Illicit trade endangers the environment, the law and the SDGs. We need a global response

Illicit trade creates an annual economic drain of $2.2 trillion and undermines the UN Sustainable Development Goals through activities such as illegal logging, counterfeit medicine, and fuel smuggling. The author contends that current international responses are too segmented and calls for a global forum to link existing initiatives and involve the private sector to secure supply chains.

• Illicit trade, including smuggling, counterfeiting, and trafficking, causes an annual economic loss of $2.2 trillion, which represents nearly 3% of the global economy.
• Illegal logging is identified as the most profitable crime involving natural resources, with an estimated annual value of up to $157 billion, and it constitutes over half of forestry activities in Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and the Amazon Basin.
• Counterfeit and substandard medicines lead to significant mortality, including over 100,000 annual deaths from fake antimalarial drugs in Sub-Saharan Africa and approximately 150,000 annual child deaths from untreated pneumonia worldwide.
• The current international response to illicit trade is disjointed because over 20 intergovernmental organizations address the issue in a segmented manner by sector or subject, failing to account for the shared routes and methods used by criminal groups.

APA

Hardy, P. C.-H. J. (2019). Illicit trade endangers the environment, the law and the SDGs. We need a global response. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/illicit-trade-sdgs-environment-global-danger/

Chicago

Hardy, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Jeffrey. Illicit trade endangers the environment, the law and the SDGs. We need a global response. World Economic Forum, 2019. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/illicit-trade-sdgs-environment-global-danger/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Hardy |first1=Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Jeffrey |title=Illicit trade endangers the environment, the law and the SDGs. We need a global response |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=18 July 2019 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/illicit-trade-sdgs-environment-global-danger/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{hardy2019illicit, author = {Hardy, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Jeffrey}, title = {{Illicit trade endangers the environment, the law and the SDGs. We need a global response}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2019}, month = jul, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/illicit-trade-sdgs-environment-global-danger/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }