According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a major transnational organized crime, which generates billions of criminal proceeds each year. IWT fuels corruption, threatens biodiversity, and can have a significant negative impact on public health and the economy. To move, hide and launder their proceeds, wildlife traffickers exploit weaknesses in the financial and non-financial sectors, enabling further wildlife crimes and damaging financial integrity.

Joining the panel to discuss this important issue will be Faith Hornor from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS). Faith directs C4ADS’ Wildlife Crime Program where she oversees development of counter wildlife trafficking partnerships and the creation of actionable analysis on specific trafficking networks and global trends in the illicit wildlife trade. Also joining the panel will be Giavanna (Gia) Grein, Lead Specialist, Wildlife Conservation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who specializes in partnering with private sector companies to develop industry-wide solutions to wildlife trafficking.