Illicit wildlife trafficking poses a threat to the conservation of species and ecosystems, and represents a fundamental source of biodiversity loss, alongside climate change and large-scale land degradation. Despite the seriousness of this issue, little is known about various socio-cultural demand sources underlying trafficking networks, for example the forthright consumption of endangered species on different cultural contexts. Our study illustrates how wildlife trafficking represents a wicked problem at the intersection of criminal enforcement, cultural heritage and environmental systems management. As with similar network-based crimes, institutions are frequently ineffective at curbing wildlife trafficking, partly due to the lack of information detailing activities within illicit trading networks. To address this shortcoming, we leverage official government records documenting the illegal trade of reptiles in Colombia. As such, our study contributes to the understanding of how and why wildlife trafficking persists across robust trafficking networks, which are conduits for a broader range of black-market goods. Leveraging geo-spatial data, we construct a multiplex representation of wildlife trafficking networks, which facilitates identifying network properties that are signatures of strategic trafficker behavior. In particular, our results indicate that traffickers’ actions are constrained by spatial and market customs, a result which is apparent only within an integrated multiplex representation. Characteristic levels of sub-network coupling further indicate that traffickers strategically leverage knowledge of the entire system. We argue that this multiplex representation is essential for prioritizing crime enforcement strategies aimed at disrupting robust trade networks, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and resources allocation of institutions charged with curbing illicit trafficking. We develop a generalizable model of multiplex criminal trade networks suitable for communicating with policy makers and practitioners, thereby facilitating rapid translation into public policy and environmental conservation efforts.

中文翻译：

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多重网络揭示了非法野生动植物贩运的地理限制

非法野生动植物的贩运对物种和生态系统的保护构成威胁，是生物多样性丧失，气候变化和大规模土地退化的根本原因。尽管这个问题很严重，但对贩运网络背后的各种社会文化需求来源知之甚少，例如在不同文化背景下直接食用濒危物种。我们的研究表明，野生动植物的贩运在刑事执法，文化遗产和环境系统管理的交汇处如何代表一个邪恶的问题。与类似的基于网络的犯罪一样，机构在遏制野生动植物贩运方面常常无效，部分原因是缺乏详细说明非法贸易网络内活动的信息。为了解决这个缺点，我们利用官方的政府记录来记录爬行动物在哥伦比亚的非法贸易。因此，我们的研究有助于了解野生生物贩运如何以及为何在强大的贩运网络中持续存在，而贩运网络是各种黑市商品的渠道。利用地理空间数据，我们构建了野生动植物贩运网络的多重表示形式，这有助于识别作为战略贩运者行为特征的网络属性。特别是，我们的结果表明，贩运者的行为受到空间和市场习惯的限制，这一结果仅在集成的多元表示形式中可见。子网耦合的特征级别进一步表明，贩运者从战略上利用了整个系统的知识。我们认为，这种多重代表制对于确定旨在破坏健全的贸易网络​​的执法策略的优先级至关重要，从而提高了负责制止非法贩运的机构的效力和资源分配。我们开发了适用于与政策制定者和从业者沟通的多元化犯罪贸易网络的通用模型，从而促进了快速转化为公共政策和环境保护工作。