Ten years ago, the Wildlife Justice Commission was founded on a simple but radical idea: what if wildlife crime was treated like the serious organised crime that it truly is?
From inception to impact: Ten years of Wildlife Justice looks at a decade of investigations, law enforcement partnerships, and policy engagement to disrupt the organised criminal networks driving wildlife trafficking. It traces how our intelligence-led approach has evolved, the impact it has achieved, and the lessons that have shaped our work. The report also looks forward as we expand into new regions and bring our proven model to the fight against timber and marine species trafficking.
Founded in The Hague in 2015, Wildlife Justice was created in response to a recognition that conventional approaches to wildlife crime were ineffective. At the time, enforcement efforts prioritised seizures and low-level poachers, while the organisers, financiers, and kingpins behind transnational trafficking networks continued to operate with relative impunity.
Wildlife Justice adopted a different approach, focusing on the criminal networks behind the illegal trade and using undercover investigations to support law enforcement authorities in building cases against those driving wildlife crime. From inception to impact documents how this approach has proven effective across continents, species, and trafficking systems, exposing the transnational criminal networks trafficking ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales, and live animals.
Ten years ago, we had a powerful new idea, but we did not know whether it would work. Today, we know that it does. Wildlife trafficking used to be a low-risk, high-reward crime. But thanks to our brave staff, partners, and generous donors, wildlife trafficking has become less profitable. In many places where we work, trafficking is declining and criminals are leaving the business. From inception to impact illuminates this journey.”
Ten years after its founding, the Wildlife Justice Commission remains guided by the same mission with which it began: to save species by disrupting the organised criminal networks driving them to extinction.
Our next decade will build on the experience, partnerships, and proven approach developed over the past ten years, with the same focus on tackling the criminal networks at the heart of wildlife crime.
