30 July 2019, story by Roxanne Joseph, a data journalist, and Rudi Bressa, a freelance journalist and Fiona Macleod, a seasoned investigative environmental journalist.

Cyberspace provides an anonymous platform for illegal wildlife trade. In accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the sale of wildlife specimens are banned in many e-commerce and social media platforms. However, specimens like Hermann’s tortoises and boa constrictors (all CITES Appendix I and II) are still easily accessible on Facebook groups with names like “Reptiles for sale in Europe”. Technical innovations to solve the problem have become the leading approach by organisations like the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, Interpol and Rhino Coin. How effective are these solutions?

The full article was published on journalismfund.eu and Oxpeckers.

For their safety, one of the authoring team members from Shanghai, China, has chosen to remain anonymous. They have several years of experience as an investigative environmental reporter in Asia and Africa.

The journalist is known to Journalismfund.eu.