Main points

• Southeast Asia is considered a global hotspot for the illegal flora and fauna trade, which involves animals and animal parts, timber and other non-timber forest products such as wild plants. This includes species sourced from Southeast Asian countries and internationally, and while high volumes are trafficked and consumed within the region, others are transited through to larger markets such as China.
• Trafficking in these flora and fauna species is often perpetrated by transnational criminal actors and private companies, individuals and families embedded in complex networks that include government actors and local populations.
• Corruption manifests in multifarious ways across the supply chains for trafficked flora and fauna. This includes low-level wildlife management authorities and customs officials taking bribes to falsify documentation and facilitate unobstructed passage along with the complicity of high-level officials in granting permits for logging which serves to obscure the illegal origin of timber.
• The academic literature, indices and available case examples indicate such dynamics are pronounced in the three focus countries of this Helpdesk Answer: Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam.
• While national authorities in the three countries have taken some measures to counter trafficking in recent years, observers argue these are not commensurate with the scale of the threats and that there is often insufficient will to target the corrupt public officials that facilitate trafficking.
• In this vein, the literature recommends that investigatory and prosecutorial bodies make more use of anti-corruption legal provisions when disrupting trafficking schemes, and for greater joint approaches between law enforcement authorities responsible for investigating corruption and those for trafficking, as well as fostering greater cross-border cooperation.
• Other potential mitigation measures include transparency and open data around public management of land, the adoption of human resource policies that inculcate a sense of integrity in authorities responsible for enforcing wildlife regulations, and the greater use of secure, digital verification and traceability mechanisms to help distinguish illegal from legally traded products.