A powerful group of international agencies met this week on the margins of CITES #CoP17 to discuss how best to integrate law enforcement, development, environmental and social approaches to combating illegal wildlife trade.
The first-ever Global Partnerships Coordination Forum was convened by the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), a collaboration between the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and the World Customs Organisation (WCO).
The Global Partnerships Coordination Forum took place alongside the Conference of the Parties (or CoP17), where delegates will decide on trade controls affecting close to 500 species, including many plants and animals illegally trafficked across borders by international criminal syndicates.
“Wildlife crime increasingly involves transnational criminal groups targeting high value species and wildlife and environment agencies cannot beat them alone,” said John Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES.
“This Forum provided a unique opportunity for officials to directly engage with the organisations that have the mandate, resources and technical expertise to assist countries in combating wildlife crime,” said Scanlon.
More than 80 delegates attended the high-level Forum, moderated by Dr Valerie Hickey, Practice Manager of the World Bank Group’s Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice.
Dr Hickey described the work of enforcement agencies as a “difficult and dangerous task”, adding that the CITES Secretariat had played an invaluable role in coordinating the Consortium that has in the past five years been critical to build formal links across the chain of interventions – from prevention to prosecution – that is necessary to combat wildlife crime.
Leigh Winchell, Deputy Director, WCO Enforcement Sub-Directorate said that in many cases, the damage was often already done by the time customs officials opened containers at ports.
“Solving a problem like this is not a simple enforcement issue. It is also an educational process and a social issue. We need to get people involved with the entire process,” he said.
“It is important for customs officials, law enforcement authorities, and international organisations, as well as their regional networks to be linked to the supply chain community and share valuable information about trafficking,” said Winchell.
“The bottom line is that we work together or we are not effective,” he added.
“The nexus between wildlife crime, organised crime and corruption is clear,” Jorge Rios, Chief, UNODC Global Programme for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime told delegates.
“If we treat wildlife crime as organised crime, cooperate closely, and act aggressively to the recover the proceeds of crime to ensure that criminals do not benefit from their illegal activities, we can reduce wildlife crime,” said Rios, adding that a need to reduce the risk of corruption in institutions tasked with managing wildlife and forest resources and enforcing relevant laws was essential.
Nik Sekhran, Chief of Profession for Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), who joined ICCWC partners for the discussion, said that UNDP had put wildlife crime squarely on the development agenda.
“Whatever entry point countries seek from us, we can make the connection with wildlife crime,” he said.
Sekhran warned of a “calamitous impact” if the world continued to lose its biodiversity at the current rate. He said it was essential for communities to have a utilitarian incentive in some form to protect wildlife.
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