Offline and in the Wild Stopping the Surge in Wildlife Trafficking Online and Abroad

Traffickers in wildlife target unwitting consumers, and travelers in particular are sold illegally or unsustainably sourced wildlife products in many popular destinations globally. But with increased traveler awareness, wildlife market closures and stronger enforcement, traffickers have expanded their reach through an exploding trade in wildlife and their products online. These tricks of the trade have become increasingly sophisticated on a grand scale, and efforts to avoid detection and trick enforcement agencies, online platforms and consumers are now a virtual cat and mouse game that is threatening many species. Adding to the difficulty of this game, traffickers are now able to advertise risky interactions with wildlife through social media platforms that may be linked with criminal activity and pose risk of disease transmission.

WWF with its partners, TRAFFIC and IFAW, established the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online in 2018 to bring together the world’s ecommerce and social media companies to shut down traffickers’ access to consumers and protect wildlife from trafficking. To date, the 36 member companies like eBay, Alibaba, Google and Facebook have blocked or removed over 3.3 million prohibited wildlife listings online.

Hear from the WWF and TRAFFIC team that lead the Coalition and efforts to detect listings of illegal wildlife, manage a global volunteer Cyber Spotter Program, and support companies in enhancing algorithms to automatically prevent listings being posted. This webinar with Crawford Allan and Giavanna Grein from WWF’s TRAFFIC program will draw you into a crime story that we only wish was fiction.