26 June 2025
To inform discussions at the first meeting of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Group (IEG) on Crimes that Affect the Environment under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), taking place from 30 June to 2 July 2025, the Wildlife Justice Commission — in partnership with the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, of which it is a Founding Champion — developed a “cheat sheet” summarising the key facts about wildlife trafficking.
The resource covers the modus operandi of criminal networks, the scale of the trade, and its harms to the environment, people, economies, and the global Sustainable Development Goals. It also highlights the legal and enforcement gaps that hamper an effective response, and sets out possible short-term, mid-term, and long-term solutions. The cheat sheet provides delegates and other stakeholders with a concise, evidence-based reference to support informed discussion.
The cheat sheet highlights key measures to strengthen the response to wildlife trafficking, including criminalisation, special investigative techniques, financial investigations, anti-corruption strategies, international law enforcement cooperation, inter-agency coordination, technical assistance, and the implementation of relevant international resolutions and recommendations.
The resource also considers the possibility, feasibility, and merits of an additional protocol to the UNTOC on crimes that affect the environment, including wildlife trafficking, and identifies areas where such an instrument could address existing legal and enforcement gaps.
