The illegal wildlife trade is a $20B black market based on corruption—a global crisis that pops up in news headlines with heartbreaking stories of endangered species being poached and confiscated at customs. These activities are driving species of elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolins, turtles, parrots and others towards extinction. Rhino poaching has increased by 9,000% since 2007; 100,000 elephants were killed in just three years; and the tiger population has decreased by 40 percent in the last decade. Our partners at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge (WCTC), a partnership with National Geographic, Smithsonian, and TRAFFIC, is finding solutions to this global crisis through innovative science and technology.
Corruption is the key enabler of wildlife trafficking, creating illegal supply chains and fueling criminal networks that devastate vulnerable species and harm livelihoods.…