Governments from around the world have vowed to take ‘decisive and urgent’ action against the illegal wildlife trade, by signing a declaration at the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade.
Forty-six nations gathered for the high-level summit on Thursday 13 February, hosted by the UK government and attended by the Prince of Wales, and his sons, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
Countries represented at the meeting included Vietnam and China, who are identified as the main user countries of rhino horn. Rhino range states including Namibia, Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania were also represented.
The 13-page declaration acknowledges the scale and seriousness of the illegal trade in wildlife, recognising that ‘’poaching and trafficking undermines the rule of law and good governance, and encourages corruption. It is an organised and widespread criminal activity, involving transnational networks’’.
The declaration urges states to build on the existing framework for action, including actions taken under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and attention from the United Nations system, including the Security Council and the General Assembly.
Importantly, the declaration recognises that the illegal wildlife trade ‘can only be effectively tackled with the involvement of Ministries and agencies beyond the wildlife conservation sector’.
Save the Rhino is pleased to see that international governments are taking the issue of wildlife crime seriously. Susie Offord, Deputy Director comments:
We want to see all signatories immediately undertaking the actions they have committed to in the declaration. We sincerely hope that the London conference marks a turning point in the battle against illegal wildlife crime. Without urgent action, rhinos and other threatened wildlife could be poached to extinction within our generation.
Signatories have agreed to international collaboration and committed themselves to provide the political leadership and practical support needed to take a series of actions:
Eradicating the market for illegal wildlife products.
- Support effectively targeted actions to eradicate demand and supply for illegal wildlife products
- Endorse the action of Governments which have destroyed seized wildlife products being traded illegally
- Take measures to ensure that the private sector acts responsibly, and adopt a zero tolerance policy on corporate gifting of threatened wildlife species
- All government activities should renounce the use of any species threatened with extinction
Ensuring effective legal frameworks and deterrents
- Ensure that all criminals in particular ‘kingpins’ who control the trade are prosecuted and penalised to provide an effective deterrent
- Ensuring that criminal offences associated with the illegal wildlife trade are treated as ‘serious crimes’ within appropriate legislation
- Address problems of corruption and money laundering related to wildlife crime with legislation – a zero tolerance policy
- Strengthen the legal frameworks, facilitate law enforcement, and raise awareness in the judicial sector to reinforce the ability to achieve successful prosecutions
Strengthening law enforcement
- Invest in capacity building to strengthen law enforcement to protect key species populations, including well-trained officers at key sites
- Support the full range of investigative techniques and tools already deployed against other forms of organised crime
- Better cross-agency mechanisms to deal with wildlife crime
- Strengthen cross-border and regional co-operation
Sustainable livelihoods and economic development
- Recognise the negative impact of illegal wildlife trade on sustainable livelihoods and economic development
- Increase the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities and eradicate poverty
Click here to read full declaration on the UK government website
Photo credit Steve & Ann Toon
Save the rhino’s!
Let us hope that this is not only talk and soap bubbles and that efficient action really follows. Then it is a good and very essential first step. A world without rhinos, elephants, tigers and other magnificent creatures would be very poor and sad.
the most effective way to stop the consumption and sale of ivory is to increase punishment and to stop the loopholes. I believe their opinions are of the most important ones in this battle.
United For Wildlife—A Failure? Didn’t Demand The Closure Of Domestic Ivory Trade In China
Quote I from EIA: ““No amount of rhetoric, money, or enforcement actions will save elephants unless there is an immediate, permanent and comprehensive ban on the trade in ivory,” declares Charlotte Nithart, Director of Robin des Bois.”
Quote II: “Experts estimate approximately 50,000 elephants were killed in 2013 to satisfy the demand for ivory – largely from China.”— EIA
Quote III: ““We would have liked them to go further and, specifically with regard to ivory and tigers, close down legal domestic markets”–EIA re United For Wildlife
http://www.eia-international.org/ivory-trade-ban-essential-to-save-elephants
Fabulous!
was South Africa really not represented? I guess then they are not signatories. Does anyone have any explanation or comment?
What can people do to help apart from donating?
Excellent! It needed strong action like this to bring together 46 nations to really seriously consider the problem before it is too late….even though it may already be too late for some populations… Lets hope they really do take action. Well done to Princes Charles and William for taking the lead and from those of us who have always struggled at the field end, thank you.