Illegal trade endangering many species

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Undercover operations to expose the illegal trade in protected species are rescuing thousands of animals and decreasing demand for their pelts and body parts, but the operations also are provoking violence from criminal gangs.

A recent report by the international environmental organization Wild Aid revealed a series of gang-style killings related to the shark-fin trade in East Asia, a market dominated by Chinese triads.

In August, five person were killed in Fiji, apparently fighting for space in the black market. In February, a man sentenced to house arrest was slain in his home in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the "Chinese mafia shark-fin war," the report said.

The Russian mafia and Latin American drug cartels also participate in illegal wildlife trade, while some poaching groups specializing in smuggling plants and animals or their parts using drug- and gun-smuggling routes.

In Europe, enforcement agents have been shot in gunfights with gangs, and in Latin America, several drug shipments have been discovered mixed with animals or plants. Snakes with bags of drugs inside are just a sample, according to a previous report by Traffic, of the World Wildlife Fund.

It showed, too, that the past two Chinese anti-poaching leaders in Tibet have been slain and that anti-poaching teams in many countries are often targets of assassination.

This type of trade is attracting organized criminals because of the high profits (up to 800 percent in some cases) and the lack of serious punishment, which leads to an estimated trade worth at least $6 billion annually in the world black markets.

"It's the most profitable illegal trade after drugs and guns," said Peter Knights, executive director of Wild Aid.

An example is rhinoceros horns, with prices of up to $40,000 per kilo, more than five times the price of gold, according to the organization Asian Conservation Awareness Program (ACAP). Not surprisingly, 97 percent of the world's rhinos were lost in the past 30 years.