The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has developed into a diverse and lucrative form of transnational organized crime, placing serious pressure on fauna and flora worldwide. Wildlife crime is currently considered the fourth most lucrative type of organized crime globally and 2014 estimates of the annual value of IWT were in the range of $7-$23 billion (van Uhm, 2016; Nellemann et al. 2016; UNODC, 2020). However, it is increasingly being recognised that the real costs of the illegal trade in fish, forestry products and wildlife must consider economic losses from ecosystem services, and recent global estimates of this value are at USD 1 trillion or more (World Bank, 2019).
