"Ross River virus affects more than 6,000 Australians every year. If we can find a way to prevent the virus surviving in mosquitoes we can stop it infecting humans.”19 December: Organised crime networks are targeting internet auction sites to trade illegal wildlife, posing a major risk to Australia’s biosecurity, University of Canberra ecologists believe.
An examination of wildlife crime in Australia from 1994 to 2007 by University scientists Ms Erika Alacs and Professor Arthur Georges reveals penalties handed out to criminals are too low to deter the cruel trade worth $US20 billion a year worldwide.
The internet has become the tool of choice for illegal traders because it hides their identity and cuts out the middleman, but despite this trend Australia has failed to carry out routine surveillance of the net to detect wildlife crime, the research found.
“For elephant ivory alone, there were 197 listings on eBay Australia, of which only two were found to be compliant with wildlife legislation,” the report Wildlife across our borders: a review of the illegal trade in Australia by the Institute for Applied Ecology researchers said.
“Surveillance of the internet is typically undertaken only in support of specific cases that have already come to the attention of authorities. This is clearly an opportunity for improvement.”
A review of penalties handed out to offenders shows that fines are invariably only a fraction of what the wildlife confiscated is worth on the lucrative black market, despite Australia having some of the toughest laws of illegal trafficking of wildlife.
“The illegal collection of wildlife is a serious threat to Australia’s biodiversity. It is also a biosecurity risk because animals and plants smuggled into Australia could become pests or carry disease that would be devastating to our agricultural industries”, Ms Alacs said.
“The fine is usually only a fraction of what the wildlife confiscated is worth on the black market. It is clearly an area in need of improvement because the fines are not sufficient to deter criminals.”
The report warns wildlife crime in Australia is seen as the domain of individual criminals, despite strong indications it is linked to organised crime.
“We believe organised crime networks are using the internet auction sites to make sales of illegal wildlife into Australia and to sell our native wildlife to overseas buyers,” Ms Alacs said.
The report calls for the federal government to set up a national clearinghouse for wildlife crime to deal with storage of forensic samples and the coordination of a national network of experts to present the evidence and testimony in court.
Ms Alacs is available for interviews and photographs with a diamond python.
Copies of the papers are available on request.
Photographs of recent wildlife seizures by Customs are available at www.customs.gov.au
