International Law Blog Essay

To Preserve Biodiversity, Start with Five Universal Truths About Corruption

In an era of increased awareness of ecology and the environment, meaningful implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (“CITES”) is garnering support on the international stage. A persistent impediment to the successful regulation of wildlife trafficking, however, is corruption. In fact, the most recent Conference of Parties to CITES issued a formal resolution condemning corruption and its negative effect on our planet’s flora and fauna; earlier this year, the G20 announced High Level Principles on Combatting Corruption Related to Illegal Trade in Wildlife and Wildlife Products. Both the illegal wildlife trade and corruption are part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), reflected in two of the Goals’ specific targets: 15.7 (“end poaching and trafficking”) and 16.5 (“reduce corruption and bribery in all forms”).

Those seeking to prevent corruption’s deleterious effect on plants and animals need not reinvent the wheel. In the realm of corruption, there is nothing new under the sun. The following five propositions about the causes and costs of corruption apply to wildlife just as they apply to any other realm, and can help identify key points of focus and successful strategies for protecting biodiversity.

1. Corruption is motivated by money.

That is true not only for the public official who may be looking to supplement low public-sector wages or has a different, more specific desire for personal gain, but also for the bribe payor, assuming the ultimate payoff is more lucrative than the amount of the bribe. Consider the following simple hypothetical: I will pay an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture $100 to overlook the fact that I’m bringing a hyacinth macaw – controlled by CITES and the Endangered Species Act – into Chicago’s airport, because I know that I’m going to sell that macaw for $1000.

A variation on that hypothetical can be found in United States v. Silva (minus the bribe), in which Mr. Silva was convicted of conspiracy to violate the Endangered Species Act and tax fraud for trafficking in endangered species worth $1.3 million. More broadly, the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products is worth an estimated 8 – 20 billion euros annually — a big business that can be fueled by relatively small acts of corruption.

2. Corruption occurs at transaction points.

In the case of a widget factory, these transaction points might include:

  • Applying for a building permit to construct the factory,
  • Submitting the building to inspection before the factory opens,
  • Applying for a permit to export the widgets, and
  • Submitting to an audit of the widget factory’s corporate tax returns.

In the case of flora and fauna, these transaction points might include:

  • Leaving a nature preserve,
  • Applying for a permit, and
  • Crossing a border.

There are many such transaction points in the natural resource trade chain, which stretches through source, transit, and market countries.

And, as aptly illustrated by National Geographic in its superb investigative piece on ivory, these transaction points are all the more vulnerable where a state has relatively weak institutions: police, judiciary, and rule of law generally. In the words of Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, “[f]or the criminals to succeed, customs officials must be bribed to look away; logging and hunting licenses forged; and poachers set free due to obstructed prosecutions.” When that happens, illegal wildlife trade becomes a low risk, high reward sector.

3. Corruption occurs in settings in which relationships, or interpersonal networks, matter.

There are three categories of protection for species listed by CITES in appendixes to the Convention. Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction and provides the greatest level of protection, including restrictions on commercial trade. Appendix II Includes species that although currently not threatened with extinction, may become extinct without trade controls. Appendix III includes species for which a country has asked other Parties to help in controlling trade. Each country that implements CITES is required by the treaty to designate a Management Authority and Scientific Authority to carry out the treaty.  The Management Authority ensures that CITES-listed species are traded legally through the issuance of permits.  The Scientific Authority determines whether trade in a particular animal or plant species could be detrimental to its survival in the wild. The latter role, as well as classification in the CITES appendixes, is subject to lobbying and vulnerable to relationship-based influence by conservationists, hunters, and other interest groups.

But, throughout the system, relationships play an important role. For example, relationships may matter if you’re a park ranger trying to smuggle out a bison and you know the person who works the entrance and exit to the park. Relationships may matter if you work in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are applying for a permit from the same agency to bring a trophy sheep from Pakistan (for a similar case, see United States v. Mitchell, in which Mr. Mitchell failed to disclose the importation of “trophies” of protected species hunted in Pakistan). Relationships may matter if you’re lobbying that a species receive less protection under CITES and the government decisionmaker is your friend from high school.

4. Corruption is found to lower investment, thereby lowering economic growth.

In the words of economist William Easterly, “[c]orruption not only has a direct effect on growth; it also has an indirect effect because it makes other policies that affect growth worse.” In the United States, the sale of hunting licenses, tags, and stamps, as well as federal excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, are the primary source of funding for most state wildlife conservation efforts. Proceeds from the Federal Duck Stamp alone – a required purchase for migratory waterfowl hunters – have purchased more than five million acres of habitat for the refuge system. The tourists and hunters who are willing to pay legitimate fees and taxes to legally hunt for sport are deterred by the prospect of paying multiple petty bribes, in addition to paying for their hunting permit.

Is there a way out of corruption and its growth-killing effects? First, to again invoke Easterly, states must establish robust institutions that ensure the rule of law. Second, states must establish policies that eliminate incentives for corruption. This leads to the fifth and final proposition.

5. Law enforcement and criminal justice alone are necessary, but insufficient.

Given the reactive nature of criminal justice, proactive anti-corruption policies must be implemented at all levels of government. The CITES permit system facilitates international cooperation in conservation and trade monitoring. Permits are issued only if a country’s Management and Scientific Authorities (in the case of the United States, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) determine that trade is legal and does not threaten the species’ survival in the wild. The use of standardized permit forms allows inspection officials at ports of export and import to quickly verify that CITES specimens are properly documented and to prevent fraudulent ones from slipping by. This process will be bolstered by a CITES electronic permitting system — currently in the works — and enhanced traceability of wildlife products, as well as the sharing of permit data nationally and internationally to optimize the flow of information among source, transit, and market countries.

In short, those seeking solutions in the wildlife context must look outside that context for answers on how to root out and quash corruption. The CITES Conference of Parties recognized that necessity when it resolved to request the treaty’s standing committee to cooperate with its counterparts for two other multilateral treaties, the UN Convention Against Corruption and the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.

Stakeholders at every level, including UN bodies; national, state and local governments; and civil society must absorb and apply universal truths about corruption to the implementation of CITES. Our planet stands to benefit.