Animal and Wildlife Trafficking and Smuggling: $20 Billion

The WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) has estimated that animal and wildlife trafficking to be worth between $15 billion and $25 billion a year.
Source: Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, “Poaching for Bin Laden,” Guardian, May 5, 2007, (accessed: May 7, 2007).

Estimated 19,000 elephants are poached every year

Source: Associated Press, “One-time ivory sale approved,” International Herald Tribune, June 14, 2007.

Only 50 to 150 tigers remain in wild in Vietnam due to poaching

Source: AFP, “Wildlife smuggling in Asia still a roaring trade,” Yahoo News, June 3, 2007.

60 percent of rhino population were killed in two African countries between 2003 and 2005

Source: Arthur Max, AP, “Crime syndicates smuggling wildlife,” Yahoo News, June 7, 2007.

Poacher in Taiwan can sell a bear for $4,500

Source: AFP, “Wildlife smuggling in Asia still a roaring trade,” Yahoo News, June 3, 2007.

At least 12,000 bears are kept on bile farms in China

Cathryn Atkinson, “Bear Detecttion Kits tested against smuggling,” The Globe and Mail, July 6, 2007.

Indian tiger pelt can be sold on the black market for up to $16,000

AFP, “Wildlife smuggling in Asia still a roaring trade,” Yahoo News, June 3, 2007.

70 to 80 Asian elephants smuggled out of India every year

According to Reuters, “About 70 to 80 of Assam’s 5,000 wild elephants are smuggled out of the northeastern state every year, conservationists say, despite India’s ban on the trapping of wild elephants in 1986.”
Source: Biswajyoti Das, Reuters, “Elephant Smuggling rampant in India’s Assam,” Alertnet.org, June 15, 2007.