Readers of Wild Crime can go inside the operation and learn more about this milestone in Amazonian law enforcement
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Green Shield was an attempt to halt that tide. Across the two week operation, 94 arrests were made in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia and $94m in assets was seized.

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The Amazon is a vital hub of biodiversity, but it has been beset by deforestation, wildlife trafficking, and a litany of other serious environmental crimes.

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The raid was part of a much larger operation across the Amazon Rainforest called Green Shield. More than 1,500 officers carried out hundreds of coordinated raids across four countries

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A Florida man admitted neglect after 100 geckos were left locked in a storage unit for more than two months. Forty-one of them had died.

The unit was locked up for non-payment of bills with the animals trapped inside.

Chinese zoos and safari parks are driving demand for smuggled elephants.

The parks are accused of illegally buying the elephants from Laos. Just one of the parks involved received more than 10 million visitors between 2016 and 2022.

More charges were added in Argentina's biggest ever wildlife crime case after a defendant tried to flee the country.

Environmental officers raided the tour company Caza y Safaris last summer and its owners have been accused of organising illegal hunting trips.

Leopards are being intentionally targeted by traffickers in Sri Lanka, conservationists warned, challenging the official narrative that most killings are opportunistic.

A picture of hunters carrying a freshly-skinned carcass prompted the warning.

A Taiwanese fishing vessel was spotted illegally harpooning dolphins by the Canadian Coast Guard.

A two-month monitoring mission also caught other vessels harvesting shark fins and illegally catching salmon.

I've written a post on my newsletter Wild Crime explaining how everything works. With help from
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But not everyone agrees that it's the best way to do things. Some argue that poachers will ignore regulations anyway, so agreements like CITES only target 'good' actors.

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This helps us to stop trade in an animal when it is critically endangered to give it a chance to recover.

But it also gives us valuable data on how frequently an animal is bought and sold. And where in the world this trade happens.

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If a species is Appendix I listed then its commercial trade is essentially banned. If it's included on Appendix II then it can only be traded with a permit.

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