INTERPOL - World Model United Nations

T OPI C A: W I LDLI FE CRIME
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
INTERPOL denes wildlife crime as the “taking, trading,
exploiting or possessing of the world’s wild ora and
fauna in contravention of national and international laws.” 1
Driven by high worldwide demand for exotic pets, rare
foods, and traditional medicine, illicit wildlife tracking
has amounted to a US$10 billion black market industry, 2
and has become an issue fraught with serious consequences
for the environment, public health, and international
economic security.
Wildlife crime drives species toward extinction, sets
us farther back on environmental goals of sustaining
biodiversity, and contributes to the spread of various
zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, SARS, HIV, anthrax, West
Nile Virus, and avian inuenza. 3 Uncontrolled animal
and plant harvesting far exceeds natural environments’
reproductive capacities and causes overwhelming
population decline of species that are oen the linchpins
of their ecosystems, the loss of which carries far-reaching
implications. 4 Linchpin species are those that have
become crucial to their ecosystems because of the direct
environmental and interspecies benet they produce (soil
enrichment, breakdown of bio-decay, or the provision of
shade and protection); a high number of predators rely on
the species for sustenance; and/or a high number of prey
rely on the species for crowd and population control, as well
as for evolutionary adaptation. Each species lls a niche in
its environment, so the extinction of one can tear apart the
interdependent network, leaving the ecosystem vulnerable
to eventual collapse. Moreover, poachers tend to capture
large vertebrates that act as the “keystone species” in their
ecosystems and that are responsible for keeping population
levels down at every trophic level. ese larger species are
nearly impossible to replace, and, without them, species
found at lower trophic levels lack the impetus for adaptation
through competition that eventually leads to benecial
evolutionary change. 5 Larger species are also responsible
for seed dispersal and germination for up to 75% of tropical
trees by carrying the seed outside or inside of their bodies
and having wide traveling ranges, 6 so their extinction
could result in plant destruction that exacerbates soil loss,
erosion, and global warming. Localized species loss and the
ecological deterioration that ensues can compound global
regulatory systems irreversibly. 7
In terms of public health, 75% of emerging diseases are
classied as zoonotic, or originating from a non-human
species. ese diseases can develop into pandemics when
microbes are transmitted to a foreign environment due
to wildlife tracking, which brings humans and injured,
disease-prone animals into close proximity. 8 Not only does
the illicit spread of ora and fauna necessarily risk the
unchecked spread of biologically transmitted viruses, the
depletion of certain plant species also deprives the public
of life-saving medications. Existing medicines for lifethreatening
diseases are approximately 25% plant-made and
25% animal-made. As biomedical research frequently uses
animal species as models for human health behavior, we
stand to reverse years of scientic advancement if natural
environments are further depleted from the travesty of
wildlife crime, and, in particular, illicit wildlife tracking. 9
Elephant killed by poachers in Africa. (http://www.interpol.
int/public/environmentalcrime/wildlife/default.asp)
Not only does decreasing biodiversity negatively impact the
wild and the public, but it also severely impacts countries
and legitimate service and manufacturing industries around
the world that rely on wildlife for livelihood and taxes. For
example, criminal activity on New Zealand deer ranches in
1986 resulted in the illegal release of hundreds of animals.
As a result, insurance companies dramatically increased
premiums for local deer ranchers to the point where several
had to shut down, causing a loss of livelihood for these
farmers. 10 Further, wildlife tracking has the potential of
disrupting global nancial markets due to increasingly
high demand for its products. 11 Despite existing legal
frameworks for combating the “bushmeat” epidemic (in
which large animal species are killed and traded at high
prices for local sustenance), local enforcement agencies
Harvard WorldMUN 2012 INTERPOL 7