An overview of seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the European Union

Fried Pangolin scales seized in Belgium. Photo: Pol Meuleneire

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An overview of seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the European Union

Published 24 March 2020

This briefing aims to provide an overview of all CITES-related seizures reported by Member States of the European Union (EU) for the twelve-month period January to December 2018 inclusive, so that these can be shared with key trade partners of the EU and selected third countries, as deemed necessary by Member States.

An overview of seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the European Union

Report author(s):
TRAFFIC

Publication date:
March 2020

Download report (8,3 MB pdf)

key findings

This briefing is based on all seizures reported by EU Member States having taken place both at EU external borders (airports, maritime ports, land boundaries and postal centres) and inside the EU (i.e. not at the external borders).

The quantitative analysis of these seizures and examples of seizures (in Section 3) are based on seizure records submitted in the 2018 Annual Illegal Trade Reports (including information on prosecutions) submitted to the EU-TWIX database by EU Member States. In 2018, a total of 27 EU Member States provided data on seizures which occurred in 2018.

A total of 6012 seizure records were reported by EU Member States in 2018. France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands reported 79% of all seizure records for 2018.

for more information:

Media Team
+44 7542 229210

Notes:

This document has been prepared for the European Commission. However, it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. © European Union, 2020 The Commission’s reuse policy is implemented by Commission Decision 2011/833/EU of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39 – https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/ dec/2011/833/oj).

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An overview of seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the European Union

An overview of seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the European Union

key findings

for more information:

Notes:

About European Commission

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