TOOLS AND GUIDANCE ON THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE

significant amounts of untraceable funds. Usage in the However the ease of use of such markets, the range of products, and the relatively low Illegal Wildlife Trade risk faced by both buyers and sellers from law enforcement have made them an Issue attractive choice for a range of illegal goods. The darknet has not, to date, proven to be a The darknet is a network of websites that particularly attractive platform for the buying can be accessed only via special software and selling of illegal wildlife products. Initial that hides the details of the user’s studies (Roberts & Hernandez-Castro 2017) connection, and also allows websites to be have shown that illegal wildlife products are hosted without revealing their location or more likely to be counterfeit goods, with the operator. The vast majority of such 'hidden inclusion of restricted species in their services' use the anonymous network manufacture a secondary factor to their (torproject.org; Dingledine et al. 2004), value to buyers. Despite this, the darknet developed and operated by volunteers as a provides a 'marketplace of last resort' that tool for freedom of expression and access to becomes increasingly attractive over other, the under restrictive regimes. In more accessible, online services as law addition, however, the Tor network also enforcement and platform operators enforce allows the hosting of illegal marketplaces, policies against trading in illegal wildlife most famously the "" - an eBay- products. This makes the ongoing study of style marketplace for and other illicit darknet markets an important avenue for goods that, at its peak in 2012, was research as other policies against online illegal processing an estimated $15 million in wildlife trading emerge. transactions annually. Whilst the original Silk Road was shut down by law enforcement in October 2013, Findings numerous similar markets opened in its wake. Recent work by Roberts and Castro (2017) Today, large-scale darknet marketplaces has highlighted that there is not a large exist for illegal drugs, firearms, hacking tools, volume of specific illegal wildlife trade on the stolen identity documents, and a wide variety darknet, and characterise the majority of of other illicit goods. These marketplaces products found there as "bycatch" - products typically make use of such that are sold for other reasons, but that as or that allow decentralised happen to contain illegal wildlife products. electronic transactions whilst being hard to trace for law enforcement. Key examples from the study of a year's activity on the defunct Alphabay market are The untraceable nature of darknet the sale of hallucinogenic cacti to the marketplaces protect both buyers and sellers market, and counterfeit Chanel bags from action by law enforcement. Despite produced from reptile skin. this, there have been a number of high- profile shutdowns of marketplaces, with There have, however, been a small number of seizure of computers and the arrest of more explicitly illegal products discovered on operators, as well as numerous scams in the darknet. One Alphabay seller offered both which untraceable marketplace owners have rhino horn and elephant ivory in addition to closed marketplaces and absconded with

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TOOLS AND GUIDANCE ON THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE

their more normal range of drugs. Similarly, a An attractive feature of darknet markets for number of short-lived marketplaces have investigators is that the level of specifically been set-up to offer products untraceability given by the underlying from Africa, which have included gold and technologies makes them both relatively easy diamonds in addition to rhino horn. to scrape in their entirety, and largely public in the products that are offered. As such, Focusing on the usage of darknet markets, darknet markets provide a potentially Dittus et al. (2018) studied the economic attractive means to understand shifts in geography of seller and buyer locations as consumer behaviour without the necessity of listed on five key darknet markets in 2017. accessing closed social-media groups or These results highlighted that darknet forums. Monitoring the products available, markets typically replace the 'last mile' of the and the prices at which they sell, is a second - sellers are typically recommendation. located geographically close to buyers in mainly consumer countries, rather than close The darknet has significant potential for the to centres of drug production. By extensions, illegal wildlife trade, despite the current low the flow of sales on the darknet is typically volumes shown in recent studies. With in-country, or in-continent, rather than increasing adoption of technologies such as international. This suggests that darknet cryptocurrencies, however, and growing markets currently replace only part of the international enforcement efforts to prevent overall supply chain for illicit goods, relying on the trade in illegal wildlife products, the other distribution channels for bluk darknet is a proven venue for both high- and transactions. Darknet markets were also low-value illicit products. shown to be largely a European and North American phenomenon, dominated by the US, the UK, and Germany, with other regions Key references representing a significant minority of sales. Roberts D & Hernandez-Castro J. 2017. Bycatch and illegal wildlife trade on the . Oryx, 51(3), 393-394. Recommendations Dittus et al. 2018. Platform criminalism: the The darknet is characterised by substantial last-mile geography of the darknet market turnover of marketplaces, many of which last supply chain. Association for Computing less than a year before being shut down. A Machinery. 277–286. key recommendation is to maintain the Dingledine et al. 2004. Tor: the second- ongoing capacity to track emerging markets, generation onion router. SSYM'04 Proceedings the geographic locations that they serve, and of the 13th conference on USENIX Security the range of products on offer. Whilst many Symposium, 13: 21. such marketplaces use off-the-shelf auction software, each requires manual effort to Suggested Citation automate 'scraping' tools that monitor transactions, requiring ongoing effort. Wright J. 2019. Darknet Usage in the Illegal Wildlife Trade. Tools and Guidance, Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, University of Oxford. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/fgr9d

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