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110 of 259 Publicly Documented Tiger Seizure Incidents Were Linked to Prison or Fines

Seized tiger skin displayed as evidence of illegal wildlife trade
Conservation · Trade & poaching

A regional review of tiger (Panthera tigris) trafficking recorded at least 259 seizure incidents across seven Southeast Asian countries between 2019 and 2024. Publicly available records linked 110 of those incidents — about 42% — to convictions involving imprisonment and/or fines, while 14% were associated with suspended sentences.

The report, published on 24 June 2026 by the GuArdean Centre for Conservation Research, WWF and TRAFFIC, examined Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. Its central limitation is also one of its main findings: in many cases, public information ends at the seizure or arrest, making it impossible to determine what happened later in the criminal-justice process.

Missing court records obscure what happened after many seizures

The 110 incidents with imprisonment and/or fines should not be read to mean that every other seizure ended without punishment. Outcomes were unavailable or unclear for many cases. The report therefore treats transparency and public access to judicial records as essential for understanding where cases are lost between detection, investigation, prosecution and sentencing.

Recorded outcomes varied strongly among countries, but data availability also varied. Indonesia and Viet Nam accounted for most of the publicly recorded convictions. Thailand and Malaysia had 36 and 35 arrests respectively, yet the available records identified only five individuals in Thailand and nine in Malaysia who received imprisonment. Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar had especially limited public judicial information.

Indonesia provided the most detailed court-case material

Indonesia was the only country in the regional comparison with an openly accessible database of convicted cases. The researchers therefore examined 59 Indonesian court cases from January 2015 to June 2025 in greater detail.

Those records showed that successful investigations could combine information from communities, undercover operations, targeted surveillance, forensic evidence and cooperation among agencies. The authors use these cases to illustrate how evidence can be built beyond the initial seizure itself.

Higher-level organisers were rarely visible in court records

Across the regional material, prosecuted defendants were predominantly lower- and mid-level actors such as hunters, couriers and small-scale traders. Higher-level organisers and financiers were largely absent from the accessible court records.

The documented prosecutions also relied almost exclusively on wildlife legislation. The report found no use in the publicly available cases of anti-money-laundering, corruption, financial-crime or organised-crime statutes alongside wildlife laws. The authors argue that broader financial and organised-crime tools could help investigations reach higher levels of trafficking networks.

The report recommends greater judicial transparency, stronger coordination among enforcement and prosecution agencies, and wider use of forensic, digital and financial evidence. Its main conclusion is that seizure totals alone cannot show how effectively tiger trafficking is being addressed: the later stages from investigation to prosecution and sentencing also need to be visible and traceable.

Sources and image credit

  1. Boratto, R., Gomez, L., Sohl, H., Henry, L., Krishnasamy, K., John, E., Wong, R., Rachmayuningtyas, B., & Leupen, B. (2026). From Seizure to Sentence: An Assessment of Tiger Trafficking Prosecutions in Southeast Asia. GuArdean Centre for Conservation Research, WWF & TRAFFIC.Primary joint report published 24 June 2026. It assessed tiger-related seizures, arrests, prosecutions and sentencing across Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam for 2019–2024, with a detailed review of 59 Indonesian court cases from January 2015 to June 2025. Of 259 seizure incidents, 110 were linked to imprisonment and/or fines and 14% to suspended sentences.

Image: UK Home Office / Wikimedia Commons — tiger skin seized by UK Border Force, photographed 19 February 2013. Representative image of tiger-trafficking evidence; not a seizure included in the Southeast Asian report. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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