Over the past few years wildlife trafficking has become more organised, more lucrative, more widespread, and more dangerous than ever before. We are increasingly seeing wildlife trafficking has serious implications for the security and prosperity of people around the world
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State »Clinton said that illicit wildlife trafficking is “is a global issue, and it calls, therefore, for a concerted global response. This is a global challenge that spans continents and crosses oceans, and we need to address it with partnerships that are as robust and far-reaching as the criminal networks we seek to dismantle.”
Secretary Clinton’s statement comes during an escalating poaching crisis around the world, which is pushing populations of endangered species like tigers, elephants, and rhinos to the brink of extinction. The global value of illegal wildlife trafficking is as much as $19 billion per year, which ranks it as one of the largest criminal transnational activities worldwide along with drug and human trafficking.
“We have good reason to believe that rebel militias are players in a worldwide ivory market worth millions and millions of dollars a year,” Secretary Clinton said.
She was speaking at a State Department event on Wildlife Trafficking and Conservation: A Call to Action that brought together foreign ambassadors, including from Kenya and Indonesia, and leaders from international organisations, non-governmental conservation organisations and the private sector.
TRAFFIC and WWF wildlife trade expert Crawford Allan spoke at the event, saying that transnational organised crime has moved into many aspects of the illicit trade in wildlife. The scale, seriousness and links to the security agenda are evident now in wildlife trafficking particularly in elephant ivory and rhino horn, Allan said. He spoke of the alarming recent rise in rhino and elephant poaching to record levels in Africa, mainly to meet demand for horn and ivory in Asia.“There is no single magic bullet, but we know what needs to be done,” Allan said. He spoke of the need to bolster existing efforts on the ground, while introducing innovative approaches such as aerial surveillance systems and coordinated intelligence efforts and analytics — all of which will send a powerful message across the trade chain from source to consumer.
“Secretary Clinton’s engagement on this issue provides the high-level political will we need to elevate the seriousness of addressing wildlife crime,” added Allan.
Already standing by its commitments, the US Government also announced a major grant through USAID to support a Wildlife Trafficking Response, Assessment and Priority Setting (W-TRAPS) programme, an international, multi-stakeholder effort led by IUCN and TRAFFIC to inform, facilitate and support efforts to reduce transregional wildlife trafficking.
The above news item is reprinted from materials available at WWF and TRAFFIC. Original text may be edited for content and length.
(Source: WWF News, 08.11.2012; TRAFFIC News, 08.11.2012)
