BEaStly Business: Examining the illegal trade in Bears, Eels and Songbirds

这项研究项目解决了一个重要但被忽视的问题：欧洲物种的非法野生动物贸易(IWT)。目前关于IWT的争论集中在作为非洲和亚洲问题的贸易，并关注对世界上最具标志性的物种(如大象和犀牛)构成的威胁。然而，IWT是我们家门口的一个问题，它构成了对生物多样性的关键威胁，但它在学术、政策和公共辩论中并不是优先议程。欧洲是野生动物生产、消费和运输的重要场所。Beastly Business项目旨在填补我们在欧洲物种非法贸易方面的知识空白，从而引起人们对这一被忽视的领域的关注。它将提供与政策相关的信息和咨询意见，以转变和改进应对综合水资源问题的政策干预措施。Beastly Business项目将调查欧洲鳗鱼、鸣禽和棕熊的非法贸易。这项研究将分析魅力水平、(富裕)消费者的消费模式、关于物种地位的不确定和不完整的科学知识以及法律漏洞的复杂组合如何支撑和推动欧洲物种的IWT。自然资源保护者对鸣禽贸易的担忧与日俱增，而鳗鱼贸易正迅速成为欧洲(如果不是世界上最大的野生动物犯罪之一)的一个主要担忧来源，而棕熊贸易是一个新出现的问题，尚未登记为自然资源保护者关注的领域。人们对欧洲鳗鱼的非法贸易知之甚少，但人们认为这是一种严重的野生动物犯罪，对这种迁徙物种产生了负面影响。人们对欧洲非法交易鸣禽的影响知之甚少--许多物种是迁徙的，因此对种群数量的估计是波动的，保护界直到最近才开始探索这种贸易对鸟类种群的影响。人们对棕熊的非法贸易了解更少，可能会被狩猎战利品和控制问题熊等合法活动掩盖--由于对欧洲熊的数量知之甚少且不确定，这种交易可能会产生无声但毁灭性的影响。研究小组将把政治生态学和绿色犯罪学这两个关键方法结合在一起，以发展我们对欧洲物种IWT的理解。利用政治生态学将通过突出欧洲物种如何非法交易的权力动态来填补知识的一个关键空白；绿色犯罪学将为我们如何定义对环境的危害提供一个重要的视角。这两个领域之间存在交叉，但进一步将它们结合起来，将为我们如何理解和处理合法商业利益参与非法活动提供一个新的视角。为了做到这一点，这项研究将使用绿领犯罪(van Uhm，2016)的镜头来揭示IWT中迄今被忽视的参与者：合法企业。绿领犯罪是一种白领和/或公司犯罪，或由参与非法活动的合法注册公司实施，或利用其基础设施促进非法贸易(Van Uhm，2016；Wyatt，van Uhm and Nurse，2020)。目前的辩论忽视了这些行为者，而是支持将重点放在有组织犯罪网络的责任人身上。Beastly Business Team将通过出版物、会议、政策简报、知识交流活动和一对一会议向学术界和非学术界传播其研究结果；主要利益相关者自研究开始以来一直参与研究，以确保研究满足他们的需求并有能力制定政策。

This research project tackles an important but overlooked problem: the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) in European species. Current debates about IWT focus on the trade as a problem of Africa and Asia, and pay attention to the threats posed to the world's most iconic species (such as elephants and rhinos). However, IWT is a problem on our doorstep, which constitutes a key threat to biodiversity, yet it is not high on the agenda in academic, policy and public debates. Europe is an important site of production, consumption, and transport of wildlife. The BEaStly Business project aims to fill a gap in our knowledge about illegal trades in European species, and thereby draw attention to this overlooked area. It will provide policy relevant information and advice in order to transform and improve policy interventions to tackle IWT. The BEaStly Business project will examine the illegal trade in European eels, songbirds, and brown bears. The research will analyse the ways in which a complex combination of levels of charisma, consumption patterns amongst (wealthy) consumers, uncertain and incomplete scientific knowledge about species status, and legal loopholes underpin and drive IWT in European species. Concern about the trade in songbirds is rising among conservationists, while trade in eels is rapidly becoming a major source of concern as one of the largest wildlife crimes in Europe (if not the world) and the trade in brown bears is an emerging issue, which has yet to register as an arena of concern for conservationists. The illegal trade in European eels is poorly understood, but is recognised to be a significant wildlife crime, which impacts negatively on this migratory species. Little is known about the impact of the illegal trade in songbirds in Europe - many of the species are migratory, so estimates of populations fluctuate and the conservation community has only recently begun to explore the impact of the trade on bird populations. The illegal trade in brown bears is even less understood, and could be masked by legal activities such as trophy hunting and problem bear control - with little and uncertain knowledge of the size of bear populations in Europe, the trade could be having a silent, but devastating impact. The research team will bring together two key approaches, political ecology and green criminology, to develop our understandings of IWT in European species. Using political ecology will fill a key gap in knowledge by highlighting the dynamics of power in how European species are illegally traded; green criminology will provide an important perspective on how we define harms against the environment. There are intersections between these two fields but integrating them further will yield a fresh perspective on how we understand and tackle the involvement of legitimate business interests in illegal activity. In order to do this the research will use the lens of green-collar crime (van Uhm, 2016) to cast light on hitherto overlooked actors in IWT: legitimate businesses. Green-collar crimes are a type of white collar and/or corporate crime, or are committed by legally registered companies involved in illegal activities, or which use their infrastructure to facilitate illicit trade (Van Uhm, 2016; Wyatt, van Uhm and Nurse, 2020). Current debates overlook these actors in favour of a focus on organised crime networks as responsible. The BEaStly Business team will disseminate its findings to academic and non-academic communities via publications, conferences, policy briefs, knowledge exchange events and one-to-one meetings; key stakeholders have been involved in shaping the research since its inception in order to ensure it meets their needs and has the ability to shape policy.