Examples of terrorist financing in relation to illegal wildlife trade

Terrorist financing and wildlife trafficking. A growing number of terrorist and militant groups are now based in African countries, including sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the terrorist groups Islamic State and Al Shabaab are active in Somalia, and their affiliates operate in neighboring Kenya. At the same time, Somalia and Kenya are among the most important African locations for poaching and wildlife trafficking.

Terrorist Financing and Wildlife Trafficking

Armed groups around the world are committing environmental crimes to generate low-risk, high-profit revenue, depriving governments of revenue and threatening peace, development and security.

For example, militias in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the mounted “janjaweed” fighters who spread terror in Sudan, Chad and Niger, have all benefited from the ivory trade, which was once the main source of income for Uganda’s notoriously brutal Lord’s Resistance Army.

According to a hearing before the U.S. Congressional Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, wildlife trafficking is a real and growing threat to the security of nations as it relates to the financing of terrorist organizations. In fact, ivory, like so many blood diamonds, is financing armed fighters in Africa. Reports indicate that terrorist and militant groups—such as Al Shabaab in Somalia; the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa; and Janjaweed in Sudan and Chad—are involved in elephant poaching and ivory trafficking. There are also reports that militants linked to Al Qaeda are involved in the illegal trade of ivory, tiger skins, and rhino horns in India, Nepal, Burma, and Thailand.

The increasing involvement of armed groups and criminal elements of all kinds, including terrorist organisations, threatens the peace and security of vulnerable regions, strengthens illicit trade routes and destabilises economies and communities that depend on wildlife for their livelihoods.

In particular, the illegal activities of terrorist and militant groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have attracted the attention of international organizations such as Interpol. According to Interpol, the illegal exploitation of natural resources in eastern DRC is estimated at more than $1.25 billion per year. Of these amounts, an estimated 10-30 percent goes to transnational organized criminal groups. The annual net profit for organized crime is conservatively estimated at gold, timber, charcoal, minerals, diamonds and wildlife, including ivory, and fishing.

Terrorist groups in illegal wildlife trade

Let us discuss some examples of the involvement of terrorist groups in the illegal wildlife trade.

• In the 1970s and 1980s, militant organizations in Angola, such as UNITA (União Nacional para an Independência Total de Angola), as well as African military agents, slaughtered tens of thousands of elephants for bushmeat and the ivory trade.
• During the civil war in Mozambique, RENAMO (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana) traded in rhino horn and ivory.
• One of the most unusual cases of terrorists supported by illegal wildlife trade occurred during the civil conflict in Nepal from 1996 to 2006. The Maoist insurgency relied heavily on the collection and global trade of Yarchagumba, a species of caterpillar fungus known as Ophiocordyceps Sinensis. Yarchagumba was (and remains) a highly lucrative herb used in traditional Chinese medicine as a powerful aphrodisiac and as a treatment for a variety of illnesses, including cancer. The income from the Maoists’ trade was so high that the Nepalese military made significant efforts to evict them from the subalpine pastures where the fungus was found. Although harvesting of Yarchagumba was permitted in Nepal in 2001, the Maoists were not exempted and continued to make considerable income from the trade.

The frenetic demand for ivory and the profit opportunities often attract criminals of all kinds, including terrorists. As a result of the ever-growing market for ivory, poaching and illegal wildlife trade have become a much more important source of terrorist financing.

According to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, there is growing evidence that terrorist organisations across Africa are heavily dependent on the ivory trade to finance their activities.

How to stop the illegal wildlife trade as it funds terrorist groups

The forest elephants gathered daily at Dzanga Bai to drink the mineral-rich water. Their gathering in the clearing, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Central African Republic, was so consistent that researchers and tourists flocked there for guaranteed sightings of these elusive cousins ​​of the larger savanna elephants. Then, on May 6, Sudanese poachers arrived. They shot dead at least 26 of the animals, hacked off their prized tusks, and then left their bodies to rot.

Such incidents, often carried out by heavily armed militias equipped with helicopters and night vision goggles, are becoming increasingly common in sub-Saharan Africa. These operations are carried out by transnational criminal syndicates. The profits are high: on the black market, a kilogram of elephant ivory can fetch $2,000; the same amount of rhino horn can fetch $65,000 more than cocaine or platinum. Overall, the illegal wildlife trade is a $19 billion-a-year industry, making it the fourth most lucrative illegal activity in the world after drug trafficking, counterfeiting and human trafficking.

Money Financing

This money funds extremists, terrorists and other criminal organizations around the world. According to a 2012 report by the Elephant Action League, a Los Angeles-based advocacy group, the Somali Islamist militant group and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the September terrorist attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, illegal ivory accounts for 40 percent of its funding. Other al-Qaeda affiliates, as well as rebel groups such as Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, reportedly profit from the illegal wildlife trade. As a result, elephant and rhino poaching have reached record highs.

The United States is watching. In July, it established a presidential task force on wildlife crime and pledged $10 million in training and technical assistance to combat poaching in Africa. Nevertheless, some U.S. policies continue to contribute to the trade. This must stop.

The United States is the second largest market for ivory and other illegal wildlife products, thanks in part to legal loopholes that allow ivory to be traded based on the age and type of elephant it comes from. However, because it is nearly impossible to distinguish old ivory from new ivory, and African ivory from Asian ivory, criminals can use the legal market to launder illegal ivory. The United States should ban the trade in all forms of ivory.

Final thoughts

The United States must work to reduce the high demand for illegal wildlife from Asian consumers, particularly China’s growing middle class. We must work with China and other countries to educate the public: many Chinese buyers believe that elephants naturally shed their tusks, while Vietnamese buyers believe that rhino horn cures hangovers and cancer. And if necessary, we must publicly shame these countries and impose trade sanctions until they reduce their consumption. These are drastic measures, to be sure. But we live in truly desperate times. The fate of these endangered species is intertwined with our own.