EU Wildlife Seizures An overview of seizures of CITES-listed Wildlife in 2019

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 (in Sections 2 and 4) and examples of seizures (in Section 3) are based on seizure records submitted in the 2019 Annual Illegal Trade Reports (including information on prosecutions) submitted to the EU-TWIX database by EU Member States.

In 2019, a total of 28 EU Member States provided data on seizures which occurred in 2019, with the quantitative analysis based on data provided by 25 EU Member States.

It is important to note that any change in the number of seizures reported over the years and any patterns in illegal wildlife trade observed from the seizure data may be due to a number of different reasons, and these changes do not necessarily indicate shifts in demand or variations in illegal wildlife trade dynamic.