The Turtle Conservancy is proud to be a founding member of the Wildlife Confiscations Community in southern California, simply launched by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Affiliation of Zoos and Aquariums. The community is a pilot program of AZA’s Wildlife Trafficking Alliance that gives a coordinated response for the care and wellbeing of wildlife confiscated from unlawful commerce.

Wildlife trafficking has grow to be a urgent international disaster, driving numerous species in direction of extinction by means of the unlawful harvest and commerce of dwell animals, vegetation, and their merchandise. This illicit commerce, estimated to be value between $7-23 billion yearly, ranks among the many largest unlawful enterprises, following drug and human trafficking. Not solely does it endanger biodiversity, nevertheless it additionally poses important dangers to human well being, fosters circumstances conducive to illness spillover, and fuels transnational felony networks and corruption. The rise of on-line wildlife commerce, significantly in North America, Europe, and Asia, has additional exacerbated the problem, creating an unlimited market with out borders, minimal oversight, and open 24/7, enabling traffickers to take advantage of new markets and promote protected species as pets.