A Social Network Analysis of Large-Scale Wildlife Seizures Made at US Ports of Entry

ABSTRACT

The United States is among the largest markets of both legal and illegal wildlife in the world. Prior studies of wildlife seized at US ports of entry have demonstrated that a small number of flora and fauna species account for a disproportionate share of illicit wildlife seizures and that a select number of entry ports and export countries account for the large majority of these seizures. However, the distributional flow of wildlife entering the US – the patterns of where a particular wildlife originates and the port of entry it arrives at – remains unclear. Using a social network analysis to model 31,270 large-scale trafficking incidents between 2003 and 2012, we found that removing five ports from the network would disrupt over 66% of the illegal wildlife trade by each major mode of transportation (air cargo, mail, personal baggage, ocean cargo). Further, certain ports have emerged as important seizure hubs regardless of transportation modes, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, while other US entry ports are highly dense and seized most illicit wildlife specifically by one transportation mode. On the exporter side, China, Mexico, and Southeast Asia had an outsized effect on network clusters and should be targeted for network fragmentation and anti-trafficking education campaigns.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Post-2014 LEMIS data received by this team lists incidents by fiscal year, not by control number, making it impossible to apply our current criteria to which shipments were potentially “large-scale”—see Limitations section.

² We performed a sensitivity analysis by decreasing our criteria to 5 specimens and increasing it to 15 specimens per container. To that end, by increasing our minimum threshold to 15 specimens per shipment, there would be 1,470 fewer incidents in our dataset. If we decreased the threshold to 5 specimens, there would be an additional 3,487 incidents that would be included.

³ Mail packages are those are transported by air and received in a centralized mail facility.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen F. Pires

Stephen F. Pires is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Florida International University in Miami, FL. He studies the illegal wildlife trade with a particular focus on commonly poached species (i.e., hot products), illicit markets, and the organization of the illegal trade, and has co-authored the book, “Wildlife Crime: An Environmental Criminology and Crime Science Perspective” (2018).

Ryan W. Thomson

Ryan W. Thomson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Auburn University. His research examines the intersection of natural-resource conservation and community health through the use of geospatial and social network analysis. His most recent work focuses on heirs’ property land theft targeting disadvantaged farmers across the Southern US.

Gohar A. Petrossian

Gohar A. Petrossian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Director of the International Crime and Justice Masters Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, NY. Her research focuses on the application of environmental criminology theories to study crimes against wildlife, with a specific focus on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. She is the author of the book “The Last Fish Swimming: The Global Crime of Illegal Fishing” (2019).

Monique C. Sosnowski

Monique C. Sosnowski is a doctoral candidate at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, NY. She specializes in global wildlife crime and security with a focus on wildlife trafficking and poaching, taking a crime science approach. She holds an MSc in Global Wildlife Health and Conservation from the University of Bristol.