Wildlife Trafficking and Poaching: Contemporary Context and Dynamics for Security Cooperation and Military Assistance - Smuggling, Border Security, Infectious Disease, About People Not Just Animals

This fascinating report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. Dr. Chris Jasparro's case study on poaching analyzes the intricate web of greed and grievances that drive illicit poaching and smuggling networks across the continent of Africa. Jasparro blends his years of field research on the topic with his background as a geographer to both paint broad-brush pictures of how criminals profit from illicit networks and provide detailed recommendations on how to address these challenges. Classroom instructors should find the questions at the end of the case study a solid foundation for instruction and essay assignments. Practitioners and scholars focused on how criminal networks function and exploit seams and gaps in coverage and policy should find the recommendations a nuanced discussion on how to respond to this challenge.

This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

I. Introduction * II. Contemporary Context * III. Overview of Trends * IV. Strategic and Security Dimensions of Wildlife Crime * A. Governance and Development * B. Homeland and Border Security * C. Infectious Disease * D. Threat Convergence * V. Dynamics of Wildlife Crime * A. Subsistence * B. Commercial Wildlife Crime * i. Poaching * ii. Transit * iii. Facilitation * VI. Unique Aspects and Challenges Posed by Wildlife Crime * A. Wildlife Crime Is About People, Not Just Animals * B. Poachers, Traffickers, and Animals Move: Balloon and Reverse Balloon Effects * C. Militarization * D. Threat Conflation * VII. Areas for Security Cooperation and Military Assistance * VIII. Conclusion

Wildlife crime, which includes poaching and trafficking, has emerged as a significant international security issue, sharing commonalities and often intersecting with other transnational and irregular security threats. This has led to the direct involvement of military forces and application of military-like approaches to combat it in affected countries, as well as the provision of military assistance from external countries. However, wildlife crime is a highly complex phenomena with unique dimensions that can render military assistance ineffective or counterproductive if not adequately considered. Consequently, military assistance must be tailored to the particular threat. Commercial transnational poaching in Botswana, for example, is treated as a national security threat that the military has been tasked to combat; commercial poachers may be subject to a shoot-to-kill policy. Local subsistence poaching, on the other hand, is treated as a law enforcement and development issue and countered with less harsh and more nuanced approaches.

The main aim of this case study is to place wildlife crime in a strategic context and to provide a primer on the dynamics of wildlife trafficking and poaching to help military personnel engaged in planning, designing, or participating in security cooperation and military assistance activities for anti-poaching (AP) and counter wildlife trafficking (CWT) better tailor and more effectively conduct their activities. The case begins with an overview of trends in wildlife crime—its emerging strategic and security dimensions that are providing the rationale and demands for military assistance and responses to combat it. This is followed by a detailed discussion of different modes of poaching and trafficking and their unique dimensions that personnel should be cognizant of in designing security cooperation and assistance programs in order to maximize effectiveness and minimize the risk of unintended negative effects. The case study concludes with questions that can be used to guide the development of security cooperation efforts and types of assistance.