--- title: Illegal Wildlife Trade Poaching Elephant: These Countries Are Key description: Research utilizing methods used to take down terrorist networks has identified China and Kenya as key nexuses in the illegal wildlife trade canonical: https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-16T16:36:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:54.976Z article:section: Science og:title: Illegal Wildlife Trade Poaching Elephant: These Countries Are Key og:description: Research utilizing methods used to take down terrorist networks has identified China and Kenya as key nexuses in the illegal wildlife trade og:url: https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946213ed408cbc/698854ba55a8592529a8c85d/gettyimages-128569227.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1964 og:image:height: 1105 og:image:alt: illegal wildlife trade og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Illegal Wildlife Trade Poaching Elephant: These Countries Are Key twitter:description: Research utilizing methods used to take down terrorist networks has identified China and Kenya as key nexuses in the illegal wildlife trade twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946213ed408cbc/698854ba55a8592529a8c85d/gettyimages-128569227.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Countries Are At The Center of The Illegal Wildlife Trade > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Wildfires, Beetles and Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): Wildfires, Beetles and Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wYhUFMcF.m3u8) (4:46)  _Published 2009-09-14. In this Climate Central report, Dr. Susan Prichard explains how tree-killing bark beetles flourish in warmer temperatures, leading to severe wildfires_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 16, 2015 4:36 PM UTC  Sun bear cub Sun bear cub Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 16, 2015 4:36 PM UTC Governments around the world have been trying to tackle the illegal wildlife trade for decades with mixed success. Despite substantial efforts in recent years, poachers and other criminals sell still annually sell billions of dollars worth of wildlife through clandestine networks. Now, new research employing some of the same methods used to take down terrorist networks has identified China and Kenya as key nexuses in the trade, according to a [paper](http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1500862112) published in the journal _PNAS._ By focusing resources on removing key players from these places, and a number of others, conservationists can disrupt the global wildlife trade network, the research suggests. Kenya sits at the center of the elephant trade network while China is the center of the rhinoceros and tiger trade networks. Thailand, Vietnam, India and South Africa also play key roles in the trade network. Both the United States and the United Kingdom also made the list, though they ranked near the bottom. Lead study author Nikkita Patel explained that her research aimed to find “innovative” and “cost-effective” ways to stem the illegal wildlife trade. Targeting the countries she identified could be a part of that effort for conservation organizations with limited resources, she said. “There have been a lot of efforts to control the illegal wildlife trade, but unfortunately we’re not sustaining the populations at the levels we should be,” she said. Patel and her co-authors analyzed data on more than 500 illegal shipments of wildlife for the study and created network maps showing the links between various countries involved in the trade. Some countries, like South Africa and Tanzania, were primarily exporters. Others, like China and Thailand, tended to be primarily importers or intermediaries. The researchers then evaluated how removing a given country would affect the network as a whole. Another analysis identified China and India as key places where disseminating information about problems with the wildlife trade would be most effective. “Education is a really good way to get people to open their eyes and hopefully change some behaviors,” Patel said. Patel describes her research as a first step in applying quantitative methods to the illegal wildlife trade and says she hopes that the tool can be automated and provide real-time information to the law enforcement agencies. ## Transcript >> I find it amazing that such a small non- descript little beetle can reeks a tabic on forest systems. >> A research scientist at the University of Washington Dr. Susan Prichard studies the effects of disturbances like insect outbreaks and wildfires on forests. Over the last two decades, more trees in western forests are being killed by bark beetles and there have been more fires. But, is climate change to blame? >> Each one of these, yellow sap concentration is an actual site where a mountain pine beetle as board into the bark of the logical pine and then it will lay eggs and its larvae will actually feed on the cambium tissue, the living tissue of the tree. So here, each one of the centers is an example of the tree trying to pitch out the beetle. The actual sap of the tree has [ unk ] that are toxic to the beetles and then also they are physically pushed the beetle out of the tree. >> Wow. So this tree is literally just fighting for its life. >> It is fighting for its life. That's not an overstatement actually. So, I can tell that unfortunately for this particular tree, it's not winning the fight. >> Beetles thrive in warmer weather. Mild winters, earlier springs and longer summers mean more beetles. >> So there is a climate linked for mountain pine beetle for sure. And what we're noticing in Washington State even today that in the last 20 years with warmer climate, warmer [ unk ] climate, there has been an increased incidents of mountain pine beetle. >> A resident of the quaint town in Winthrop in Central Washington, Dr. Prichard also says, warmer temperatures across the Western US have made drought stressed trees more vulnerable to beetle attack. >> Now if you have a vigorous tree, it will have enough defenses to pitch out some beetles so the beetles will attack the more weakened trees and maybe kill them. In an outbreak there could be, you know, acres upon acres of host trees where that there would be weakened, maybe drought, stressed, dense trees for these beetles to build up enough of a population that then they could start spreading into both weakened trees and healthy trees. >> Scientists have already made a definitive connection between warming temperatures and increase fires in the west. The connection between beetles and fire is less understood but many scientists like Prichard believe the combination of beetles, warming and drying forest will pre- dispose Washington State Forests to more fire. This year, more than 800 wild fires ignited in Washington State well above the yearly average. Prichard says in an outbreak of bark beetles starting in the 1990's let accumulations of dead trees priming the forests for a big fire event, which is exactly what occurred in August 2006 when the so- called tripod complex fire swept through the Okanogan Wenatchee forest destroying 180 thousand acres and costing $ 80 million. >> I actually saw the initial big smoke flumes. And if you were to look across the valley floor, you would not have been able to see even the trees. >> For Prichard, large fire events have been part of the landscape for millennium, vital to the renewal of the forest. She's concern about the future with an increase frequency of hot, dry weather, beetle outbreak and big fires. >> It actually reset the stage. It is a very natural cycle in this ecosystem. However, we are also facing unprecedented changes and climate. Here's an example of a Douglas first seedling, and you can see that it, you know, smaller in stature, it's very shallowly rooted in the soil and it's vulnerable to drought so as the top soil dries. It might dry out and die. So if we have more high severity fire then it might mean that trees that ever existed here for hundreds of not thousands of years are not able to success or able to produce. >> But since understanding the effect of disturbances on forest is her passion and work, Dr. Prichard has no plans to leave Central Washington anytime soon. They choose to live in a fire prone landscape. I think that's an important thing for people to actually take in to consideration when they wanna live in the great outdoors. The great outdoors in the Inland west means fire in the summers. >> Prichard and other scientist say climate change is at the very least partly responsible. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/"},"headline":"These Countries Are At The Center of The Illegal Wildlife Trade","datePublished":"2015-06-16T16:36:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:54.976Z","description":"China and Kenya are key players in illegal wildlife trafficking","url":"https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946213ed408cbc/698854ba55a8592529a8c85d/gettyimages-128569227.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b946213ed408cbc/698854ba55a8592529a8c85d/gettyimages-128569227.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"illegal wildlife trade","caption":"illegal wildlife trade","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/","name":"These Countries Are At The Center of The Illegal Wildlife Trade"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Wildfires, Beetles and Climate Change","description":"In this Climate Central report, Dr. Susan Prichard explains how tree-killing bark beetles flourish in warmer temperatures, leading to severe wildfires","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wYhUFMcF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-09-14T03:15:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wYhUFMcF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/","duration":"PT4M46S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3921138/illegal-wildlife-trade-countries/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```