Earth Day is an opportunity to celebrate the beauty of our planet, but also to confront the threats it faces. One of the most insidious threats is illegal wildlife trafficking, a multifaceted trade that fuels biodiversity loss, weakens ecosystems, spreads disease and enriches criminal networks. It is time we understood that behind every animal snatched from the wild, there is dirty money in circulation—and it is our financial systems, our markets and our laws that make this scourge possible.
A Trade Between Legality and Criminality
The trade in wild animals is not illegal per se. Legality depends on the protection status of the species, as defined by the Washington Convention (CITES). Trade in specimens listed in Appendix I is authorized only in exceptional circumstances, for scientific or educational purposes for example. Others may be traded slightly more freely (Appendices II and III).1 However, traffickers exploit legal loopholes in some countries and the difficulty of verifying the origin of animals or products.
A Driving Force: Profit at Any Price
Wild animal trafficking generates between $7 billion and $23 billion a year. It is one of the most lucrative forms of trafficking in the world, alongside drugs, arms and humans.2 But unlike these other crimes, the penalties are often low. Traffickers are not perceived as a threat to society, even though they are destroying our natural heritage.
This trade is also closely linked to other forms of crime. Drugs, weapons, counterfeit money—the networks use the same routes, the same boats and the same techniques to launder money. Ivory, for example, has been used to finance terrorist groups in Mali. Regional cooperation and the use of technology are therefore essential to track down these flows.3
Poachers, on the other hand, are often vulnerable people, living on less than a dollar a day. When they are offered several hundred dollars for an elephant tusk, there is no match. However, by killing these animals, they are sawing off the branch on which they are sitting, generating long-term losses of resources, ecological collapse, drops in tourism and food insecurity. Because of this, offering them viable alternatives for development is essential if we are to turn them away from this macabre trade. However, responsibility for this scourge also lies with the traffickers upstream, who orchestrate the trade and make the real profits. To stop them, we need to follow the money.
A Chain of Consequences
Species trafficking is not limited to the loss of individual animals. Flora is also affected, with trafficking in rare tropical woods such as Madagascar rosewood and ebony, protected species such as Ariocarpus and Lophophora, and agarwood, which sells for up to $50,000 a kilo.4 What is more, the illegal harvesting of succulent plants in South Africa has led to the extinction of certain species. Rare orchids disappear as soon as they are discovered. This imbalance weakens ecological services such as climate regulation, water quality and pollination.
The link with pandemics has also been documented.5 The trade in live species, bushmeat and unregulated trade encourages the emergence of zoonoses. These diseases are transmissible from animals to humans and can become global; therefore, protecting wildlife also means protecting our health.
Much Closer to Home Than You Might Think
This trade does not just take place in the jungle. It passes through our ports, airports and online platforms. Some ads sell endangered species under coded names. Payments are made through shell companies or via cryptocurrencies, and as such, banks have a crucial role to play. They need to train their staff, work with nonprofit organizations and the authorities and put in place tools to detect suspicious financial schemes. Regulatory loopholes between countries allow traffickers to act with impunity;6 hence, global legal cooperation is needed.
Encouraging Signs, But an Ongoing Battle
A large-scale operation recently resulted in the seizure of 20,000 live animals.7 This shows that concerted action is producing results.
World Wildlife Day, held every March 3, is a reminder of the importance of wildlife to the planet's equilibrium. In 2025, the theme “Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and Planet” emphasizes the essential link between financing, biodiversity and sustainable development. But with each success, the networks adapt. This is a never-ending battle if we do not eliminate the crime’s driving force—money.
Acting Together: Our Power, Our Planet
This year’s Earth Day theme, "Our Power, Our Planet," calls for collective action. The following are ways in which everyone can take action:
- Raise awareness: Talk to those around you to make the invisible visible.
- Control financial flows: Demand that banks combat money laundering linked to this trade.
- Strengthen the law: Urge governments to impose tougher penalties.
- Buy responsibly: Do not buy objects or animals of dubious origin.
- Support local populations: Create sustainable economic alternatives for potential poachers.
Conclusion: Breaking the Chain
Trafficking in wild animals is a crime against nature, against human rights and against our collective future. It is fueled by a financial system that is complicit, sometimes out of ignorance, often out of failure. Breaking this chain means taking action at every level: from poacher to banker, from customer to politician.
On this Earth Day, let us remember that every species saved is a victory. But to win the war, we need to attack the root cause—the money that feeds this market. Because there is no Planet B, together we have the power to change things.
Xavier Aubert, CAMS, senior business manager, learning and development lead, Alcyone Consulting, Kockelscheuer, Roeser, Luxembourg, xavier.aubert@alcyone-consulting.lu, 
- “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,” CITES.org, https://cites.org/eng/disc/text.php
- “The Rise of Environmental Crime: A Growing Threat to Natural Resources, Peace, Development and Security,” United Nations Environment Programme, 2016, https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/7662
- “World Wildlife Crime Report 2024,” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, May 2024, https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/wildlife/2024/Wildlife2024_Final.pdf
- "Scam: Focus on Agarwood," Richelieu International," November 11, 2023, https://www.richelieu-international.com/arnaque_agarwood/
- "No need to beat around the bushmeat—The role of wildlife trade and conservation initiatives in preventing future pandemics," Heliyon, July 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844021017953
- Spoorthy Raman, "Regulation Loopholes Fuel Illegal Wildlife Trade from Latin America to Europe," Mongabay, March 24, 2025, https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/
- Rosie Frost, "Tiger cubs to songbirds: Huge global wildlife trafficking crackdown sees 20,000 live animals seized," Euronews, February 4, 2025, https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/02/04/tiger-cubs-to-songbirds-huge-global-wildlife-trafficking-crackdown-sees-20000-live-animals
