In an important step in the fight against wildlife crime, the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) and Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) recently partnered on a project to better understand the current state of knowledge about the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), and the economics of IWT in southern Africa. This critical work was supported by USAID/Southern Africa through its VukaNow Activity. IWT is the world's fourth largest illegal transnational activity, generating between USD $7 and $23 billion every year, and poses a major threat to the iconic wildlife species of southern Africa. Wildlife crime undermines the economic prosperity of countries and communities in the region, deteriorating their natural capital, social stability and cohesion, and threatening sustainable economic development, including the erosion of benefits derived from legal nature-based enterprises like tourism. Since 2014, Namibia has seen a surge in wildlife poaching as a result of increasing international demand and depleting wildlife populations in other areas of the world. This has led to the loss of high-value species, such as elephants, rhinos, and pangolins, and concern about ecosystem impacts and associated economic losses. As a response to this surge in wildlife crime, a diverse range of public and private actors have ramped up their efforts to curb IWT, nationally and across borders. "These efforts have been relatively successful, slowing down the rate of poaching of rhinos and elephants, and increasing the number of arrests for activities related to these types of crimes. However, these investments are being made with little information on the costs of IWT and the benefits being generated by curbing it," said Angus Middleton, Executive Director at NNF.