Today His Royal Highness
The Prince of Wales and the UK government
hosted a conference to call for action at
the highest level to end the trade in illegal
wildlife – a trade that presents a grave
threat not only to the natural world, but
also to national and regional security.
WWF welcomes this initiative,
which aims to highlight this issue on the
international political agenda. As president
of WWF-UK, Prince Charles shares many of
the same conservation interests, including
the desire to see an end to illegal wildlife
trade.
With reference to the
event, David Nussbaum, Chief Executive of
WWF-UK said:
“The illegal wildlife
trade threatens to overturn decades of conservation
efforts, putting some iconic and ecologically
important species at risk of extinction.
This multi-billion pound trade also fuels
other types of crime and has a devastating
impact on some of the poorest people on
the planet.
“With poaching and wildlife
trafficking at record levels, we hope that
this meeting will be the start of a ground-breaking
initiative in the fight against this deadly
and destructive trade.”
A record 668 rhinos
in South Africa were killed by poachers
last year, and close to 300 have died so
far in 2013. Earlier this month, at least
26 elephants were massacred in a World Heritage
Site in the Central African Republic, after
17 individuals armed with Kalashnikov rifles
entered the unique elephant habitat Dzanga
Bai, known locally as the “village of elephants”.
This meeting will lay
the groundwork for a heads of state meeting
in the autumn, also hosted by the UK government.
It is hoped that governments at the autumn
meeting will commit to actions that will
reduce demand for endangered wildlife and
related products in markets around the world;
improve global enforcement and criminal
justice against the organised syndicates
engaged in this activity; and assist rural
communities to find long-term, viable alternatives
to the trade.
Speaking at the event,
WWF-UK President HRH Prince of Wales said:
“It is particularly
important at this crucial time to recognize
that illegal trade in wildlife is a serious
crime that is not only decimating critically
endangered species, but is also a pervasive
instrument in destabilizing economic and
political security. Finding a solution will
require people from many different sectors
to work together.”
In addition, his son
Prince William HRH Duke of Cambridge who
was also present said: “We all know how
devastating the illegal wildlife trade is
on populations of endangered species – we
have heard the statistics. My fear is that
one of two things will stop the illegal
trade: either we take action to stem the
trade; or we will run out of the animals.
There is no other outcome possible.”
In preparation for this
meeting, WWF, along with other partners,
have been working with The Prince of Wales’
International Sustainability Unit, and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra) to share expertise and knowledge
of illicit wildlife trafficking, and potential
solutions to the current global wildlife
crime crisis.
In summer 2012, WWF
and TRAFFIC launched a global Illegal Wildlife
Trade campaign to raise the profile of illegal
wildlife trade as a serious crime and to
spur governments and international institutions
to tackle it as such.
