The environmental crime crisis: threats to sustainable development from illegal exploitation and trade in wildlife and forest resources

Publication Date: 2014 

Given the alarming pace, level of sophistication, and globalized nature that illegal 

trade in wildlife has now notoriously achieved, UNEP initiated a Rapid Response 

Assessment to provide some of the latest data, analysis, and broadest insights into 

the phenomenon. Tackling illegal wildlife trade demands this examination of the 

relationship between the environmental resources at stake, their legal and illegal 

exploitation, the loopholes that exacerbate the situation, the scale and types of 

crimes committed, and the dynamics of the demand driving the trade.