Achieving SDG Target 15.7 - Austria an the illegal wildlife trade

This research project can be seen as a puzzle piece to support solving societies’ challenge to step into a sustainable future. It focusses on a societally relevant but complex topic: the illegal trade in wildlife. Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) involves all unlawful activities (harvest and trade) in wild animal, plant and fungi species, their parts and derivatives. The government of Austria has committed itself to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), where tackling poaching and illegal wildlife trade is a target goal. Austria’s scale, role and impact, factors and drivers in this international IWT-system has not been researched in-depth and the broader picture remains unknown. Therefore, this project addresses this research gap and tries to answer following research questions through a interdisciplinary approach: - How far is Austria in the achievement of the SDG target 15.7 and what is the trend? (RQ1) - Which factors influence the role Austria plays in the illegal trade in species?(RQ2) - What are the spillover effects of the IWT in Austria to other countries? (RQ3) - How is illegal wildlife trade perceived and communicated in the public and political sphere? (RQ4)