Wildlife crime has grown to become a major form of transnational organized crime, worth billions of dollars, and affecting every continent. This realisation has seen a recent shift towards understanding the dynamics of this illicit economy and dismantling the organised criminal networks that underpin it. With this shift have come a few transformative successes, where patterns of wildlife crime have changed. In these cases, the killing has stopped and large volumes of wildlife products no longer transit some countries and regions.
This report aims to contribute to this understanding by analyzing the dynamics and breadth of crime convergence related to the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) in Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as where on the wildlife crime value chain convergence is happening. Using a simple system that characterises convergence as either network, hub or broker convergence, this report draws on interviews, case studies and detailed research.
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