Fighting Wildlife Crime

Wildlife crime, now a multi-billion-dollar industry, has become one of the major drivers of species extinction in the last few decades. Through the over-exploitation of nature’s most rare and endangered fauna and flora, 1,000,000 species have become threatened with extinction at unprecedented levels of decline.  For as long as criminal syndicates and individuals continue to help themselves to the environment’s most precious and finite resources, our planet’s wildlife will continue to be threatened. 

Fighting wildlife crime has been at the heart of DSWF since its inception.  By funding undercover investigations into the illegal wildlife trade and some of the most prolific poaching and trafficking syndicates, alongside support for intelligence-led operations on the ground, we hope to end the exploitation of wildlife before it’s too late.

While legal wildlife markets remain open and operational, they pose threats and complications at a political and policy level, further complicating and hindering already stressed law enforcement efforts. DSWF believes that to end wildlife crime a multi-pronged approach is needed which factors in education and demand reduction elements, pro-active ground-based solutions, policy and legislative reform and political and social will to support, engage and tackle this terrifying industry. If we do not see transformative change to our environmental approach and relationship, from all industry and sectors, the world’s wildlife will remain on a fast track to extinction.