Wildlife smuggling in southern Africa

Involvement in the illegal trading network can be divided into three general roles: poachers, traffickers and intermediaries, and consumers.

In the southern region of Africa, some species that are common in the illegal trading network are exotic birds, large African cats, rhinoceros, and elephants.

[1] Top importer of exotic birds is South Africa, though there are also buyers in the United States and Europe.

[3] Eighty percent of the African Lion (Panthera leo) population is concentrated in east and southern Africa.

[5] In South Africa, rhino poaching commonly happens on privately owned land, which is difficult for officials to prevent.

There are various motivations for poaching, some of which include an aim to reduce human-wildlife conflict, trophy hunting, and consumer demand.

Criminal groups consist of advanced communication systems, automobiles and weapons that facilitate large quantities of killings with minimal detection.

The seizures of wildlife poaching is largely undocumented in some areas, such as Tanzania, which suggests there are state workers forging paperwork for unlawful commodities[14] Consumers at the end of the market change can be local or international.

In Namibia and South Africa, the trade of exotic birds and reptiles are popular among consumers as pets.

According to the CITES database, most international wildlife exports from Africa go to Europe, Japan and the United States.

[1] The buyer are pet shops, private collectors, animal brokers, game farms, biomedical labs, circuses, exotic meat dealers.

The Integrated Rural Resource Development Project in Zambia ( IRRDP) puts local people in charge of protecting wildlife.