Turning the Tide: Combating Latin America's Wildlife Trafficking Crisis

Wildlife trafficking is a key driver of biodiversity loss in Latin America, where wildlife populations are declining more quickly than anywhere else in the world. Harboring 40% of the Earth’s plant and animal species and home to four out of six of the world’s most biodiverse countries, Latin America is a global biodiversity powerhouse. But alongside other drivers like habitat loss and pollution, the rising rate of poaching and illegal wildlife trade across the region is pushing vulnerable species towards extinction and disrupting ecosystems. Still, there is an important window of opportunity to prevent the worst outcomes: wildlife trafficking in Latin America has not yet reached the levels that have decimated populations in Southeast Asia or Africa. 

This timely webinar will examine the topography of wildlife trafficking in Latin America, including trafficking routes and consumer countries, broader implications for ecological stability, human security, and health, and potential national and cross-border efforts to address the issue. The discussion will build on insights from the recent report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), “Wildlife crime in Hispanic America,” the first-ever probe into wildlife trafficking that spans all 18 countries in Hispanic America.  

Speaker Bios:

Renata Cao de la Fuente serves as Project Leader for Latin America at TRAFFIC, where she drives regional efforts to combat wildlife trafficking, particularly within the aviation sector. She is a dedicated conservationist with over a decade of experience at the intersection of biodiversity conservation and rural community development. She has spent five years leading counter-wildlife trafficking initiatives across Latin America and has a strong commitment to tackling environmental crime through inclusive, collaborative approaches. Previously, Renata led WWF’s regional wildlife crime program, spearheading multi-country projects focused on corruption, financial investigations, and policy advocacy.  

Polen Cisneros is the Wildlife Crime Program Manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and is Project Lead for the recent IFAW report, “Wildlife crime in Hispanic America.” Polen has several years of experience combating international illegal wildlife trade. At IFAW, she has managed multiple projects aimed at building law enforcement capacity in Latin America and the Caribbean, and has supported law enforcement interdiction efforts through monitoring cybercrime and developing intervention strategies. Prior to IFAW, Polen worked at INTERPOL’s Environmental Security Sub-Directorate, providing research, guidance, and assistance to East African law enforcement in their response to ivory trafficking.  

Sharon Guynup is a Global Fellow with the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program, a National Geographic Explorer, and an environmental journalist and author. She has traveled the globe to report on environmental issues, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and Smithsonian, among other national and international outlets. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit Big Cat Voices and co-author of Tigers Forever: Saving the World’s Most Endangered Big Cat. In 2024, she and her husband were awarded National Geographic’s Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling for their investigation into US captive tigers. 

Susan Lieberman, PhD, is Vice President of International Policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society, where she leads their policy engagement in multiple intergovernmental fora. She has worked in international biodiversity conservation, at the intersection of science and policy, for more than 35 years and is a recognized expert in legal and illegal wildlife trade. She also has extensive experience with a number of international treaties and intergovernmental bodies related to conservation, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Susan is an elected member of the IUCN Council, a Conservation Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, and a past member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking. She previously held positions with Pew Charitable Trusts, WWF-International, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.