Basel Institute on Governance

The illegal wildlife trade threatens biodiversity and security worldwide. Criminal networks pocket billions of dollars in illicit profits from stripping the world bare of endangered species and corrupting politicians and public officials in the process.

Yet there is very little empirical evidence on the role of both ordinary citizens and criminal networks in the illegal wildlife trade. Our research aims to fill this gap.

We used social network analysis and network ethnography techniques to study the criminal network of a wildlife trafficker based in East Africa. The insights can bolster law enforcement efforts aimed at identifying and dismantling wildlife trafficking networks.