Few tiger traffickers in Southeast Asia face real penalties

Fewer than half of the arrests for tiger poaching and trafficking in Southeast Asia end in a conviction or legal penalty, which gives little deterrent to an illegal black market that is pushing wild tigers toward extinction, according to a new report.

Researchers analysed 259 tiger seizure cases recorded between 2019 and 2024 in seven countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Only 110 of them led to prison sentences or fines. Another 35 ended with suspended sentences, 63 arrests had no clear outcome and 48 had no public data. The report was published by the Canadian think tank the GuArdean Centre for Conservation Research, the wildlife trade watchdog TRAFFIC and WWF International.

It finds that enforcement overwhelmingly targets low- and mid-level poachers, couriers and local traders, rather than the high-level organisers who finance transnational syndicates. “We’re talking about serious organised crime,” said Heather Sohl, WWF’s tiger trade lead and a co-author of the report. She said these networks are also involved in crimes such as human trafficking and money laundering, and that arrests alone are not enough: investigators need to build strong cases, and the whole criminal justice response has to be examined to disrupt the networks.

Vietnam and Indonesia recorded the most convictions, with 51 cases each ending in jail time or fines. Vietnam, however, also accounted for 33 of the region’s 35 suspended sentences.