Reptiles concealed in underwear, ivory hidden inside chocolate bars and packages of pangolin scales deliberately mislabelled as dried herbs - these are some of the methods illegal wildlife traffickers use to smuggle endangered animals and byproducts through the air transport network.
But life is about to get more difficult for traffickers. Over the last two years the air transport industry has stepped up efforts to tackle this. For the first time, the sector is working in tandem with conservation groups and law enforcement agencies to close loopholes exploited by criminal networks and crack down on a trade that has significant consequences.
In 2015 the International Air Transport Association (IATA) signed an agreement with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to cooperate on reducing illegal wildlife trafficking.
A year later, the Buckingham Palace Declaration was signed - an agreement aimed at shutting down transport routes exploited by wildlife traffickers.
The declaration was drafted by United for Wildlife, a campaign created by the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. So far, 39 of IATA’s 274 member airlines, including IAG (International Airlines Group) have signed the agreement, along with London Heathrow Airport, UK Border Force, Dubai Customs and a number of shipping companies and conservation groups.
The two milestones marked a turning point in how conservationists, enforcement agencies and the transport sector can work together for a common cause.
“We have already seen several instances of companies taking action against suspect shipments and working directly with relevant customs and law enforcement services, which have resulted in the detection and seizure of illegal wildlife shipments,” says Tim Wittig, chief analyst for the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce, based at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Earlier this year, for instance, IAG Cargo – the air freight division of British Airways’ parent company International Airlines Group – helped repatriate a shipment of 600,000 European glass eels, which it had legally carried from Madrid. The eels are protected under CITES legislation and it is illegal to transport them beyond European Union borders.
“Following their legal arrival, the UK Border Force, acting on intelligence, intercepted an illegal attempt to ship the eels to Hong Kong, where their market value as a delicacy was estimated at £1.2m,” says Gabriella Tamasi, product standards manager for premium products at IAG Cargo. The airline returned the eels to Spain free of charge and they were released back into the wild.
According to a report on wildlife trafficking in the air transport sector, released in June by the United States Agency for International Development’s Routes Partnership, the trade ranks just behind drugs, human and arms trafficking as one of the most prominent forms of international organised crime.
The report’s authors analysed seizure data from the four most commonly trafficked wildlife categories: ivory, rhino horn, live reptiles and live birds. Based on these findings, the report puts forward more than a dozen recommendations to help airlines, airports and enforcement personnel address wildlife trafficking.
The key recommendation for airlines and airports is to raise awareness of the issue among employees and passengers.
As Nick Platts, head of cargo at Heathrow points out, freight handlers at airports are trained to look for suspicious packages and are in constant contact with shipments that could contain illegal wildlife products. By raising their awareness of what to look for, airports can empower handlers to play a key role in identifying packages containing trafficked wildlife.
“Handlers learn what’s normal. They’re curious people and we’ve got to tap into that curiosity,” he says. The same is true of X-ray machine operators, who can be trained to flag items such as ivory and rhino horn in addition to explosives, drugs and weapons.
Heathrow plans to build this into colleague training as part of its new sustainability strategy, says Platts. Also on the cards for later this summer is a joint Heathrow, IAG Cargo and UK Border Force event to dissuade passengers from buying endangered animal byproducts when they travel abroad.
Grant Miller, head of the UK Border Force CITES team, says a Border Force officer is “currently working jointly with the Heathrow sustainability team”, and the Home Office is “developing and delivering training to transport sector partners”.
Other examples of passenger awareness campaigns include Emirates painting two of its aircraft with pictures of endangered animals and the United for Wildlife logo, and Etihad Airways partnering with the Born Free Foundation to show conservation videos on its in-flight entertainment system.
Once passengers know what to look for, the hope is that they will be the additional eyes and ears looking out for creative on-board smuggling methods.
“We have seen custom-made vests to conceal ivory and rhino horn, critically endangered birds and reptiles hidden in clothing and even underwear,” says Wittig.
IATA’s assistant director for aviation environment, Jon Godson, says it took until 2015 for the air transport sector to become more engaged in tackling wildlife trafficking because, until then, enforcement agencies and conservation groups were “not used to talking to the private sector”.
While this is now changing and relationships are being built, Godson says he would like to see more feedback to airlines from enforcement agencies so they know when their actions lead to successful seizures.
Naomi Doak, head of conservation at United for Wildlife, is encouraged by the level of industry involvement in tackling wildlife crime, but says there is still work to be done: “The difference two years ago to what we have now is amazing, but until we stop every shipment we can always do more.”
