secure this shipping alone.
The report also confirms that in 2019, the control of international bingol scales exceeded 100,000 tonnes, and the report estimates that convulsions represent only 10% of the total number of commercial quantities, which practically benefits the murder of millions of benchol.
BENGOL – also known as Umm Qarrafa – is one of the most exposed to traffic in the world, after the illegal trade in its balance and its flesh has also become a global problem about 10 years ago. There are 8 known types of bingol, including 4 in Asia and 4 in Africa.
During the second decade of the century, the smuggling of enormous amounts of African benchmakers began to meet growing demand in Asia, over the past ten years estimated at more than 370 tonnes.
In 2019, two recordings of Bangolle ladders were seized for a few days in Singapore, totaling more than 25 tonnes, while 3 standard ivory measures were seized in Vietnam, Singapore and China, also totaling more than 25 tonnes.
At the same time, 2019 also saw one of the largest elephants that have been confiscated so far from illegal trade, because the reports reported that it had reached around 50 tonnes, which means that nearly 50 villas were killed for its disposal.
The report indicates that between 2015 and 2024, more than 193 tonnes of ivory elephants have been confiscated, and if this number represents 10%, the total number of elephants killed accordingly will be 193,000 elephants, almost half of the total enumeration of elephants in Africa, according to the report.
The rapid growth of the average size of shipments shows the participation of organized crime networks which operate on large capital, a commercial infrastructure and a complex communication network to transport large shipments on continents with this quantity of frequency.
It is also estimated that during the last years of this century, for ivory traffic, has resulted in a decrease in the number of elephants in the world of around 30%, most of them on the African continent.
China is traditionally a major destination for ivory and trade in ladders, but it has intensified its campaign to exchange fauna during the pandemic.
In 2020, the authorities carried out several prominent arrests and imposed more sanctions for wild crimes, in particular on the species involved in the transmission of animal diseases, and this partly contributed to the reduction of ivory controls and the main bingol scales within China itself.
The total estimated crises of approximately $ 176.1 million during the decade indicate the amount of profits that criminal networks must achieve imports and successful sales of buyers so that it was worth the risk and continues to be an attractive commercial project.
Although it is not known that it is not known that the incredible illegal trade rate represented by crises, the assumption of a control rate of 10% means that the income resulting from successful shipments over the ten years can reach $ 1.58 billion.
In recent years, the fauna justice committee – which has prepared the report – has found that African brokers play a decisive role in Vietnamese and Chinese criminal networks operating in Africa.
Often, these roles go beyond the supply of products to include travel regulations and communications in sea ports and airports, selection and securing of coverage charges and management of shipping, transport and packaging shipments.
The manager generally benefits from the greatest experience, best relations with brokers in Africa, buyers in Asia and logistics service connections on both sides of the supply chain.
It has been found that Chinese fauna crime networks show a model of structural and operational properties of advanced gangs of organized crime. These networks seem to be structured as a group of arranged members of Harama and have a central power.
Each member of the network is devoted to a specific function, such as financing, offer, logistics services and money transfer. These roles are often officially determined, and it is clear that network membership continues for several years of work.
Investigations on the wildlife group also revealed that there is a close correlation between the Nigerian criminal networks involved in the supply and trade of the Banglades and ivory scales. There are informal and temporary links among Nigerian merchants, unlike long -term relationships and structures for traditional organized crime networks.
Legal stages
While the Kofid-19 epidemic caused an initial shock that almost completely stopped traffic movements, proactive and targeted law efforts also contributed to a fundamental change in the scene of crimes against fauna in the world.
There have been arrests and pivotal tests for merchants in many ways in many countries along the supply chains during the period of this analysis, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Mozambique.
According to the report, the police in China played a fundamental role in this context. Since the prohibition of elephant exchanges entered into force in December 2017, and thanks to an advanced and systematic investigation approach, China almost eliminated the complete criminal networks involved in ivory traffic.
With the significant drop in the volume of trade, the nations environment program indicates that the bangs and elephants are still classified second and third, after a single century – in murders, smuggling scales and fangs, and that many ways – including Europe – are always active as contraband.