During February 2010, Italian officials in Rome seized 30,000 wildlife products while searching through the luggage of more than 3,000 passengers.

Source:  AFP, “World cops target traditional healers over smuggled wildlife,” Google News, March 5, 2010.

In 2010, there were only 50 tigers believed to be roaming in the wild versus 5,000 tigers raised in tiger farms in China.

Source:  Patrick Winn, “Can Vladimir Putin save the world’s tigers?,” GlobalPost, February 24, 2010.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas reported that illegal fishing accounted for over half of all catches of bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

Source:  Dane Klinger and Kimiko Narita, “Foreign Policy: Saving The Sushi Menu,” NPR, February 17, 2010.

An official with China’s wildlife conservation agency stated to the Wall Street Journal that the global ban on tiger bones and parts created losses of $337 Million to the ancient medicine industry in the country.

Source:  Shai Oster, “China’s Tiger Farms Spark a Standoff,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2010.

During the 1980s, illegal logging activities in the Philippines created losses of up to $1.8 Billion a year.

Source:  “Towards a strategy for better law compliance in the forest sector, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Best Practices for improving law compliance in the forest sector, 2005, Ch.3.

As much as 70 to 90 percent of all logging activities in Papua New Guinea is believed to be illegal, with major activities conducted by international companies.

Source:  Andreas Schloenhardt, “The illegal trade in timber and timber products in the Asia-Pacific region,” Australian Institute of Criminology, Research and public policy series no. 89, January 2008, page 70.

The economic impact of illegal logging activities in Russia is estimated to be $2 Billion, according to the WWF.

Source:  Andreas Schloenhardt, “The illegal trade in timber and timber products in the Asia-Pacific region,” Australian Institute of Criminology, Research and public policy series no. 89, January 2008, page 67.

The Forestry Minister states that Indonesia loses up to $3 Billion every year from illegal logging.

Source:  Adianto P. Simamora, “Cut forest mafia, activists told government,” Jakarta Post, February 5, 2010.

Between 1998 and 2010, the tiger population in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma/Myanmar dropped 70 percent, from 1,200 tigers in 1998 to 350 in 2010.

Source: AFP, “Mekong tiger population at ‘crisis point’: WWF,” Yahoo News, January 26, 2010.

In the 1900s, there were an estimated 100,000 wild tigers roaming the world.

In the 1980s, there were an estimated 20,000 wild tigers roaming the world.

At the start of 2010, there were an estimated 3,200 wild tigers roaming the world.

Source:  AFP, “Mekong tiger population at ‘crisis point’: WWF,” Yahoo News, January 26, 2010.