Report: Financial Investigations into Wildlife Crime

The ECOFEL announced the publication of their report entitled “Financial Investigations into Wildlife Crime.” This publicly available report is designed to provide financial intelligence units and relevant stakeholders with a detailed understanding of how FIUs can get involved in supporting financial investigations into the illegal wildlife trade and more broadly, wildlife crime.

The report provides an overview of the key species, industries and concealment methods implicated in the illegal wildlife trade. As a global issue, the report also highlights the importance of understanding the geographic and actors supply chain of the illegal wildlife trade in a particular jurisdiction. It also provides several reasons why financial investigations into wildlife crime are important and why FIUs are a crucial agency in the fight against the illicit financial flows of this transnational crime.

The ECOFEL report brings out more specific details about how FIUs can engage with their country’s environmental agencies, law enforcement agencies, NGOs and international organizations to better understand the nature of wildlife crime in their jurisdiction and to better support financial investigations into this illicit activity. There are several case studies within the report that provide examples of successful cooperation between FIUs and other agencies to conduct financial investigations into wildlife traffickers.

To download the report, please click on this link.