Money Laundering and the Illegal Wildlife Trade in China

Wildlife trafficking is a lucrative form of transnational organized crime (TOC) that has decimated populations of species, such as elephants, rhinos, pangolins, and more. Wildlife trafficking fuels corruption; threatens the rule of law, peace, and security; spreads disease; and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism revenues. Criminal organizations are profiting from this this illicit trade, relying on their ability to exploit porous borders and weak institutions, and leveraging multilevel illicit networks of criminal intermediaries and government officials to move illegal wildlife from source to demand countries.

INL aims to combat wildlife trafficking (CWT) through effective programming at the national, regional, and international levels. For this funding opportunity, INL intends to focus on China. China is the linchpin in the global wildlife trafficking supply chain, with the world’s largest markets for illegal wildlife products. As a result, increasing China’s commitment and ability to CWT and the criminal organizations that perpetrate these crimes is essential to disrupting TOC’s proceeds from this illegal activity. Wildlife trafficking, money laundering, and corruption are inextricably linked. Therefore, this program will provide technical assistance to improve China’s capacity to apply anti-money laundering (AML) approaches and to combat the corruption that facilitates wildlife crime. The ultimate goal of this program is to increase China’s desire and ability to CWT and disrupt the criminal organizations that perpetrate this heinous crime.

1.     Priority Countries

China

2.     Project Goals

The goal of this program is to improve China’s will and capacity to investigate, arrest, prosecute, convict, and sentence to the fullest extent of the law the perpetrators of wildlife crime, with a focus on AML approaches and anti-corruption strategies.

To achieve this goal, INL seeks to fund programs that will:

1.     Expand and strengthen China’s legislative and regulatory frameworks on wildlife trafficking and China’s AML law;

2.     Mainstream CWT efforts into China’s national activities on AML and corruption; and

3.     Increase the effectiveness of law enforcement against money laundering in wildlife trafficking in key locations through the provision of wildlife-specific technical support.