--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Countries Are At The Center of The Illegal Wildlife Trade ## 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 cubGetty 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. ```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"}}] ```