pangolin Archives - Corruption Watch

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Turning the tide on crime and corruption in pangolin scale and ivory trafficking

12 Jun 2025, 16:15

Corruption Watch is deeply interested in and concerned about the ongoing illicit wildlife trade (IWT), which affects our country drastically and is driven in large part by corruption in various sectors of our society. Over the years we have reported on developments and challenges with various trafficked species, always emphasising that corruption enables these heinous Read more >

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Visualising corruption risks in the illegal rhino horn trade supply chain

18 Jan 2023, 16:46

Nicola Okes and Gabriel Sipos, TRAFFICFirst published on TNRC (Tackling Natural Resource Corruption) The rhino horn trade represents one of the four largest illegal wildlife trade flows (UNODC 2020) by value. Although the drivers and uses of rhino horn differ across user groups and market destinations (e.g., medicinal use or status-conferring prestige products), the overall Read more >

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Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 5

06 Oct 2021, 11:00

With so many lucrative avenues for criminals to choose from nowadays, the fact that international wildlife crime (IWT) and the smuggling of wildlife products continues to increase is a measure of the vast sums of money to be made from this illegal practice. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for example, which it spelled out in its 2020 World Wildlife Crime Report, “the Read more >

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Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 4

06 Aug 2021, 12:43

Image: Wilson Lau, TRAFFIC A humble marine mollusc, Haliotis midae, has been the inadvertent cause of one of South Africa’s biggest poaching/smuggling challenges. The largest abalone in South Africa, it is known locally as perlemoen, from the Dutch meaning ‘mother of pearl’. Occurring naturally along the South African coastline, perlemoen is nothing more than a Read more >

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Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 3

27 Jul 2021, 15:26

A new study titled Convergence of wildlife crime with other forms of organised crime, released in May 2021 by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), sheds light on this phenomenon of crime convergence, which has been noticed more and more over the last two decades. The report shows that criminal networks are dealing in wildlife Read more >

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Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 2

12 Jul 2021, 14:57

Consider this statement: “Bribes can make up to 10% of the wholesale value of ivory in Asia.” And given that according to an investigation by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), raw ivory currently commands a price of between US$597/kg and $689/kg, on the Asian market – down from a mind-boggling high of $2 100/kg in Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption as an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime: part 1

28 Jun 2021, 14:34

Image: Flickr/gmacfadyen Corruption is an enabler of wildlife, forest and fisheries crime. There are no surprises in that statement, as many will be aware that corruption occurs at every stage of the wildlife trafficking supply chain – and it’s a big reason for the continued prevalence of wildlife trafficking routes and networks. There are also Read more >

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CITES welcomes G20 intent to combat wildlife corruption

14 Jul 2017, 9:42

South Africa is not the only country battling with poaching attacks on its wildlife for the purpose of illegal trade, but it has one of the highest profiles in this area, because of iconic targeted animals such as rhino, pangolin and elephant which are native to the country. In the wake of the 2017 G20 Read more >