Role of Partnerships to Improve Wildlife Law Enforcement

It can also be an excellent way to solve problems that may be difficult to address through more formal, structured organizations. To tackle the problem of illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, in 2005 the United States formed a global effort made up of governments, conservation groups, industry, and scientists committed to ending the illegal trade in wildlife – the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT). We felt that it was essential that this coalition include not only other governments, but also international organizations and non-government organizations.

The Coalition now has 19 partners working together towards meeting the Coalition’s objectives, which were agreed to at the first Partners’ meeting in February. These objectives are:

(1) To raise public awareness of the impacts of wildlife trafficking,

(2) To stamp out the supply of these products by building international capacity to enforce against this criminal activity, and

(3) To catalyze high-level political attention to this issue.

We are making progress towards raising the profile of wildlife crime issues in a variety of different fora. We have raised the illegal trade in wildlife within the G-8 and secured references to both CITES and CAWT in the Potsdam Initiative, which came out of G-8 Environment Ministers meeting in Potsdam last March.

And the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, at its April 2007 session, adopted a resolution that encourages international cooperation to prevent and combat trafficking in forest products, including wildlife. This is important because it is increasingly clear that wildlife trafficking is often linked to organized crime and can involve the same people who traffic in drugs, arms, and persons.

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States. Uurges countries to fight forest and wildlife crime by strengthening law enforcement cooperation, combating organized criminal groups operating within their borders, and cooperating through the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption.

The resolution also urges the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to convene a meeting of experts, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, to identify ways to help countries prevent and combat trafficking in timber and wildlife. We look forward to working with fellow members of the Commission to implement this resolution. Similarly, the UN Forum on Forests declaration, recognizing the link between illegal logging and wildlife poaching, includes language concerning the need to strengthen cooperation to combat illicit international trafficking in wildlife.

Most importantly, the Coalition has worked closely with the CITES Secretariat to make sure that Coalition efforts complement efforts by CITES – both by supporting wildlife law enforcement to protect CITES-listed species, and by encouraging consumers not to purchase illegally traded wildlife products. We are also looking at ways to foster the creation of regional partnerships, perhaps along the very successful model of the ASEAN wildlife law enforcement network.

ASEAN-WEN has had a number of recent successes, from breaking smuggling rings, to educating and training officials in wildlife enforcement, to increasing the number of seizures of trafficked animals. You will hear about some of those, I’m sure, in a minute.

We look forward to further strengthening and deepening the Coalition. As part of the U.S. contribution to this effort, we will host a workshop this fall on establishing regional wildlife law enforcement networks. We would appreciate your suggestions later in the session about content for this workshop.

I would now like to turn the floor over to our next speaker, Mr. Noochdumrong who will talk about the Thai experience in forming the ASEAN wildlife law enforcement network.

Thank you all for sharing your insights and experiences. Today the demand for exotic pets, rare skins and furs, and traditional Chinese medicines is driving many wildlife species to the brink of extinction. The illegal trade in wildlife may also contribute to the spread of virulent infectious diseases, such as avian flu and SARS.International cooperation to detect, track, and treat these diseases is undermined by this illegal trade.

And, as I mentioned earlier, wildlife trafficking is often closely linked to international organized crime and increasingly involves many of the same offenders and smuggling routes as trafficking in arms, drugs, and people.The Coalition has come a long way since its beginning. It has already produced some successes from breaking smuggling rings, to educating and training officials in wildlife enforcement, to increasing the number of seizures of trafficked animals.

And ASEAN-WEN’s successes in these areas show that this model of enforcement networks works, and we must continue to build them. Thank you all for participating in this event and for working to make the Coalition stronger. I look forward to reading about many more successes around the world in our fight to end illegal trafficking.