Banks on alert as soft commodities trade targeted by wildlife traffickers

One reason such partnerships are useful is for data sharing. Alexandria Reid, a research fellow at influential London-based think tank RUSI, says it is currently difficult for financial institutions to build accurate risk typologies for identifying suspicious transactions because there have been so few financial investigations or high-level prosecutions to draw on. “Currently too little data makes its way into the private sector for the detection of environmental crime to be ‘business as usual’ – which is what it should be, because it should be treated like any other crime,” Reid tells GTR.