The illegal trade in wildlife excluding timber and fisheries has been estimated by different sources to be worth 7–23 billion dollars annually, involving a wide range of species including insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish and mammals. It concerns both live and dead specimens or products thereof. Illegal harvest and trade further includes a range of species from iconic ones like gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinos, Chiru antelopes and bears to corals, birds, pangolins,reptiles and sturgeon for black caviar. Approximately 94% of rhino poaching takes place in Zimbabwe and South Africa, which have by far the largest remaining populations, and has increased dramatically from possibly less than 50 in 2007 to over 1,000 rhinos poached in 2013, involving organized crime. Population size of black and white rhinos was ca. 4,800 and 20,000 in 2010 respectively, with Asian one-horned rhinos numbering ca. 3,600 individuals. Rhinos have disappeared entirely from several Asian and African countries in recent years, although overall numbers of rhino in Africa have been increasing.

Year: 2014

From collection: The Environmental Crime Crisis

Cartographer: Riccardo Pravettoni, GRID Arendal