This third edition of UNODC's quadrennial World Wildlife Crime Report, aims to provide a tool to assess and improve responses to this hugely damaging form of criminal activity. The present report covers trends in the illicit wildlife trade, analyses harms and impacts, probes driving factors, and takes stock of responses. Wildlife crimes are diverse and often devastating in their impact and consequences. They hamper conservation efforts, damage ecosystems, and contribute to undermining our planet's capacity to mitigate climate change. They also infringe on the essential needs, income opportunities, and cultural rights of local communities, and corrode governance and the rule of law. Global recognition of this damage has grown steadily, and after two decades of concerted action, there is some cause for optimism. There has been tangible success against trafficking of some iconic species, while cross-border cooperation and criminalization of wildlife crime have both improved.
