# How to Report Wildlife Trafficking: A Practical Guide for Travellers and Online Buyers

*GLOBAL · MAY 21 2026*

> To report wildlife trafficking, contact the national wildlife enforcement agency of the country where you observed the activity, your home-country customs authority if products are being imported, and INTERPOL's wildlife crime working group via local police; for online listings, report to the platform and to TRAFFIC's Wildlife Trade Portal.

If you have seen a live animal in a market, a wildlife product in a shop, or a suspicious online listing, here is how to report it — and who actually acts on the information.

## What are the key takeaways from this briefing?
- In-country reporting (the country where you observed the activity) is almost always the first call — local wildlife or forestry authorities.
- UK reporting: National Wildlife Crime Unit (nwcu.police.uk) and Border Force at point of import.
- Online listings: report to the platform first, then to TRAFFIC's Wildlife Trade Portal.
- Photograph and geotag the evidence safely; do not confront sellers.
- Reports with location, photo, date and species identification are acted on far more often than vague reports.

Wildlife trafficking is consistently ranked by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as one of the largest illicit industries in the world. Most successful enforcement actions begin with a member-of-the-public report. This guide explains how to make one that gets acted on.

## Before you do anything: safety first

Wildlife trafficking is organised crime. Do not confront sellers, do not film conspicuously, and do not buy "to rescue" the animal — buying a trafficked animal directly funds the next capture. Take a photograph if you can do so safely, note the location, time, currency listed, and any details you remember about the seller and any other animals or products on display.

## Step 1: Report in the country where you saw it

- **Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia:** the relevant national forestry or wildlife department, plus the in-country office of established conservation NGOs (which often have hotlines).

- **Kenya, Tanzania:** Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA).

- **Pakistan:** the relevant provincial wildlife department in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan.

- **Colombia, Peru:** autoridad ambiental — in Colombia, ANLA or the regional Corporación Autónoma; in Peru, SERFOR.

## Step 2: Report at home if products are being imported

If wildlife products are on sale in shops or markets in your home country, your customs and wildlife-crime enforcement bodies are the right route. In the UK, that means **Border Force** at point of import and the **National Wildlife Crime Unit** (NWCU) for in-country reports.

## Step 3: Report online listings

For social-media or marketplace listings of trafficked wildlife, report directly to the platform (Meta, TikTok, eBay all have wildlife policies) and to TRAFFIC's Wildlife Trade Portal. Online sales now account for a substantial proportion of exotic-pet trafficking globally.

## What makes a report act-on-able

- Photo or screenshot.

- Date and time.

- Precise location (geotag or named landmark).

- Species identification — even an honest "looks like a sun bear cub" is more useful than "a brown animal."

- Whether the animal is alive or a product (skin, bone, horn).

## What WARN can and cannot do

WARN is not a law-enforcement agency. We cannot intervene directly. What we are being built to do is fund the in-country veterinary and sanctuary capacity that enforcement actions depend on — animals seized in raids need somewhere safe to go, or seizures don't happen.

Sources: UNODC World Wildlife Crime Report, CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL Environmental Security Programme, TRAFFIC.

## We need your support to make this happen

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**[Donate today](/donate/)** to fund our first deployments, or **[sponsor an animal](/sponsor/)** to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also **[join the network](/get-involved/)** as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.

Human-readable page: https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/how-to-report-wildlife-trafficking/