The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) seized roughly 3.5 tonnes of illegal elephant ivory recently.

With the rise of technology, smugglers have expanded to social media platforms to sell exotic animals.

Platforms such as Telegram have become one of the largest platforms for criminal activity.

Due to the large number of anonymous participants in online group chats, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) needs help tracking down all parties involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

To tackle this problem, Singapore has developed its first AI-based mobile app to crack down on criminal activity.

Figure 1: Various organisations have also come together to prevent the exploitation of wildlife in Singapore by pledging to anti-wildlife trade movements. (Photo by: Carin Chua)

The Cyber Spotter Program, which uses technology to identify prohibited wildlife transactions and report them to The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has also managed to prevent at least 5,700 transactions online.

Figure 2: Over 13 million animals are traded illegally, and in the past 40 years, roughly 52 per cent of the world’s wildlife has gone extinct. (Photo by: Carin Chua)

Nur Hazira, 32, a zookeeper at Singapore Zoo, said, “People who buy exotic wildlife and decide to keep them as pets at home don’t have the proper knowledge or facilities to provide them with a suitable living environment.”

Singapore has also built The Centre for Wildlife Forensics (CWF), the first national facility for wildlife forensics that combines science and technology to produce evidence that supports law enforcement and prosecution.

Jarrel Lim, 27, a National Service (NS) man who served in the Singapore Police Force (SPF), said, “With more advanced technological advancements, we can crack down on more of these criminals and protect our wildlife.”

It is an offence to possess, sell, offer for sale, or publicly display any Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora (CITES) species and their parts and derivatives if they have been imported without the necessary permits.

Any individual or company that violates the law can face a fine of up to $200,000 per specimen and/or imprisonment for up to eight years.

Watch the exotic wildlife trade video below:

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