ABSTRACT
The nature of illegal wildlife trade in relation to the European Union (EU) is approached by analyses of wildlife confiscations in EU over a 10-year period. The illegal wildlife trade is a green crime that involves illegal trade, smuggling, abduction, capture or collection of wildlife or products thereof. It is said to be in financial top illegal enterprises worldwide, along with the global drug trade and the trade in illegal arms. This chapter presents an overview of species, countries and offenders involved in illegal wildlife trade in EU in order to understand the transnational character, complex diversity and global effects of market. It has become clear that the trade in wildlife is a global affair with involvement of a diversity of source and destination countries, different species and both small-scale traders and large criminal organizations. The chapter concludes with a green criminological consideration of the global harms to the world caused by overexploitation of wildlife.
