International Trade and Finance
Acknowledgements
The third edition of the World Wildlife Crime Report was prepared by the Research and Trend Analysis Branch Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime under the supervision of Jean-Luc Lemahieu Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs and Angela Me Chief of the Research and Trend Analysis Branch.
Preface
I am pleased to present the third edition of UNODC’s World Wildlife Crime Report which aims to provide a tool to assess and improve responses to this hugely damaging form of criminal activity. The present report covers trends in the illicit wildlife trade analyses harms and impacts probes driving factors and takes stock of responses.
Summary, conclusions & policy implications
This third edition of the World Wildlife Crime Report like its predecessors published in 2016 and 2020 probes trends in the illicit trafficking of protected wildlife species. It also presents systematic analyses of wildlife crime harms and impacts probes the factors driving wildlife trafficking trends and takes stock of current knowledge about the effectiveness of the different types of intervention being pursued to resolve this problem.
What works?
Policy makers regulatory and enforcement agencies and funding institutions have good reason to seek insights into which interventions are effective in decreasing wildlife crime and in what contexts success has been achieved. Such knowledge can inform decisions about which interventions to fund or implement and which policies to pursue.
Impacts and harms
The preceding chapter of this report provides insights based on seizure data into contemporary patterns and trends in wildlife trafficking and considers evidence of the nature of related criminal activities. This current chapter takes stock of the types of harms that can result from wildlife crime. Such analysis was not a feature of the first two editions of the World Wildlife Crime Report but is included here as better understanding of these harms can shape perceptions of wildlife crime’s significance and inform both policy responses and prioritization of actions.
Drivers
The driving forces behind wildlife crime are a complex interplay of motivations and influences from economic incentives to socio-cultural dynamics. This chapter attempts to shed light on the diverse drivers shaping the patterns and trends of criminality connected with wildlife trafficking. Better understanding of these factors can inform the design and refinement of remedial interventions.
Introduction
This third edition of the World Wildlife Crime Report probes recent trends in the illicit trafficking of protected species of wild fauna and flora and provides a broad assessment of current knowledge about the causes and implications of associated crime at a global level.
World Wildlife Crime Report 2024
Trafficking in Protected Species
This third edition of UNODC’s quadrennial World Wildlife Crime Report aims to provide a tool to assess and improve responses to this hugely damaging form of criminal activity. The present report covers trends in the illicit wildlife trade analyses harms and impacts probes driving factors and takes stock of responses. Wildlife crimes are diverse and often devastating in their impact and consequences. They hamper conservation efforts damage ecosystems and contribute to undermining our planet’s capacity to mitigate climate change. They also infringe on the essential needs income opportunities and cultural rights of local communities and corrode governance and the rule of law. Global recognition of this damage has grown steadily and after two decades of concerted action there is some cause for optimism. There has been tangible success against trafficking of some iconic species while cross-border cooperation and criminalization of wildlife crime have both improved.
Guidelines for contributors
Consolidated foreign wealth of nations: Nationality-based measures of international exposure
This study presents novel estimates of foreign holdings using a consolidated-by- nationality approach for a sample of 14 developed countries over multiple years. This approach provides an alternative for policymakers and researchers to analyse international exposure that complements the existing approach based on residence-based data. Two main advantages of the nationality-based approach are that it looks through corporate structures of multinational enterprises and considers local positions. The resulting novel data show that aggregate international financial integration is larger than residence-based data indicate for the sample. These data are used to analyse (i) profit-shifting activities and (ii) spillovers from United States monetary policy shocks. This study presents evidence suggesting that nationals of relatively high-tax countries may shift assets to low-tax countries in ways not fully captured in residence-based statistics. It also shows that a tightening in United States monetary policy is associated with a decline in foreign asset holdings by non-financial multinational enterprises using the consolidated-by-nationality approach. These findings underscore the relevance of using the consolidated-by-nationality approach to evaluate policy-relevant questions.
Editorial statement
Transnational Corporations is a longstanding policy-oriented refereed research journal on issues related to investment multinational enterprises and development. It is an official journal of the United Nations managed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). As such it has global reach a strong development policy imprint and high potential for impact beyond the scholarly community. There are no fees or article processing charges associated with submitting to or publishing in Transnational Corporations. All articles of the online version of the journal are open access and free to read and download for everyone.
Arguments for implementing formulary apportionment in the European Union
Using recently published country-by-country reporting data released by the United States Internal Revenue Service we assess United States multinationals’ activity in the single market aiming to contribute with databased evidence to the ongoing political debate about the potential changes in the European corporate tax system. Our findings show evidence of artificial profit shifting across member States under the current method to allocate profits of multinational enterprises with the Netherlands Luxembourg and Ireland appearing to be the countries showing a higher degree of complicity with these activities. Such actions challenge fair international taxation in the European Union distorting European internal competition and hampering tax revenue collection. Although it may not be (yet) the time for a worldwide unitary taxation approach the analysis highlights the urgency for the European Union to adopt a formulary apportionment approach overhauling a century-old set of global tax rules based on the separate entity approach.
Do minority shareholder protection laws benefit investors? Evidence from a natural experiment on cross-listed firms
Good corporate governance practices are not universal. Unlike practices in institutional settings in developed countries which have attracted most scholarly attention corporate governance practices in emerging economies lean towards addressing principal-principal conflicts that stem from concentrated ownership. The study employs a difference-in-differences panel data design with matched samples of Chinese firms cross-listed in mainland China and Hong Kong (China) and of those listed only in Hong Kong (China) based on propensity score matching. It thus adopts a natural experimental setting – the promulgation of China’s Revised Securities Law in March 2020 – to pinpoint whether and how legal revisions of investor protection laws can really benefit investors. The findings show that independent directors in cross-listed firms turn over significantly more than those in firms listed only in Hong Kong (China). Also it suggests that firms mainly replace departed directors with new directors from similar demographics. Furthermore the study observes no evidence of significant changes in board independence in the short run. The findings suggest that policymakers should mind unintended consequences beyond the intended outcomes of the legal reforms on corporate governance particularly the potential disproportionate impacts on smaller firms.
Bridging the productivity gap: A comparative analysis of foreign-owned and domestic firms in Viet Nam
This study investigates the productivity gap between foreign-owned and domestic firms in Viet Nam. Using quantile regression estimation for the period of 2011–2020 the study first examines the impact of firms’ specifics and of provincial governance quality on firms’ total factor productivity at different points of the productivity distribution. The results show that labour productivity market share and return on assets appear to significantly affect firm productivity regardless of firm groups or quantiles. To understand the productivity gap between foreign and domestic firms the study uses the quantile decomposition approach to differentiate the factors that contribute to the gap at different quantiles. Our findings reveal that across quantiles most of the productivity gap is explained by firms’ specifics especially labour productivity. To address the productivity gap between foreign-owned and domestic firms in Viet Nam policymakers should focus on enhancing domestic firms’ access to technology firms’ experience and human capital development as firm-specific factors appear to be major contributors to the productivity differential. In addition improving provincial governance quality and creating an enabling environment for both foreign-owned and domestic firms can further stimulate productivity growth and foster healthy competition in the manufacturing sector.
Special economic zones and entrepreneurship: A new path forward for SEZs in Africa?
In recent years interest has been growing among policymakers in how to leverage special economic zone (SEZ) policies to support local entrepreneurship. With a few recent exceptions the academic literature to date has been silent on the matter. This article aims to contribute to addressing this gap. First it develops a conceptual framework linking SEZ policies and entrepreneurship development. Second it explores the state of play of entrepreneurship promotion in SEZs in Africa using a survey of African SEZs and two case studies. We find significant appetite among African SEZs to promote local entrepreneurship; however it is less clear how best to accomplish the task. Many of the policies facilities and services offered are open to local entrepreneurs rather than being tailored specifically to their needs. The support required in some policy areas also seems to be more straightforward than in others. Adapting the SEZ offering to the needs of local entrepreneurs is one of the key challenges to increasing the effectiveness of the support.
Seychelles’ framework conditions for innovation
Framework conditions for innovation shape and influence the innovation ecosystem in a country. They do so by enabling individuals businesses and organizations to innovate. Certain conditions and policy efforts can encourage and support innovation fostering economic growth competitiveness and societal progress. Other key elements of framework conditions for innovation include regulations and standards funding and infrastructure for research and development digital and logistics infrastructures an actively managed innovation ecosystem a skilled and educated workforce trade openness a positive entrepreneurial culture and risk-taking attitudes and active international collaborations in STI among others. Finally policymakers must embrace a sciencebased approach to sustainable development challenges as an unavoidable framework condition for innovation.