The Illegal Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia

Annex A. OECD Structured Interview Questionnaire

Wildlife Crime: Research Questions

Abstract

The OECD is presently conducting a series of studies on Governance Frameworks to Counter Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT). There are numerous factors that facilitate illegal wildlife trade. Governance gaps, legislative frameworks and other institutional frameworks can create loopholes that are then exploited for nefarious purposes that lead to the decimation of ecological resources. Corruption is also often cited as a major enabling factor in wildlife trafficking. Defined by Transparency International as abuse of entrusted power for private gain, corruption can facilitate wildlife trafficking throughout the supply chain, assuming a range of different forms and involving a range of different actors at each stage. The OECD Recommendation for Public Integrity provides a comprehensive framework for framing a systemic approach to public integrity, developing a culture of public integrity and enabling accountability. The issue of corruption also pervades the wildlife crime area, with a number of policy issues, and possible knowledge gaps around the wildlife crime–corruption nexus.

The questionnaire below has been elaborated to guide primary data collection on the linkages between governance gaps, such as institutional arrangements, legislative gaps and corruption that enable the illegal wildlife at transit and destination in Southeast Asia. Five core research questions are identified below, with a series of more specific questions elaborated in relation to each. While not all questions will be relevant to all interviewees, they provide a general framework to conduct the interviews. Certain sections can be explored in greater detail than others on the basis of the knowledge and experience of the particular interviewee.

National Conservation Authorities, National Police

In your view, what gaps allows the illicit sourcing of illegal wildlife trade in your country (hunting, illegal/fake captive breeding, farm, etc.)

• What species are being sourced from the economy, and which are subject to the biggest illicit activity?

• Are there legal or regulatory gaps in the current framework that must be addressed?

• Is the system for allocating permits, hunting concessions, and licenses fair and transparent? Are there credible allegations of the system being abused and, if yes, by whom and in what way(s)?

Corruption and sourcing of illegal wildlife trade

• Are there credible allegations of corruption among park or police officers entrusted with the protection of these parks? Or from the administrative officials in charge of issuing CITES permits? From among the types of corrupt conduct listed below, which are the most prevalent?

  • Allowing import of illegal wildlife trade into the country without proper verification;

  • Assisting poachers;

  • Falsification of hunting permits and/or CITES documentation, or selling documentation to poachers;

  • Allowing unlawful hunting trips;

  • Neglecting to patrol a given area;

  • Failing to apprehend the poachers or releasing them after arrest;

  • Making deliberate mistakes in the paperwork so as to impede prosecution;

  • Tipping-off hunters on upcoming patrols or the location of protected species;

  • Returning or selling seized wildlife products and/or ammunition to poachers; or;

  • Directly taking part in poaching.

• Is there evidence that corruption within the private sector facilitates the illicit sourcing of wildlife products?

• Are there credible allegations of corruption in prosecution or courts? If yes, do these have any effect on the prosecution of suspected poachers and/or traffickers? From among the types of corrupt conduct listed below, which are the most prevalent:

  • Dropping cases for improper reasons;

  • Delaying cases;

  • Losing or destroying evidence;

  • Improperly acquitting traffickers;

  • Handing down unduly lenient sentences; or

  • Failing to ensure that convicted poachers and/or traffickers serve their sentences.

Gaps that enable illegal wildlife trade products to circulate (working and sale) within the economy

• What products are processed and/or sold within the domestic economy?

• What gaps in laws and practises allow for illegal wildlife trade products to circulate within the economy?

  • Is this a legal gap or an enforcement gap, or both?

• What capabilities are missing to stop the processing of illegal wildlife trade products in the economy?

• What is the role of electronic commerce and small shipments for the sale of illegal wildlife trade products?

• Is there a “Legal” supply chain of products, and if so, how do illicit goods find their way into this supply chain?

• Are there credible allegations that foreigners, or officials from different countries are engaged in the transport or sale of illegal wildlife products? If yes, how widespread is the phenomenon? From which countries? Are there any states whose diplomats are known to engage in such misconduct on a regular basis?

Corruption and the circulation of illegal wildlife trade products within the economy

• Are there credible allegations of corruption among local public officials that allows the sale of illegal wildlife trade products?

  • Knowingly allowing the sale of illicit wildlife products;

  • Purposely neglecting to inspect paperwork;

  • Directly engaged in the stocking and sale of the products; or

  • Helping to forge the necessary paperwork (CITES permits).

Responses to illegal wildlife trade related crimes

• Is the illegal wildlife trade highlighted as a priority or a part of your organisation’s strategic objectives or your organisation’s contribution to a national illegal wildlife trade plan?

  • If yes, do you have this report available for public viewing?

  • Does this report also involve anti-corruption measures?

• What actions are taken and by whom to investigate wildlife crimes in (your) government organisation?

• Do you have multi-agency task-forces to counter illegal wildlife trade?

  • Which agencies are part of this task force?

  • Is there domestic coordination between wildlife management authorities and authorities with anti-corruption responsibilities such as anti-corruption commissions, law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, and judicial authorities?

• Is there international coordination between your administration and others for investigation and prosecution of illegal wildlife trade crimes?

• How are corruption charges addressed?

  • Referred to internal disciplinary hearings and internal corrective actions

  • Referred to external (anti-corruption authorities) for corruption charges

  • Other.

• What measures are in place to prevent the abuse of authority from officers? What best practises function best in preventing abuse? What challenges remain?

  • Is there a system for staff rotation in place?

  • Using operational data to identify trends and patterns that may be indicative of integrity issues?

  • Reinforce management supervision, segregation of duties, and staff rotation in relation with positions that are more vulnerable to corruption and other integrity risks;

  • automated risk management systems indicating what kind of physical examinations or documents checks must be done for each type of cargo based

• What mechanisms are there for whistle-blowing among officials?

• Are the capacities adequate within your administration (awareness, training, and prioritisation) to address illegal wildlife trade? What capacities need to be developed further?

• Overall, do you think current measures to tackle corruption linked to wildlife trafficking are effective? What is missing from the current set of policy tools that would ensure that corruption is properly identified and dealt with in the most effective way possible by law enforcement agencies and justice authorities?

• Please highlight any initiatives that you consider to be best practices.

Customs and Border Police (Import/Export)

What Gaps allow the illegal import of Wildlife products?

• Has there been a considerable change in the number of seizures of illegal wildlife trade products? Are you able to share any data on this?

• What are the biggest hot-spots for illegal wildlife trade into the country? Does this differ by species?

• What are the gaps that are exploited by traffickers to import illegal wildlife trade? Are there legal loopholes or regulatory ones that allow this?

• Who are the main actors involved in the illegal import or illegal wildlife trade products?

• What is known about the involvement of certain private transportation companies in wildlife trafficking? Are shipments of illegal wildlife trade mixed with other types of commodities?

What Gaps allow the illegal export of Wildlife products?

• Has there been a considerable change in the number of seizures of illegal wildlife trade products that are leaving the country? Are you able to share any data on this?

  • What are the biggest hot-spots for the export of illegal wildlife trade products?

  • What are the destination spots for the export of illegal wildlife trade products?

• Are there legal loopholes or regulatory gaps that allow for the lawful export of illegal wildlife trade products?

• Who are the main actors involved in the illegal import or illegal wildlife trade products?

• What is known about the involvement of certain private transportation companies in wildlife trafficking? Are shipments of illegal wildlife trade mixed with other types of commodities?

Evidence of Corruption and Import of illegal wildlife trade products

• Are there credible allegations of corruption among border control officers?

• Are there allegations of corruption among other officials at airports and land and sea ports? Which are the most prevalent?

  • Knowingly letting through shipments that contain illicit wildlife products;

  • Purposely neglecting to inspect shipments and/or paperwork;

  • Assisting traffickers in evading arrest and removing seizures;

  • Helping traffickers forge the necessary paperwork;

  • Forgery or falsification of CITES permits; or

  • On a number of factors, and through which officials should record the checks that have been carried out as well as their result.

• If there is evidence of corruption or collusion with traffickers? Does it take the form of petty corruption by employees or are the company’s managers or owners thought to be complicit.

• Are there transportation companies known to be involved in wildlife trafficking that have links to senior public officials or politicians?

Evidence of Corruption and Export of illegal wildlife trade products

• Are there credible allegations of corruption among border control officers?

• Are there allegations of corruption among other officials at airports and land and sea ports? Which are the most prevalent?

  • Knowingly letting through shipments that contain illicit wildlife products;

  • Purposely neglecting to inspect shipments and/or paperwork;

  • Assisting traffickers in evading arrest and removing seizures;

  • Helping traffickers forge the necessary paperwork; or

  • Forgery or falsification of CITES permits.

• If there is evidence of corruption or collusion with traffickers? Does it take the form of petty corruption by employees or are the company’s managers or owners thought to be complicit.

• Are there transportation companies known to be involved in wildlife trafficking that have links to senior public officials or politicians?

Responses to illegal wildlife trade related crimes

• Is the illegal wildlife trade highlighted as a priority or a part of your organisation’s strategic objectives or your organisation’s contribution to a national illegal wildlife trade plan?

  • If yes, do you have this report available for public viewing?

  • Does this report also involve anti-corruption measures?

• What actions are taken and by whom to investigate wildlife crimes in (your) government organisation?

• Do you have multi-agency task-forces to counter illegal wildlife trade?

  • Which agencies are part of this task force?

  • Is there domestic coordination between wildlife management authorities and authorities with anti-corruption responsibilities such as anti-corruption commissions, law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, and judicial authorities?

• Is there international coordination between your administration and others for investigation and prosecution of illegal wildlife trade crimes?

• How are corruption charges addressed?

  • Referred to internal disciplinary hearings and internal corrective actions

  • Referred to external (anti-corruption authorities) for corruption charges

  • Other.

• What measures are in place to prevent the abuse of authority from customs officers and others? What best practises function best in preventing abuse? What challenges remain?

  • Is there a system for staff rotation in place?

  • Using operational data to identify trends and patterns that may be indicative of integrity issues?

  • Reinforce management supervision, segregation of duties, and staff rotation in relation with positions that are more vulnerable to corruption and other integrity risks?

  • Automated risk management systems indicating what kind of physical examinations or documents checks must be done for each type of cargo based

• What mechanisms are there for whistle-blowing among officials?

• Are the capacities adequate within your administration (awareness, training, and prioritisation) to address illegal wildlife trade? What capacities need to be developed further?

• Overall, do you think current measures to tackle corruption linked to wildlife trafficking are effective? What is missing from the current set of policy tools that would ensure that corruption is properly identified and dealt with in the most effective way possible by law enforcement agencies and justice authorities?

• Please highlight any initiatives that you consider to be best practices.

Anti-Corruption Authorities and illegal wildlife trade

Evidence

• Has your country undertaken risk assessments to identify corruption risks in public institutions? Does this assessment include institutions like wildlife management and trade in wildlife and wildlife products, including customs, maritime ports and airports, as well as in relation to the processes your country uses in the import and export of wildlife and wildlife products?

• Has your country developed and disseminated evidence and typologies on how corruption drives illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products?

  • Has your country taken any steps to collect, analyse and use data on cases of corruption related to illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, as well as to review progress and conduct regular mappings of relevant cases and to make this information accessible to the public? If so, are you able to share this data?

• Who are the actors typically involved in corruption that facilitates poaching and wildlife trafficking within each of the following spheres?

  • Political

  • Judicial

  • Law enforcement

  • Military

• Are storage rooms for illegal wildlife trade seizures vulnerable to corruption (theft and re-sale of stockpiles)

• Is corruption both high-level and low-level? Are low-level officials such as park rangers, rank-and-file police officers or local judges subject to pressure from their superiors if they seek to investigate or sanction poaching and wildlife trafficking?

• Who are the private-sector actors typically involved in corruption that facilitates poaching and wildlife trafficking? Does it take the form of petty corruption by employees or are the company’s managers or owners thought to be complicit?

• What is known about the involvement of organised crime in wildlife trafficking and the mechanics through which organised crime groups facilitate corruption? Is corruption mostly opportunistic, e.g. poachers pay off park rangers or police officers if caught, or do stable corrupt relationships exist between traffickers and public officials?

• Do organised crime groups tend to rely on the expertise of ‘fixers’ known to have good connections among wildlife officials and law enforcement agencies, so as to communicate indirectly?

Causes and motivations for Corruption

• Apart from economic gain, what other incentives are there for public officials to engage in wrongdoing (e.g. orders from superiors, family loyalties etc.)? How significant are these compared to economic gain?

• Is the recruitment of public officials fair and transparent? Are bribes paid in return for appointments? Does the answer differ depending on the category of public officials, such as park rangers, customs officers, police officers, prosecutors, judges and civil servants?

• Do customs and police officers benefit from sufficient professional training to complete their daily duties?

• What are the consequences of engagement in corruption? Are they sufficiently serious to act as a deterrent?

Institutional responses to Corruption

• What are the functions and powers of the anti-corruption agency for tackling wildlife trafficking explicitly?

• Are the relevant public officials subject to a code of ethics? If yes, is it binding and how is it enforced? Do they receive training on ethics and anti-corruption?

• Do you have multi-agency task-forces to counter illegal wildlife trade and more specifically to reduce corruption risks?

  • Is there domestic coordination between authorities with anti-corruption responsibilities and wildlife management authorities (e.g. including anti-corruption commissions, law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, and judicial authorities)?

• What mechanisms are there for whistle-blowing among officials? Are whistle-blowers legally protected from retaliation by their superiors and are these protections effective in practice? How are the allegations of corruption and/or other wrongdoing investigated and sanctioned?

• Are there laws in place to prevent conflicts of interest, e.g. in relation to the allocation of hunting concessions? How are they monitored and enforced?

• Do anti-corruption agencies regularly cooperate with the authorities in charge of combatting wildlife crime and, if so, how?

• Are law enforcement agencies that deal with wildlife crime and/or corruption well-staffed and do they receive sufficient resources? Are they free from political interference?

• What measures are in place to ensure the competence and integrity of the judiciary? How is potential judicial misconduct investigated and sanctioned? Are the mechanisms of judicial accountability used fairly, impartially and effectively?

Corruption Responses and Strategies

• Is there a national strategy or action plan to combat corruption?

  • If yes, has the administration / country taken any steps to promote the incorporation of anti-corruption measures into the work of wildlife enforcement?

  • Does your country have measures to oblige or encourage public organizations to implement the national anti-corruption policies and/or strategies or their own independent anti-corruption measures?

  • Are there incentives for public organizations for its good performances in implementing the anti-corruption measures?

• What actions are taken and by whom to investigate internal corruption in (your) government organisation?

• What actions are taken, and by whom, to prevent corruption that facilitate wildlife trafficking?

• What is the role of civil society organisations in addressing corruption relative to illicit wildlife trafficking? How effective are these organisations in this role?

• What has been done in the countries to use international frameworks, such as the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) to combat corruption in relation to the wildlife trade? This is specifically called for by the recent CITES resolution on anti-corruption.

• Please provide a high-level summary of the most significant anti-corruption measures or initiatives directly linked to, or that can indirectly address, the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, that your country has introduced or implemented? Please highlight any initiatives that you consider to be best practices.

• How is their implementation monitored and what evidence is there of their implementation, nationally and locally?

• Overall, do you think current measures to tackle corruption linked to wildlife trafficking are effective? What is missing from the current set of policy tools that would ensure that corruption is properly identified and dealt with in the most effective way possible by law enforcement agencies and justice authorities?

Legislation

• Does your country have legislation and regulations to enable the prosecution of corruption linked to the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products and to seize and recover assets related thereto? If yes, please list the most relevant legislation or regulations, including specific laws on corruption related to illegal trade in wildlife where they exist. Please include electronic links to legislation.

• Does the country criminalise offences established under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), namely: active and passive bribery of national and foreign public officials; embezzlement, misappropriation, or other diversion of property by public officials; laundering the proceeds of crime; and the obstruction of justice in relation to corruption?

• Does the country criminalise offences listed in the non-mandatory provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption, namely: active and passive bribery in the private sector; embezzlement of property in the private sector; trading in influence; other abuse of functions for an undue advantage; concealment of the proceeds of corruption crimes; and illicit enrichment (a significant increase in the assets of a public official that he or she cannot reasonably explain in relation to his or her lawful income)?

• Are all public officials required by law to disclose their assets? How is this monitored and enforced?

Investigations and prosecutions

Investigations

• • Are investigations into illegal wildlife trade often conducted after a seizure of illegal wildlife trade products? Who is in charge of conducting these investigations?

  • Do investigators of illegal wildlife trade crimes have adequate resources and/or training to conduct their duties? Are there specialized investigators for illegal wildlife trade crimes?

• Do law enforcement authorities regularly seek to identify and prosecute related corruption offences when wildlife offences are detected?

• Has your country taken any steps to raise awareness about the relevance of reporting corruption acts related to illegal wildlife trade and wildlife products?

Prosecution

• Has your country identified best practices in the prosecution of corruption cases related to illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products?

• Are there statistics on the number of corruption prosecutions related to poaching and wildlife trafficking and the types of corruption involved?

• Can prosecutions be brought against private companies or their employees who intentionally or negligently facilitate illicit wildlife trafficking (e.g., transportation companies)? If yes, have any such prosecutions been brought?

• Is evidence stored securely in courts and are detailed inventories kept? Have there been issues in the past with evidence / exhibit control?

• Do the range and type of actors involved vary depending on the type of the commodity?