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Wildlife trafficking is a multibillion-dollar business driving declines in animals and plants across the world. While most efforts to tackle this threat to biodiversity and national security focus on law enforcement and international cooperation, the Combating Wildlife Trafficking (CWT) Program within International Affairs is taking a more holistic approach to save species that includes partnering with the people involved across the trade chain.
Launched in 2022, the CWT Program’s Species Conservation Catalyst Fund (SCCF) is designed as an ‘accelerator’ model and invests seed funding in a few closely coordinated projects aimed at combating the illegal trade for highly threatened species. By applying both ecological and social methods, and working across supply, transit, and demand countries, SCCF-funded projects move beyond discipline and geographical boundaries and traditional conservation silos. The CWT Program developed this unique financial and technical assistance strategy through rigorous strategic planning, with the aim to conserve species threatened by trafficking where the CWT Program has determined it can make the greatest impact.
SCCF has so far supported three species initiatives: cheetah, saiga antelope and songbirds. Grants and cooperative agreements were awarded in 2024 for the songbird initiative and in 2022 for cheetah and saiga. The CWT Program intends to invest in other species that are similarly threatened by trafficking and which have not received significant attention from other donors. The team is currently considering a variety of plant, insect, invertebrate, freshwater and marine species for its next initiative. Selected species go through a rigorous prioritization process and must score highly across seven criteria related to conservation and implementation potential.
Here's a look at the species and projects supported by the SCCF to date:
Songbirds: Decreasing Illegal Trade for Singing Competitions
The SCCF songbird initiative aims to reduce the illegal, unsustainable trade of songbirds native to the Guiana Shield and Caribbean for singing competitions. The initiative includes 15 species of songbirds facing current or potential declines due to the domestic and international singing competition trade, including seed-finches and seedeaters native to South America like the chestnut-bellied seed-finch (Sporophila angolensis), as well as US-native species like the painted bunting (Passerina ciris) and rose-breasted grossbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus), and others. In 2024, the Service awarded four grants and three cooperative agreements to BirdLife International, Center for International Forestry Research, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Monitor Conservation Research Society, Sustainable Innovation Initiative, The Consultancy Group Inc, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Projects addressing the songbird trade for singing competitions will work across the trade-chain in supply, transit, and demand countries through activities implemented in Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States. Most projects have a strong social science emphasis to learn from the people directly involved in the trade, and ideally partner with these communities to source and implement local solutions. For example, the South Rupununi Conservation Society plans to pilot a songbird captive breeding program with local songbird keepers to explore and evaluate whether this model could help shift illegal and unsustainable trade to legal and sustainable trade that protects wild bird populations while still satisfying people’s preferences for the specific song characteristics of champion singing birds.
For more information, please contact program officer Jen Miller at Jennifer_R_Miller@fws.gov, or social scientist Emily Horton at Emily_Horton@fws.gov.
Cheetah: Protecting Cubs from Trafficking for the Pet Trade
The SCCF cheetah initiative tackles the illegal capture of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) cubs for the live pet trade. In 2022, the Service awarded four grants to address the poaching of cheetahcubs from range countries in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia and Ethiopia, and the drivers for demand in the Arabian Peninsula. SCCF cheetah partners include the African Wildlife Foundation, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Colorado State University, and International Fund for Animal Welfare.
The SCCF cheetah grants apply a complementary multi-pronged approach that includes developing robust cheetah population assessments for the Horn of Africa, strengthening law enforcement collaboration in eastern Africa and the Middle East, and applying social science methods to understand the cultural, social, and economic drivers of cheetah trafficking in supply and demand countries. Cheetah grant partners are working with governments and in-country academic institutions to build scientific capacity for range countries to monitor and study cheetahs in their countries and help build veterinary capacity to ensure confiscated cheetah are well cared for.
For more information, please contact program officer Yula Kapetanakos at Yula_Kapetanakos@fws.gov, or social scientist Christine Browne at Christine_Browne@fws.gov.
Saiga Antelope: Reducing Poaching and Trafficking of Horns for Traditional Medicine
The SCCF saiga antelope initiative focuses on reducing the poaching and trafficking of saiga antelope (Saiga spp.) for the international trade of its horn. In 2022, the Service awarded five grants and one cooperative agreement. Projects range from two to five years and are located in China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, and Uzbekistan. SCCF saiga antelope partners include the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan, Fauna and Flora International, Ekomaktab, Saiga Conservation Alliance, TRAFFIC International, University of Oxford, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The CWT Program is maximizing its internal social science staff capacity to ensure the Service supports rigorous research and behavior change work in saiga horn consumer countries – including in Japan, where the first saiga demand reduction work is to be piloted. Funding also supports a cooperative agreement with the Saiga Conservation Alliance, which maximizes program outcomes by bringing together all Service saiga grantees in 2023 and 2027 to foster collaboration and coordination across projects, resulting in program-wide synergy across the trade chain. Funding has also supported the development of a Service-specific portfolio site within the Saiga Resource Centre website and the production of articles from Service-funded projects for the biannual, six-language, online and print newsletter, Saiga News.
For more information, please contact program officer (formerly Tatiana Hendrix) Jen Miller at Jennifer_R_Miller@fws.gov or social scientist Jessica Rizzolo at Jessica_Rizzolo@fws.gov.
Advancing Evidence and Adaptive Learning
As SCCF projects navigate complex socio-ecological issues with cross-disciplinary, holistic approaches, they are encouraged to embrace an adaptive framework to experiment, learn, and adapt their conservation interventions. The CWT Program advocates for teams to use a systematic planning framework, such as the Conservation Standards, and facilitates opportunities for project teams to proactively communicate, collaborate, and share lessons learned with each other.
In parallel, project teams are also advancing an evidence-informed approach for combating wildlife trafficking by:
- Choosing evidence-informed or piloted interventions,
- Implementing and evaluating the impact of their efforts, and
- Sharing their empirical understanding and measured outcomes through open access formats.
Likewise, the CWT Program has developed a suite of indicators to evaluate the progress of the SCCF and species initiatives in reaching goals and desired outcomes. It is also exploring the IUCN Green Status program assessment as a tool to evaluate the unique contribution and impact of the SCCF program for each SCCF species initiative. In concert, these project and program-level approaches to evidence-building will showcase the impact of the SCCF on conserving species.
Catalyzing Long-term Benefits
Though the SCCF is at an early stage, the CWT Program has evidence to support the assertion that conservation impacts compound when done in community and partnership. As an accelerator fund, the SCCF fully invests in this principle through catalyzing on-the-ground conservation action and convening key partners to mobilize a longer-term effort that recovers declining species. Wildlife trafficking is a complex, evolving threat to biodiversity and national security. Innovative approaches like the SCCF are necessary to tackle the issue from a more holistic, socio-ecological perspective that enables cheetah, saiga, songbirds, and other species to recover in the wild.
