Researchers identify AI monitoring, platform regulation, demand reduction and community coordination as key weapons against online wildlife trafficking. (Image created via Gemini)
Social media platforms − including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube − are fuelling a rapidly-expanding illegal wildlife trade that is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and police.
A review conducted by a team of local and international researchers, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, found that more than 1 600 primates were advertised for sale across the four platforms during six weeks of online monitoring in mid-2025.
The trade extends well beyond primates, with birds, snakes, frogs, orchids, cacti and other species increasingly being offered through digital platforms.
Illegally traded wildlife is typically concealed and transported through postal, courier, luggage, cargo or smuggling networks, often using false declarations and other methods to evade detection.
“Thousands of animal, plant and fungal species are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation through online illegal wildlife trade,” explains lead author Professor Enrico Di Minin, from the University of Helsinki.
“What is particularly concerning is that many of the species found to be illegally traded online are either at high risk of extinction, or had not previously been considered at risk from illegal wildlife trade.”
Dr Annette Hübschle, chief research officer and co-lead of the Global Risk Governance Programme at the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Law, is the study’s social scientist and only Africa-based co-author.
She argues that tackling the problem will require more than improved content moderation, artificial intelligence and law enforcement.
“The online illegal wildlife trade is not simply a technology problem that can be engineered away,” notes Hübschle.
“It spreads across platforms faster than any single company or country can police it, and it represents a growing, evolving threat to biodiversity. Tackling it requires strategies that strengthen species protection and regulatory capacity, but just as importantly, that engage local communities meaningfully and treat this as a whole-of-society responsibility.”
The review found that online wildlife trading can operate across multiple stages of the trafficking chain, from harvesters and intermediaries using social media to find buyers and specimens, through to direct-to-consumer shipments that bypass traditional large-scale smuggling networks.
Africa features prominently in the trafficking routes identified by the researchers.
Between 2010 and 2021, about 800 000 African grey parrots were traded internationally. Researchers monitoring public Facebook accounts operated by exporters in Togo also identified more than 200 species advertised for sale.
The researchers also found wildlife hosts for viruses of concern to both human and animal health among the species being traded.
Hübschle points out that responses to the trade often place too much emphasis on enforcement and regulatory approaches developed in the Global North, while overlooking the knowledge held by communities and frontline conservation practitioners.
“Much of the current response is enforcement-heavy and modelled on Global North regulatory systems,” adds Hübschle. “But communities, local practitioners and frontline conservation actors are often the first to notice emerging code words, shifting routes and the unintended harms of punitive approaches. Their knowledge should inform prevention, not just be treated as an afterthought once policy is already set.”
Tech only part of the solution
The researchers say the speed and scale of online trafficking can amplify the harms associated with conventional wildlife crime.
Dr Neil D’Cruze, a co-author from Manchester Metropolitan University, said online networks can operate across borders and increasingly intersect with, or replace, traditional trafficking routes.
“Online illegal wildlife trade operates through complex, dispersed networks that cross national borders, expanding − and in some cases replacing − traditional trafficking routes,” he said.
The review identifies five complementary approaches to tackling the problem. There are AI-assisted monitoring and detection; stronger platform policies and content moderation supported by independent audits; coordination between technology companies, regulators, NGOs and affected communities; demand-reduction campaigns based on behavioural science; and international policy frameworks.
These include the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the European Union’s Digital Services Act.
Professor Enrico Di Minin of the University of Helsinki, the study’s lead author, states that tackling online wildlife trafficking would require cooperation across sectors.
“Addressing online illegal wildlife trade is complex but not insurmountable. It requires cooperation across sectors and comprehensive policy frameworks that recognise the online dimensions of wildlife trafficking.”
The researchers stress that technology and enforcement should form part of a wider response rather than become the response itself.
Global South evidence gap
The study also highlights significant gaps in research on online wildlife trafficking, particularly in the Global South.
The researchers say greater attention is needed on how online trafficking routes are documented in regions that are heavily affected by wildlife crime, including its consequences for biodiversity, conservation and public health.
For Hübschle, this means communities living alongside threatened species must have a meaningful role in designing interventions.
“The challenge extends beyond removing social media posts or closing accounts. It requires platforms, regulators, conservation organisations and governments to work with communities that can identify emerging trafficking patterns and understand how interventions affect people on the ground,” notes Hübschle.
As wildlife trafficking increasingly shifts into digital spaces, the researchers argue that the response must evolve with it – combining technology and enforcement with community knowledge, behavioural interventions, stronger regulation and international cooperation.
