The ocean provides 170 million tonnes of fisheries and aquaculture products for human use each year, accounting for 17% of animal protein consumed globally. Within this 17%, millions of small-scale fishers in developing nations are highly dependent on marine resources for food security and micro-nutrients. By 2050 we expect our…

Two years and a lifetime ago when we embarked as a community on a horizon scan process to identify possible game changing issues that would shape tomorrow’s decisions on illegal wildlife trade (IWT), Africa was growing at 3-5% annually and the continent’s leaders had just signed the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, setting out a path for free movement of goods and…

In 2018, I started studying shark and ray fisheries in Malvan, a fishing town on India’s west coast. I would visit the landing centre three times a week and record the sharks and rays present, which involved identifying the species (most of which have very minute differences between them), taking measurements of…

With one million users joining platforms every day, co-authors of the first global horizon scan on illegal wildlife trade (IWT) call for further research into social media’s influence on wildlife trafficking networks and consumer behaviour.  …

It is tragic, but true that scientists cannot always be honest in describing where newly discovered species live, as that information can be - and has been - used by wildlife traffickers.

With scientific research increasingly available…

The largest ever dried shark fin seizures were made by Hong Kong authorities earlier this month in May 2020; the combined volumes of the two shipments from Ecuador more than doubled last year’s total volume. However, sharks are not the only marine wildlife trafficked transnationally. The persistent demand for their fins is but one side of a multi-dimensional global trade network of Haiwei.…