WWF 13 Feb 14;
London, 13 February 2014 — Heads of state, ministers and high level representatives of 46 countries, including those most heavily impacted by poaching and illegal trade of wildlife, today committed to taking “decisive and urgent action” to tackle the global illegal wildlife trade.
The strongly worded declaration was issued following two days of closed-door negotiations hosted in London by the UK government. Their Royal Highnesses, Princes Charles, William and Harry also participated in the event.
Measures agreed by countries signing the declaration include action to eradicate the market from illegal wildlife products; agreement to strengthen law enforcement efforts and ensure that effective legal frameworks and deterrents are in place; and moves to promote sustainable livelihoods through positive engagement with local communities.
WWF and TRAFFIC welcome the post-conference “London Declaration” for recognising the significant scale and detrimental economic, social and environmental consequences of illegal wildlife trade, including how poaching and trafficking are increasingly controlled by organized criminal networks that undermine the rule of law and good governance and encourage corruption.
Heather Sohl, Chief Species Advisor at WWF-UK, said:
“Governments signing the London Declaration today sent a strong message: Wildlife crime is a serious crime and it must be stopped. This trafficking devastates species populations, but also takes the lives of rangers, impedes countries’ economic development and destabilises society by driving corruption.
"This is a crisis, not just at a national or regional scale, but one that demands urgent global attention, and so warrants high-level political support through the appointment of a dedicated United Nations Special Representative. It is down to governments to stand by their commitments now and put in place procedures and resources to tackle the crime back in their homelands.”
Countries present at today’s meeting include several whose elephant populations are under severe poaching pressure, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya and Tanzania. Other countries that represent major transit points for ivory shipped from Africa to Asia were also in attendance, including Togo, the Philippines and Malaysia, and significantly, China, the major market for illegal ivory.
Similarly, countries at the centre of the rhino horn trade chain were represented, including South Africa, Mozambique and Viet Nam, as well as some of those impacted by the illegal trade in tiger parts: Indonesia, Myanmar, Russia and China.
Also joining the meeting were representatives from a number of intergovernmental organizations with a significant role to play in addressing the crisis, including CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), INTERPOL, the World Customs Organization, various United Nations agencies, the African Development Bank, the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank. Several of these organizations have the potential to make resources available to implement the declaration’s commitments.
“Today’s London Declaration was a clear call to arms for countries to play their part in bringing down the organized criminal networks that are destroying the world’s iconic wildlife and destabilizing national and international security,” said Steven Broad, executive director of TRAFFIC.
“Key to supporting those efforts are the agreed actions targeting the consumer end of the supply chain, where reducing the demand for wildlife products is an essential part of the process,” Broad added.
“This degree of high level attention to illegal wildlife trade and unanimous call for action is unprecedented. Our challenge now is to keep up the pressure and help translate this attention into concerted action to put the Declaration’s bold commitments into action.”
Global accord on combatting illegal wildlife trade agreed by 46 nations
William Hague hails London event as 'turning point' in fight against yearly slaughter of thousands of rhinos and elephants
Adam Vaughan The Guardian 13 Feb 14;
Forty-six countries on Thursday agreed a declaration to tackle the illegal wildlife trade that is killing thousands of elephants, rhinos and other endangered species each year.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, said he believed that the unprecedented high-level event in London would turn out to be a historic conference and a turning point in the fight against the illegal trade, which is worth up to £12bn a year and is rated as the fourth most valuable to crime after human trafficking, the arms trade and drugs.
The London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, was held at Lancaster House, and attended by the Prince of Wales, and his sons, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, four African heads of state, and a flurry of celebrities speaking out against poaching, including the action film star Jackie Chan, the footballer David Beckham, and the former NBA basketballer Yao Ming.
People in China, the world's biggest market for ivory, had turned against ivory products in the past five years, Chan suggested. He compared the generational change in Chinese views on ivory consumption to the shift that had taken place in younger Chinese people against smoking.
The 13-page London declaration, which was agreed at the meeting, describes the trade as having "significant scale and detrimental economic, social and environmental consequences".
The countries at the meeting agreed to a series of actions, including addressing corruption, adopting legislation for tougher penalties against poachers, and recruiting more law enforcement officers.
Hague singled out as significant the promise in the declaration that governments would not procure wildlife products officially. "I believe today we have begun to turn the tide."
Demand from an increasingly affluent Asian middle class, in particular in China and Vietnam, has driven the price of rhino horn to more than $60,000 (£36,000) a kilo – an amount that is more than the value put on gold and cocaine. Ivory has been selling at $2,000 a kilo.
A study this week showed that five countries in central Africa lost 65% of their forest elephant population between 2002 and 2011 despite an ivory sales ban in 1989. Gabon had the biggest losses.
South Africa alone lost more than 1,000 rhinos to poachers in 2013, a 50% increase on the year before, and up from just 13 of the animals in 2007.
Conservation groups welcomed the declaration, which WWF described as strong-worded, and the Environmental Investigation Agency said contained "meaningful actions".
Prince Charles told the summit: "Today you are breaking new ground by coming together and committing – at high levels never before seen at a conference on this topic – to take urgent action to put a stop to this trade, which has become a grave threat not only to the wildlife and the people who protect them, but also to the security of so many nations."
Prince William, who thanked Chan personally for his support of the initiative, said: "We are, as a family, so honoured to be part of this movement. We will stay the course with you until you succeed. We are here with a single shared purpose, to use our collective influence to put a stop to the illegal killing and trafficking of some our world's most iconic and endangered species."
Hague said the wildlife trade was not just an environmental crisis. He said: "This is now a global criminal industry, ranked alongside drugs, arms and people trafficking. It drives corruption and insecurity, and undermines efforts to cut poverty and promote sustainable development, particularly in African countries."
Ali Bongo Ondima, the president of Gabon, one of the four African leaders attending the summit, alongside the presidents of Chad, Botswana and Tanzania, said the trade had been a national security issue that "creates safety issues and makes money for rebel organisations".
Ethiopia, Botswana, Chad, Rwanda, and Uganda launched an elephant protection initiative at the summit. Botswana will host a follow-up high-level meeting in 2015 to discuss progress on tackling the wildlife trade.
