$180 billon wildlife trade leads to extinction of species, animal welfare campaigners warn

27 May 2025 rmedcalf ANIMAL WELFARE 0

_{Pangolins, found in Sai Kung Country Park, are one of the species threatened by wildlife smuggling}

Trafficking in illegal wildlife is attractive to organised crime because of low risk and high profits, the University of Hong Kong’s Bulletin says. Wildlife smuggling needs urgently to be included in the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance. The Bulletin was quoting two founding members of the Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group, Professor Yvonne Sadovy and Ms Amanda Whitfort.

“Wildlife smuggling is now regarded as the fourth most lucrative black market in the world, after drugs, people and arms, with annual sums involved as high as $180 billion,” Ms Whitfort said. She cited the example of a man convicted of smuggling rhino horn into Hong Kong in a chocolate box. The horn was worth more than $500,000 but the perpetrator was given only four weeks in prison. In four years customs officers have seized more than $560 million worth of trafficked wildlife, including 20 metric tonnes of ivory, 43 tonnes of pangolin scales or carcases and 27 tonnes of other endangered species mainly reptiles.

“Those quantities are conservatively estimated to equate to the deaths of over 3000 elephants, 51 rhinos and 65,000 pangolins,” Ms Whitfort, an associate professor of law at HKU, said. The policing of wildlife smuggling is under-resourced. Hong Kong’s location as a gateway to China, free trade policy and excellent resources, the airport and the shipping port, mean the territory is a big participant in the extinction of species.

“A vicious circle has been created. As endangered species become rarer, their value on the black market rises, fuelling poaching and driving species close to extinction. Gram for gram, rhino horn is now more valuable than platinum and certainly easier to smuggle than drugs.”

The Wildlife Working Group said Hong Kong as a strategic hub needs to toughen the law and put more resources into policing at the airport and the shipping port, where most of the evil trade comes though the territory in containers.

“The legislature needs to go further if Hong Kong is to effectively deter the transnational criminal trade funding extinction. Wildlife crime is high profit, organised criminal activity. The Hong Kong Government has a responsibility to the international community to include wildlife trade in the Organised and Serious Crime Ordinance,” Ms Whitfort said.

Ms Whitfort is the leading authority on animal welfare law in Hong Kong. She has received grants from the government to advise on improving animal protection legislation. She sits on the Government’s legal sub-committee advising the AFCD on animal law and policy.