1. Sub-regional wildlife enforcement cooperation
Global Snow Leopard Conservation Forum
Bishkek, October 2013
Sub-regional wildlife enforcement cooperation
Pia Jonsson
CITES Secretariat
UAE-E-Legislation

2. Transnational Organized Wildlife Crime - a matter of growing concern
International organizations have recognized wildlife crime as a serious transnational organized crime.
Low risk of detection, low penalties and high profits make this kind of criminality interesting for organized crime.
Illegal trade in wildlife has now reached a scale that poses an immediate risk to wildlife and to people.

3. How to combat transnational wildlife crime?
Treating wildlife crime as serious crime - in legislation and through relevant agencies
Raising awareness among senior officials on wildlife trafficking
Intelligence-based approach
Improving investigative techniques and using the full range of enforcement tools
Wildlife Enforcement Cooperation and Coordination among law enforcement agencies and wildlife authorities on national, sub-regional, regional and international level.
UAE-E-Legislation

4. What to cooperate about?
Awareness raising among law enforcement officers
Sharing ideas and best practice
Capacity-building, training and workshops
Coordination and information exchange at all levels of CITES implementation and enforcement
Identify discrepancies in legal trade reports
Reporting mechanism for illegal trade
Risk assessments
Joint operations, cross-border projects

5. Examples of partners to cooperate with
National level
CITES/wildlife
Authorities
Police
Customs
Prosecutor
World Bank country offices
Sub-regional / regional level
Enforcement networks
UNEP regional offices – MEA focal point
INTERPOL regional bureaus
WCO-RILO, ROCB
UNODC regional offices
World Bank regional offices
International level (ICCWC)
CITES-Secretariat
INTERPOL
WCO
UNODC
World Bank

6. International coordinated support - ICCWC
The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime
-ICCWC-
Collaborative effort by CITES, INTERPOL, UNODC, World Bank, and WCO
ICCWC’s letter of agreement refers to supporting national law enforcement agencies, regional wildlife enforcement agreements, bodies and networks in responding to transnational wildlife crime through available expertise and recourses and to raise awareness of wildlife crime.
UAE-E-Legislation

7. International support - CITES
The CITES Secretariat has a specific mandate to assist in the development and implementation of regional and subregional law-enforcement agreements
AWARE of the important role of ICCWC in bringing coordinated support to the national wildlife law enforcement agencies and to the subregional and regional networks that, on a daily basis, act in defence of natural resources.
CITES Resolution 11.3 (Rev CoP 16) on Compliance and Enforcement

8. International support - CITES-projects
CITES Workshop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2011:
Countries expressed their interest to establish a Wildlife Enforcement Network for West Asia and one for Central Asia
The CITES Secretariat has two on-going projects to assist countries in the development and implementation of sub-regional cooperation:
Feasibility study for West Asia
Workshop in Kuwait on strengthening regional cooperation to combat wildlife crime in West Asia, October 2013
Study by TRAFFIC on behalf of the CITES Secretariat on CITES implementation in the Eurasian Custom Union
Final draft report was received 18 October 2013
UAE-E-Legislation

9. Key international trade routes and neighbouring countries
Study: Implementation of CITES in the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia – and Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Key international trade routes and neighbouring countries

10. The CITES Secretariat stands ready, in cooperation with its ICCWC partners, to assist countries in the development and implementation of a Regional Enforcement Network in Central Asia.

11. Thank you for your attention!
Pia Jonsson