The WWF is run at a local level by the following offices...

© WWF
Illegal Wildlife Trade Financial Crimes
Before they end up in the hands of criminal networks, illicit capital gains from international wildlife trafficking flow through the global financial system, contravening laws, weakening institutions and rewarding corruption along the way.

Due to a low level of awareness, mechanisms to combat IWT capital flows were often left out of anti-money laundering and other financial transaction safeguards systems which were designed to monitor other serious crimes, such as drug, arms and human trafficking.

© WWF
What WWF is doing

In order to establish systems and responses in the financial sector to address illegal capital flows associated with wildlife trafficking, WWF partners with key financial institutions and has:

  • Developed guidelines on red flag indicators of financial crimes in illegal wildlife trade
  • Established a IWT-focused global MoU with the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) with 80,000 members in 175 countries
  • Developed a counter-illegal wildlife trade curriculum in partnership with ACAMS and organized two industry-leding financial crime training courses, now adopted by the Asian Development Bank’s Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program, benefiting 88 banks across 22 countries
  • Co-founded the United for Wildlife Hong Kong Chapter, which provides a model for regional task forces combating IWT-related financial crime
  • Explored innovative regulatory technology (RegTech) solutions  with AML Analytics Ltd. to improve transaction screening and risk assessments for financial institutions
     

Future actions:

  • Translate the ACAMS-WWF IWT Ending Illegal Wildlife Trade Certificate of Achievement course to Mandarin Chinese and Spanish
  • Attend the 12th Annual Japan Anti-Money Laundering & Anti-Financial Crime Conference

Learn more

Get involved

Take the ACAMS-WWF IWT Ending Illegal Wildlife Trade Certificate of Achievement course, a free, self-paced online course that teaches you how to detect, report, mitigate and remedy illegal wildlife trade risks along each step of the supply chain. With >4,000 intakes globally, the course covers everything from the fundamentals of wildlife trade to real-life case studies of environmental crime and has been adopted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to benefit 88 participating banks from 22 countries.

Take the course

© wwf