The political, economic and institutional context of wildlife trafficking networks in Africa and a description of how they operate

This review follows from a description of the main transnational organized crime (TOC) ivory trafficking networks published in Pachyderm 63. It provides the broader political, economic and institutional contexts in which these networks originated, to advance a deeper understanding of how these TOC trafficking networks are created. The article also describes how the networks are structured along trade chains, from poachers to foreign importers and distributors, and how they operate, presenting case examples from 1970s in Kenya and comparing them to the 2010s Kromah and Xaysavang TOC network of eastern and southern Africa. The review concludes that state-level corruption has expanded over time, facilitating the operation of these TOC trafficking networks and frustrating their elimination. African nations lose billions of dollars annually to illicit financial flows resulting from various TOC activities which end up in offshore accounts and asset buying. Despite international conventions aimed at stopping corruption and TOCs, the situation is getting worse, not better.