Improvement of the Governance Mechanism against Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet in China

The modern society has stepped into an information- and network-based new age that is globalized. Rapidly rising Internet technology and e-commerce play a tremendously positive role in promoting the social advance, technolo-gical innovation and economic development, but in the meantime, they exert negative impact in certain areas and various crime activities executed with use of the Internet technology surge consequently. Historically speaking, wildlife crime used to take place in the traditional market, but as Internet is popula-rized amid its fast development, more and more wildlife criminals are coming into the enormous virtual market via Internet, making wildlife crime one that is linked to the Internet. In recent years, TRAFFIC 1 China has been conduct-ing long-term monitoring over online trading platforms and the monitoring result shows that illicit wildlife trade in China has been transferred from physical market to online trading platforms and has been extended to social media platforms (Huanqiu Net, 2019). Online selling and online payment have become the major mode of wildlife crime linked to the Internet. How-ever, compared with the continuously intensified combat against wildlife crime in the visible market in China, the fight against wildlife crime linked to the Internet still faces many new challenges. The paper introduces the basic concept, main characteristics and global trend of wildlife crime linked to the Internet, clarifies the international consensus on the combat against the crime, analyzes the experience and challenges of China in governing the crime and proposes the governing direction and advices on countermeasures for the country.


Basic Concept of Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet
The concept of wildlife crime linked to the Internet is not legislatively specified yet in the laws and regulations in China and no consensus on the concept has been reached in the academic circle and judicial practice. According to the definition of "cybercrime" given by International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), cyber-enabled crimes refer to a series of traditional crimes that go through "new changes" along with the rise of Internet (including financial crime and terrorism crime), and wildlife crime linked to the Internet should be taken as a type of cyber-enabled crime (TRAFFIC REPORT, 2019). According to the advices on legal terms for wildlife crime in CITES 2 CoP18's executive committee report Combating Wild Animal Cyber Crime, cybercrime is a two-dimensional concept, including both cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crime (CITES REPORT, 2019). Cyber-dependent crime can be interpreted as the crime that damages the computer network or its data, while cyber-enabled crime can be interpreted as the crime of using modern information and communications technology, social media, e-commerce platforms, dark net or similar instruments to promote illegal drug and weapon trade, human trafficking and illegal wildlife trade. Therefore, wildlife cybercrime can be taken as a type of cyber-enabled crime, but use of the term "wildlife crime linked to the Internet" would be more appropriate. For this reason, as different from traditional illegal capturing of wildlife and related visible forms of trade, wildlife cybercrime in this paper refers to wildlife crime linked to the Internet.

Main Characteristics of Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet
Wildlife crime linked to the Internet refers to the criminal acts of using Internet as a new tool or means of crime to illegally purchase, transport, process, sell and smuggle wildlife and their products in violation of national or international laws and regulations. Its main characteristics are introduced as follows. Firstly, it is a traditional crime in nature, a traditional crime that is executed with the use of computer or network technology as a tool or means of crime. This is different from the traditional illegal trade. Secondly, the means of crime is highly invisibility. Convenience and relative anonymity of the Internet technology offer greater possibilities to criminals for hiding their identity and avoiding legal accountability. Trade on the dark net that is facilitated by Bitcoin and other cryp-

Development Trend of Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet
The combat against wildlife crime linked to the Internet is a challenge faced by the whole world and also a top priority on the agenda of the international community. Due to the characteristics of wildlife crime linked to the Internet, one country or region alone has not been able to completely solve the problem. In 2019, the World Animal Protection pointed out in the world's first Report on Global Wildlife Exotic Pet Trade that currently, over 500 species of birds and 500 species of reptiles were being traded globally. Global trade value of wildlife each year reached up to USD30 billion to USD42 billion, among which illegal trade value was approximated at USD20 billion (Xinhua Net, 2019). In 2019, International Air Transport Association (IATA) also pointed out that annual illegal trade value of wild animals and wild animal products (excluding wood and fishery) globally was around USD19 billion. The amount is huge and shocking.
The illegal trade became one of the world's most serious crime activities right after drug, counterfeit currency and human trafficking and was regarded as an organized crime with high income yet low risk. Following a trend, it is likely that more criminals will take risks and get involved in wildlife crime linked to the Internet (IATA, 2019). The series of criminal data shows that wildlife crime linked to the Internet is a severe global problem, which requires not only the great attention of government of all countries and the international community as well as the participation and support of related enterprises and various forces in the society, but also deepened international cooperation to jointly crack down on and contain wildlife crime linked to the Internet.

International Consensus on the Combat against Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet
As people are increasingly more aware of the harmfulness and universality of wildlife crime linked to the Internet, the international community reaches extensive consensus on necessity of the crackdown on the wildlife crime linked to the Internet.

At the Level of International Law
At the level of international law, international conventions such as the Budapest States, Canada and Australia (Xu, 2017).

At the Level of International Organizations
At the level of international organizations, the main international organizations making major contributions to fighting against transnational wildlife crime. In In recent years, the international community also actively launched joint law enforcement actions and has conducted transnational investigations and successfully prosecuted multiple wildlife crimes linked to the Internet. For instance, in the "Operation COBRA III" initiated in 2015, Britain seized over 300 varieties of wildlife and their products, the majority of which were sold on the Internet.

Experience and Challenges of China in Governing Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet
The Protection of wildlife is an important part of building the ecological civilization and building a beautiful China and it has a bearing on both ecological safety and national image (Jiao, 2015

At the Level of Legislation
At the level of legislation, in order to cope with the threat imposed by cybercrimes, China promulgated a series of laws and regulations to prevent and combat wildlife crime linked to the Internet. The newly revised Wild Animal Conservation Law came into effect on January 1, 2017. Its Article 31 and Article 32 stipulated that it is prohibited to run advertisement for illegally selling, buying and using wildlife products and it is prohibited to provide trading service for illegally selling, buying and using wildlife, wildlife products or the prohibited hunting gear by online trading platforms, commodity trading markets and other trading venues. It laid the legal foundation for combating the illicit wildlife trade on Internet and it was the first time that wildlife crime linked to the Internet was highlighted by legislation in China. In the Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China that took effect on November 1, 2015, one article is added after Article 287 as Article 287a: "whoever uses the information network to sell the contraband or release related illegal and criminal information, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall, in addition, or shall only, be fined", and one article is added as Article 287b: "whoever provides technical support such as Internet access, server hosting, network storage and communication or offers help in advertising and promotion and payment and settlement for criminal acts, knowing that others use the information network to commit crimes, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall, in addition, or shall only, be fined". This laid the foundation of regulation by criminal law for the crackdown on wildlife crime linked to the Internet. Meanwhile, multiple laws and regulations further standardize the courier industry against illicit trade. In 2016, the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Phasing out in Order the Processing and Sales of Ivory and Ivory Products for Commercial Purposes further clarified to "prohibit trading of ivory and ivory products via network and other channels" (Chen, 2017). The Postal Law, the Counterterrorism Law and the Regulations on the Control of Articles Prohibited from Delivery explicitly provided for use of the "real-name system", "registration system" and "mail inspection system for courier service" and requested inspections against contraband at both the receiving end and the consigning end. If a crime is constituted, criminal liabilities shall be investigated under the law.

At the Level of Law Enforcement
At the level of law enforcement, Chinese government highlights the deepened cooperation among law enforcement departments and adopts a series of measures to fight wildlife crime linked to the Internet. In order to refine the long-term mechanism for inter-department coordinated enforcement, the State Council approved the establishment of the "inter-ministry joint meeting mechanism for combating illicit wildlife trade" in 2016 (Kou, 2017). The mechanism was led by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and con-

At the Level of Comprehensive Governance
At the level of comprehensive governance, Internet companies and courier companies enhance industrial collaboration and internal regulation to promote the conservation of wildlife.
On the one hand, Internet companies actively took measures to handle the illicit wildlife trade, from tackling the trade on their own platforms with a "zero tolerance" attitude to setting up the consortium to combat wildlife crime linked to the Internet. In 2017, China's top three Internet companies (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) joint hands with another eight Internet players to initiate the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online (Xinhua Net, 2017). In 2018, the Coalition and 10 technology magnates such as Google, Facebook and eBay further formed the Global Coalition to End Illegal Trade in Wildlife Online and jointly pledged to reduce the illicit wildlife trade online by 80% by 2020. 7 So far, the Coalition has up to 32 members. In 2018, the Coalition members utilized such technologies as image recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence to delete roughly one million pieces of online information on illegal wildlife trade, block more than 10 million pieces of illegal ads and delete 350,000 illegal accounts in China.
On the other hand, efforts were made to improve ability building in the courier and transport industry and enhance industrial collaboration to contain the illicit wildlife trade. In fact, more than half of the seized illegal wildlife prod-

Main Challenges
Though China has made tremendous efforts and achieved noticeable progress in combating the wildlife crime linked to the Internet, it is far from enough given the fact that illicit trade on Internet is gigantic in size and boundary-free. Besides the many legal issues and the law enforcement challenges related to traditional wildlife crime, Internet-based illicit wildlife trade still faces many other problems that need be tackled urgently.
Main challenges are as follows. Firstly, wildlife crime linked to the Internet is highly elusive, making online regulation and investigation increasingly difficult.
As Internet is open, uncertain, virtual and beyond time and space, crime linked to the Internet is highly elusive (Liu, 2007). Therefore, it is increasingly hard to conduct criminal investigations and collect electronic evidence and it is also difficult to identify species, source and trade volume of wildlife crimes and even more difficult to prosecute. For example, criminals rarely use descriptive terms related to illegal wildlife products when running advertisement or negotiating trading details online, but usually use alternative names to describe the products.
In this way, they can effectively avoid being identified or detected and get access to excuses for counterargument. Secondly, criminal jurisdiction over crime linked to the Internet faces new challenges. There are always conflicts between the crime linked to the Internet that is boundary-free and elusive and jurisdiction that is intrinsic to the legal system, and the former poses tremendous challenges on the existing criminal justice procedures and jurisdiction of the countries. In pure wildlife criminal cases in China, jurisdiction obviously follows the "principle of territory". However, in transnational wildlife crime linked to the Internet, jurisdiction becomes more and more complex and it is difficult to identify where a crime occurs, place of origin of wildlife, place of residence of criminals, registered place of Internet address or place subject to influence of the crime. Thirdly, with respect to the "linkage between administrative enforcement and criminal justice" against wildlife crime linked to the Internet, "no movement on cases and replacement of criminal penalties with fines" has become serious problems in administrative enforcement. Currently, administrative laws and regulations have specific provisions on illicit wildlife trade online, but the criminal law has not been revised correspondingly. Consequently, serious wildlife crime linked to the Internet cannot be regulated by criminal law, inevitably resulting in the "replacement of criminal penalties with fines".

Advice for Improving the Governance against Wildlife Crime Linked to the Internet in China
As new business types and new business modes such as e-commerce and social platforms keep emerging, eradicating wildlife crime linked to the Internet remains a long-lasting and arduous task. It is necessary to construct an all-round and multi-layered efficient governance mechanism against the wildlife crime linked to the Internet with multiple parties collaborating.

Strengthening the Law Enforcement Mechanism against the Crime
Firstly, according to related CITES resolutions, law enforcement organs targeting wildlife crime linked to the Internet can be set up on the national level to strengthen coordination and joint regulation, with the boundary among jurisdiction of different departments being eliminated. Meanwhile, attempts can be made to establish wildlife online trade monitoring mechanisms on the national level. With the help of current technology, as guided by big data and big intelligence, a national collaboration platform for wildlife case investigation and control can be gradually put into place and the information database on wildlife cases can be developed, with such functions as internal information collection, automatic comparison and intelligence early-warning to be refined (Wu & Lian, 2017). Secondly, the advantages of the inter-ministry joint meeting mechanism and the national-and provincial-level Inter-department CITES Enforcement Coordinating Group should be put into full play to ensure establishment of an efficient mechanism on joint clue search, intelligence sharing and joint combat. Thirdly, the cooperation and coordination mechanism between law enforcement departments and the private sector need be enhanced. Practice proves that the Chinese cooperation mode between law enforcement departments and the private sector is an effective instrument for combating illicit wildlife trade and it is necessary for government to take the lead and for law enforcement departments and Internet companies, the courier industry and financial institutions to set up a long-term cooperation mechanism. Fourthly, the linkage mechanism between administrative enforcement and criminal justice targeting the illicit wildlife trade online need be further bettered. It is important to put into place systems on information sharing, circulation of case details and case referral by administrative enforcement institutions, public security organs, procuratorial organs and judicial organs. "No movement on cases, difficulty in making movement on cases and replacement of criminal penalties with fines" shall be firmly overcome to realize the seamless connection between administrative punishment and criminal penalties. Fifthly, legal publicity should be stepped up to enhance the legal awareness of the public. Law enforcement organs should conduct legal publicity and promotion on wildlife education and such laws as the Criminal Law, the Wild Animal Conservation Law, the Cyber Security Law and the Advertisement Law, so as to improve the public awareness of conservation, purify the network environment and shape a governance picture of "participation by multiple parties, prevention and control by the masses".

Perfecting the Comprehensive Governance Mechanism against the Crime
The private sector plays a significantly important role in the combat against the illicit wildlife trade online and should be encouraged and also enhanced continuously. In many cases, the private sector has been able to get closer to the front line and get a better sense of what's going on. They know the best way to solve the problem. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the ability building and industrial collaboration of Internet companies and the courier industry. Related industries should keep refining their own ability building and better the abilities in monitoring, identifying, disposing and preventing the illicit wildlife trade. Meanwhile, more and more Internet companies should be encouraged to join the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online and the Global Coalition to End Illegal Trade in Wildlife Online and increasingly more transport enterprises should be encouraged to join the Buckingham Palace Declaration, so as to perfect the industrial collaboration mechanism and form greater synergy.
On the other hand, engagement of non-governmental organizations and the public need be reinforced. Non-governmental organizations such as TRAFFIC China should continue to monitor the online wildlife trade and meanwhile assist law enforcement institutions to effectively regulate online trade. Non-governmental organizations such as China Wildlife Conservation Association and China Wild Plant Conservation Association should further intensify their publicity efforts on wildlife conservation and legal education and strive to improve the public legal awareness of wildlife conservation, so that the concept of "no business, no harm" can be deeply rooted in people's mind, without a buyer's market, criminals can't make money, At the same time, we should also continue to increase publicity, starting from children, cultivate children's awareness of nature protection, consumers' behaviors can be truly changed, consumer demand can be reduced and crimes can be prevented fundamentally.