Library Research Guides: Albright Institute: 4: Sea Cucumber Trafficking

Background and Context

Diagram of the internal anatomy of a generalized Holothuroid. White Teatfish sea cucumber in the Southern Great Barrier Reef.

Liang Q, Ahmed F, Zhang M, Sperou N, Franco CMM, Feng Q and Zhang W (2022) In Vivo and               Image credit: Steve Purce from the University of Sydney
Clinical Studies of Sea Cucumber-Derived Bioactives for Human Health and Nutrition 
From 2012-2021. Front. Mar. Sci. 9:917857. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.917857

What is CITES
"CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species."
Business Insider: Why Sea Cucumbers Are So Expensive
Short, 5 minute video, about sea cucumbers. "These animals are prized as a delicacy in Asia, and are used by pharmaceutical companies to treat diseases like cancer. Unfortunately, over-harvesting now threatens many sea cucumber populations."
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI): End Wildlife Trafficking
Web article from Summer 2023 about "illegal wildlife trafficking and a rapidly expanding demand for a variety of products around the world."

Web articles

Traffickers, Consumers and Protectors Addressing Gender Disparities in the Illegal Wildlife Trade
A 2023 web article from "ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America is an online magazine that focuses on different themes related to Latin America."
Illegally Caught and Sold Sea Cucumbers: Opportunistic Criminality or Organized Transnational Trade?
A 2022 web article from "Earth Journalism Network (EJN) formed in 2004 to enable journalists from low- and middle-income countries to cover the environment more effectively."
Safeguarding Sea Cucumbers
A 2022 web article from the NGO Sea Save Foundation about Proposal #42 for CoP19 held in November 2022.
Illegal wildlife trade and financial crime
A 2021 e-Learning module from Basel Institute on Governance, an "independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to countering corruption and to improving standards of governance, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.
Wildlife crime learning series – understanding risks, avenues for action
A 2021 e-Learning module from Basel Institute on Governance, an "independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to countering corruption and to improving standards of governance, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Part 4 is on marine species trafficking.
Images of Sea Cucumbers (Holothurians)
Images from Great Barrier Reef Invertebrates created by the University of Queensland in Australia. The website has poor navigation, so choose Holothuroidea towards the bottom of the left-hand list - under the Taxa Echinodermata.

CoP19 (Nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties)

Nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP19)
Review of the CoP19 Meeting held from 14 - 25 November 2022 in Panama City, Panama
Proposal #42 from CoP19
The CITES proposal to include three species of sea cucumbers that are commercially exploited and threatened by the international trade. It was passed in November 2022, with a 18 month delay.
CoP19 Summary
CoP19 Summary from NGO called TRAFFIC - "a leading non-governmental organisation working to ensure that trade in wild species is legal and sustainable for the benefit of the planet and people."
CITES COP19 Decisions and listings come into force
February 2023 web article from TRAFFIC. "Ninety days after the meeting at which they were adopted, the new and amended COP19 Decisions and Resolutions come into effect." Sea cucumbers will be in effect with a 18-month delay.

Reports and Scholarly Articles

Web of Science results: "sea cucumber" AND CITES
Web of Science search results for ("sea cucumber" AND CITES) in the Abstract. Limited to English language.
In Deep Water: India's sea cucumbers in illegal wildlife trade
"Report from 2022 by TRAFFIC and WWF-India highlights the scale of the threat that sea cucumbers, belonging to the class Holothuroidea, face due to unsustainable and illegal collection and trade in India."
Gender and illegal wildlife trade: Overlooked and underestimated
World Wildlife Fund report from 2021.
United Nations World Wildlife Crime Report
UN Office on Drugs and Crime 2020 prepared report on "the trafficking of wildlife, increasingly recognized as both a specialized area of organized crime and a significant threat to many plant and animal species. The second edition of the World Wildlife Crime Report takes stock of the present wildlife crime situation with a focus on illicit trafficking of specific protected species of wild fauna and flora, and provides a broad assessment of the nature and extent of the problem at the global level."
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 is a global rallying cry to heal our planet.

Statistics

Sage Data (formerly Data Planet) This link opens in a new window
An extensive repository of standardized and structured statistical data. Datasets cover a wide range of subjects — including business, finance, banking, economics, sociology, political science, demography, agriculture, education, international studies, criminal justice, housing and construction, labor and employment, energy resources and industries, and more.
UN Data This link opens in a new window
Search 55 million data points from across the UN system, covering economic, social, financial and development data, 1945 to present.

CIA World Factbook
Detailed profiles of all of the countries of the world, including history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.
World Resources Institute
Center focuses on a number of specific initiatives, including projects on Air Quality, Energy Access, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), Climate Governance, Environmental Rights, Gender, and Climate Resilience Practice.
Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals (2023)
The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2023 presents interactive storytelling and data visualizations about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It highlights trends for selected targets within each goal and introduces concepts about how some SDGs are measured.