Parts, such as ivory for souvenirs, snake skin for the fashion industry, or fins and scales for use in traditional medicine. The trade in protected species is illegal, but very lucrative. Every year, the business turns over an estimated 20 billion. Organized along mafialike lines, wildlife crcrime has grn into one of the worlds biggest illicit trades, after narcotics, arms sales, and human trafficking. One shy creature is particularly valuable on the market, the pangolin, the only mammal with scales. That is what makes this anteater so valuable, even though its scales are made of keratin, just like fingernails or hair. One kilo of pangolin scales is worth 1000 on the black market. In asia, especially in china and vietnam, pangolin scales are used in traditional medicine. The animals meat is also a soughtafter delicacy. The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal in the world, even though sales of all eight pangolin species are globally banned by the convention on International Trade in endangered species, or cites. It regulates global trade in more than 36,000 animal and plant species, including many threatened by extinction, like the pangolin. New animals are regularly added to the list, and the trade in already protected species is further restricted or prohibited. For several years there have been many applications to protect species that are i demandnd as exotic petets, bute fashionsns keep changiging. Reptiles have always been highly popular, such as pythons from malaysia, tortoises from kenya, and lizards from mexico. Buyers in the u. S. And the European Union are the biggest purchasers of live reptiles. Many of the traded animals die en route or through improper handling by their owners. Tackling this predatory business is a tough undertaking. Online trade is particularly difficult to control. At the same time, government bans on the trade of a domestic species often dont achieve much. Once the animal is smuggled out of the country, it can be sold elsewhere if there is no international ban. And only few countries have an import ban on wild animals. Ultimately, it all comes down to the buyers. If demand falls, then the business will no longer be worthwhwhile. Host the International Fund for Animal Welfare conducted research into wildlife cybercrime in germany, france, britain, and russia. Over a period of six weeks, they found nearly 12,000 protected wildlife specimens for sale, including their body parts, all worth around 4 million u. S. Germany was the main market for them. Four times a year, the city of hamm hosts a reptile fair, where many such sales take place. Reporter getting ready for eupess larst repeptile trade fair, an event where journalists are not welcome. Worst case we get kick o out, bubut realistically i think theyre not goining to d do anye than that. But ththresearch that led us he s startedt a a couter. The illegal wildlife trade is the worlds fourthlargest criminal industry, and experts say it flourishes online. In germany, most wildlife offered online is of live animals, particurly reptptiles. Some a are protected under International Law bebecause thr popupulaons s are threatened. How easy is it for people like me, who cant tell a turtle from a tortoioise, to find animals r sale . Most adverts we saw pointed to a reptptile trade fair called te terraristika, in the small german city of hamm, that takes place four times a year. Here we met a biologist from Animal RightsOrganization Pro wildlife, to talk us through what wed found online. Many species we saw for sale are prprotected under internationl lalaw, or are native to countrs where their export is banned. In one post, a furious buyer complained that the reptiles hed ordered didnt arrive as expected. Katharina the crocodiles werent sent in any kind of appropriate container, but just in a box without any protection, and they were dead by the time they arrived. Here you can see that animals werent treated like animals, but were treated merely as goods. Reporter while wildldlife trae online is often legal, cases like this show a dark k side f these poorlyregulated markets. Katharina online trade is a big problem. A huge range of species can be made available to everyone. Anyone can post an ad. An unbelievable range of species are on offer, and anyone can buy them, sight unseen. Very often the animals are sent by post, or bought at reptile and animal trade fairs. Reporter even before the rrrraristi hasas oped, animals are alalready changing hands. Its a more diveverse crd thann the e clieele iid seen onlin. Families with children, people chatting and drinking beer, teenagers. But inside, its the aninimals that grab your eye. Mamany reptiles wewere visibly distreressed, scratctching agat the sisides of their containss and d tryi to esesca. Someme were kept i in small,mpy boboxes,ven ththough the terraristika guidelines require animal boxes to contain hiding places. The price tags reached into the thousands of euros. Wheres this from asisia. They c come from sriri lank. Reporterer species lilike this criticalallyendangerered peak tarantula were mostly descbebed capaptivered, n notild imports. But rifying this is tricky, boboth for buyerers and authoro. Once an ananimal has arrrriven the e. U. U. , it can be e legally traded, evenen if it were e smud out of itsts home country. Katharina in germany, lawmakers hahave simply failed to protot animals that are protected in their home countries. The law here does not recognize that these animals are protected abroad and does not ban people from trading them. Reporter some animals brought to t the terrariststika are add away f from the eyeses of offic. Ththe terraristitika organizerd not respond d to a request for cocomment. Their guidelines require trarsrs compmply wh germrman l. But with deals takaking place n car pas anand unr tablbles, policing t this is anothther mae ter r the fair, wewe showed or footage to pro wildlife, who identified protected species for sale, and told us a legal grey zone lets unregulated animal trade thrive. Katharina we have noticed in the past that shortly before the trade fair in hamm, the number of online ads increases dramatically. And very often, the parties agree that thats where the trade will take place. Reporter most adverts we saw leading to the terraristika were in closed facebook groups. Facebook refused multiple requests to comment, but did delete some groups after we contacted them with screenshots of suspicious animals. Many more groups are still active. Tech Companies Face challenges policing the wildlife trade. Ebay struggles to keep sales of ivory out of its market. But Animal Welfare groups told us they havent found live animals there. Wolfgang its not like in a a social network where you have closed user groups that you can enter by invitation only. Thats not happening on ebay. So anyone can check anytime any listing that is s listed on eb, and that is for bad actors, of course, a big risk. Reporter i was surprised by how little weight domestic laws carry internationally, and how that means protected animals slip through legal cracks. What was more surprising was how easy a b beginner can find anims online and pick up them up without supervision. Host this week in global ideas, we head to the peruvian jungle. Our reporter tanja blut travelled to iquitos to meet conservationists working to protect threatened species from extinction. Reporterer iquitos isis inaccessibley y road. Yoyou can only getet therey y e oror boa the peruvian city with 400,000 inhabitants is tucked away in the middle of the amazonian rainforest. The people of the rainforest are only allowed to hunt for themselves and their families. In peru, commercial wildlife hunting is banned. And yet, its possible to buy all sortrts of endangered wildlife, live or freshly cooked, at the famous belelen market. Gudrun i recently talked toa former wildlife trader and i said, well, at least theres less illegal trade of bushmeat. And she said, we just dont let the public see it. These days when someone says they want something specific, then he makes sure to hide it away in his home. Reporter Gudrun Sperrer has lived in iquitos for 30 years. She runs a refuge for threatened species. At the market in belen she buys fruit and vegetables for her animals. The jungle surrounding iquitos has been overhunted. These days, the wild animals killed by poachers are very young. Gudrun thats a tiny caiman on the table there, and you can see how small it is. Dead, of course. Probably two or three months old. Its terrible that people buy Something Like that. Reporter the animals are often killed before theyve had a chance to reproduce. Species are dying out. Gudrun this is ghastly. I dont know what sort of meat it is. Sachavaca. Thats even worse. Thats tapir, which is threatened with extinction. It must have been very young because tapir grow to quite a size. They can weigh up to 300 kilos. But the problem is they dont begin to reproduce until theyre six or seven. Reporter shes in a hurry. The animals are waiting for feeding time. This is the western port of iquitos. Gudrun sperrer has to cross the rio nanay to padre cocha. Founded 24 years ago as a butterfly sanctuary, her refuge is in the middle of the jungle. Today, the pilpintuwasi animal orphanage is also home to threatened birds and mammals. They live here in n conditions that are s speciesapproropri. This jaguar has lived here since it was a cub, when illegal traders simply threw it away. Gudrun it was in a wooden crate tied with barbed wire, and it wawathrown intnto the water in e harbor here by someone who was trading illegally with Indigenous People and selling all sorts of animals. But he didnt sell the jaguar and it couldnt even stand on its feet anymore. Reporter a jaguar requires a diet made of up to 70 of red meat, or it suffers kidney damage. Gudrun jaguars are endangered because they are losing their habitat. Theyre loners. Both the male and the female of the species needs 50 square kilomemeters to itself to find what it needs to feed on. But nowadays there are too many streets and pipelines and they dont want to cross them. Reporter at the market in belen, traders sell slabs of tapir meat. Gudrun sperrer has tapirs in her animal sanctuary. Gudrun chibolo was s ized by the Environmental Police because tourists had reported seeing him. He was held on a float in the river as an attraction. His keepers only gave him leftovers to eat, so he was suffering from a damaged liver. But he made a good recovery. He was still striped when he first arrived. When tapirs are young they look like wild boar, even though theyre a completely different species. Theyre actually most closely related to horses. Reporter tapirs need to live in areas with a g good source of water. R. These animals managed to survive the ice age. But within just 15 years, humans have made them an endangered species. In pilpintuwasi, visitors can take tours that raise awareness of the tapirs plight. A total of 55 monkeys live here, including 10 bald uakaris. Their population is also declining rapidly in south america. Woolly monkeys, meanwhile, make popular pets. Gudrun when a monkey is sold commercially, the traders kill its mother so that its docile. This one, his name is kai, still has three bullets in his arm. You can feel them, but theres no need for an operation. So they shoot the mother and then they sell the infant. When they arrive here, theyre in a terrible state. Theyre malnourished, dehydrated, they often have broken bones. Theyve often suffered falls when their mother was shot. Reporter back in iquitos. The Amazon Rescue Center works on species conservation, rescuing various threatened animals that are vital to the ecosystem. Including manatees, a Marine Mammal sometimes known as the sea cow. Javier manatees are the largest mammals in the amazon, but oddly enough, the least wellknown. When we began n our work here, of the inhabitants of iquitos were completely unfamiliar with this species. Now and then a baby manatee would end up in their fishing nets and people would keep them as pets. But then the manatees would die in captivity. Reporter the Amazon Rescue Center is the only place i in e world where rescued manatees are raised and then released back into the wild. They take a lot of looking after. The calves need to be fed every two hours for the first t two years. Theyre lactoseintolerant so theyre given a special milk imported from the u. S. One manatee costs the center 10,000 per year. The animals have a gentle, trusting nature. Javier hunters kill them when they come up for air by sticking wooden pegs up their snouts. A terrible death for a beautiful, goodnatured creature that plays an Important Role in the ecosystem. Reporter once the manatees are weaned off milk, they can start to eat aquatic lettuce. Javiermanatees feed on Aquatic Vegetation like this here, and other plants that cover the surface of the river. In the places where the manatees have died out, this vegetation starts to proliferate. And the inhabitants suffer because they have less fish, and they can no longer go out on their boats because of all the plant growth clogging up the water. Reporter the rainforest of iquitos is a vast biotope. If its Natural Balance is threatened, it has consequences for wildlife and inhabitants in the whole region. Host Rhinoceros Horn is highly prized, especially in asia. One kilo can fetch up to 60,000 u. S. On the black market. Meanwhile, the rhino itself pays with its life. Over the last few years, poachers have killed an average of three rhinos every day. Today there are believed to be only around 29,400 rhinoceroses left worldwide. But thanks to tough conservation measures, theres hope. In south africa, more than 1200 rhinos were poached in 2013. Last year, just over half as many. And elsewhere, too, the efforts of animal activists are paying off. Reporter theyre safe here in this sanctuary. It covers 70 square kilometers and is sponsored by the rhino fund. The southern white rhinoceros has been wiped out in other parts of uganda. But here, 24 of them roam the savannah and woodlands. Raymond opio is trying to find one for us. The ranger sometimes has to trek far into the bush to track one down. Finally, we catch a glimpse of uhuru and her baby. The gestation period for the species is 18 months. We have to be cautious. Rhino mothers are ferocious in defense of their young. Raymond uhuru is like mother, like daughter. The mother i is the same chararacter. R. The mother will l hear just aa small stick breaking, she is very alert. She is already facing that area, that direction. That is what uhuru is. Uhuru is a no nonsense lady. Anything coming around, she will attack. Reporter three rhinos cross our path. The driver is getting a little nervous. Raymond she is just coming to check. Reporter the safest move when you see a rhino is to freeze. Then it understands you dont represent a threat. Raymond ok, we can continue. Reporter about 90 rangers work here. Angie genade is in charge. Shes been running the rhino fund since 2008, and has brought a lot of new staff on board. And the number of animals in the sanctuary has almost doubled under her direction. Angie the situation of the rhinos has been dire for a long time. There was a short period, maybe inin the 1970s, early 1980s, where the rhinos were pretty secure, and then the poaching spiked. The problem is it doesnt just spike in one country, it spikes all over. Reporter poachers havent killed any animals in the sanctuary. The rhino fund has been breeding them here e r 18 yearsrs now. The first t was brought in frm kenya, others from various zoos. When out in the bush among the rhinos, its important to remain quiet. Walkietalkies can make the rhinos restless. The rangers observe the animals behavior during the day and at night, documenting where they graze, sleep, and wander. The data are shared with researarchers and zoos all ovr the world. Martin lokiru is more involved with the rhinos than he is with his own family. He only sees them twice a year. Martin the rhinos are my second family. They are the one paying my school fees, they are the ones helping my family, keeping them safe and free. Reporter the rhino fund is financed largely by tourists, who come here from around the globe. The sanctuary is one of the few places they have a chance to see rhinos in a natural habitat. Karen weve been all over africa, western africa and southern africa, and the rhino is the one thing that we have not seen. So, anywhere where we have been seseen to see the big five wee seen them, but the rhino have just evaded us. So thihis looked like the one opportunity to be able to see them. Reporter the rhinos are only safe in the sanctuary because so many rangers work here. Raymond opio explains their strategy. Raymond the thing is we are very successful up to today because of the community around. Because we work hand in hand with the community around. For this kind of project to stand, the first people is the community. A poacher cannot come from china area, anywhere, to come and poach rhinos right from where they are. They have to use the local people. And if the local people are your friends, it is the best. Now the local people are our informers. Reporter and that includes the farmers in the area. They are allowed to graze their cattle in the sanctuary, up to 40 animals each per day. Daniel this sanctuary, they help us to graze our animals. They have enough grass, which hehelps the animals to increrean the amount of milk. Reporter and the children in the area can now also attend school. Its financed by the rhino fund. The rangers regularly come to talk to the kids about the rhinos, and explain why theyre so important. Raymond all of you know what a rhino is. What do rhinos have on their head . Horns. Raymond how many horns . Two. Raymond rhinos use their horn to protect themselves. How do they . They fight using their horn. If the enemy comes, they will use their horn and fight. When we started here, people within this area, they were like, its fine to kill an animal, to kill a wild animal. Its fine to do anything to the wild, cutting trees it was fine for them. And when we came to be here, it was a big tug of war to get a grassroot person to understand why we should conserve. Reporter raymond opio spends a lot of time out on patrol. He hopes that one day rhinos will again be able to live free, without need of protection. Raymond it will happen that the rhinos will go back in the wild in uganda, but we need a very tough law for that, and also we need people that are very much committed to conservation. My dream is to see the rhinos being put back in the National Park and multiplying in numbers in the National Park of uganda. Reporter but that will take at least 20 to 30 more years. Only then will the organization have bred so many southern white rhinos that some can be released from the sanctuary to roam free in ugandas National Parks. Host thats all from global 3000 this week. Dont forget, we really love hearing from you. So do write to us at global3000 dw. Com. Take care. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] narrator amid blocky apartment structutures and rigid urbann development, two groups strive to reinvigorate public spaces. An artist collective from spain travels the globe to create mumurals that draw life back ino the dwindling public centers, and in m medellin, colombia, urn gardeners create green spaces that beautify the community and empower its citizens