With its tropical climate and dense forests, Southeast Asia has one of the most diverse range of wildlife in the world and hosts many endemic species (shown in figure above). This makes it a good supplier of the illegal wildlife trade with readily available sources.

 

Despite rules and regulations put in place by local governments, the lack of strict enforcement and the prevalence of corruption has enabled traffickers to avoid being caught. In this relatively low risk and high return business, these traffickers often use a wide range of methods from fake permits to mixing protected species into legal shipments. Hence, more measures should be put in place to tackle the ease of smuggling these wildlife from place to place and uncover the networks that these syndicates use.