Wildlife trafficking is a crime that has far-reaching implications for society. Not only does it severely affect the environment by impacting biodiversity, it also hinders social and economic development in many communities. Wildlife trafficking can also pose risks to global health and it harshly impacts animal and plants care and conditions. In recent years, the internet has increased the illegal trade in wildlife, facilitating the encounter of supply and demand. There is consensus that the policing of such a criminal activity is still scarce and poorly resourced. A major challenge is the fact that law enforcement agencies have limited training opportunities and lack of equipment and specific expertise to counter effectively this illegal trade. In this context, the question of how can we best control and prevent this criminal market needs to be addressed.

The event will consist of an introduction to the topic with a panel of experts, followed by Q&A. The panellists will discuss issues such as animal and plant trafficking and its relevance, current law enforcement challenges, and the importance of multi- and cross-disciplinary research to better understand and tackle this issue. During the event, a short demo of a digital tool developed though collaboration of computer, social and conservation scientists for automatic detection of illegal wildlife trades online will be provided.

The event is linked to the ongoing ESRC-funded project “FloraGuard” (http://floraguard.org/), which combines innovative and cross-disciplinary ways of analysing online marketplaces for the illegal trade in wildlife (specifically: endangered plants) and analyses of existing policing practices to assist law enforcement in the detection and investigation of illegal trades of endangered plants.