Introduction

This chapter provides up-to-date background information regarding the illegal wildlife trade and the green criminological perspective that sets the foundation for the entire text. First, the issue of definition is addressed detailing all of the aspects of the smuggling operation, i.e., poaching, harvesting, collecting, transporting, exporting, importing, selling, etc. The historical context of wildlife trade and illegal wildlife trade is explored to illustrate the engrained nature of this activity. An overview of what has been and is being trafficked is given as well as the estimated numbers that are trafficked. The list will include, but is not limited to, live animals and plants, and their products and derivatives. This leads to a discussion of the current challenges in estimating both the scale and profit of the illegal wildlife trade due to the differing value of the ‘commodity’ along the smuggling chain and the particular dynamics of the dark figure of this crime. The introduction concludes with a layout of the entire book with brief details of the contents of each chapter.