www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi

HSI is the international arm of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

The mission of HSI is to create a humane and sustainable world for all animals. We seek to forge a lasting and comprehensive change in human consciousness of and behavior toward all animals in order to prevent animal cruelty, exploitation, and neglect, and to protect wild habitats and the entire community of life.

HSI seeks to achieve our goals through education, advocacy, public policy reform, and the empowerment of our supporters and partners.

HSI strives for integrity, fairness, and professionalism in pursuit of our mission. We will seek to be inclusive and to develop partnerships with a broad array of society's institutions to further our goals.

HSI has offices in six countries and projects in dozens more.

Wildlife Trade Objectives

Through public education, research, political advocacy, provision of wildlife law enforcement and implementation training to relevant governmental bodies, networking amongst non-governmental organizations (NGOs) globally, and pursuit of changes to international treaties, domestic laws and regulations and policies:

• Eliminate illegal wildlife trade;
• Reduce legal wildlife trade;
• Ensure that wildlife trade that does occur is not detrimental to the survival of species;
• Ensure that live wild animals in international trade are not subjected to cruel treatment;
• Provide suggestions for economic alternatives to wildlife trade; and
• Enhance local, national and international NGO influence on wildlife trade issues.

Our overall objective is to enhance the long-term protection of wildlife by stopping the illegal trade in wildlife.

Capacity Building

To date, HSI has focused its efforts in Central America and the Dominican Republic.

HSI and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Secretariat held a regional 5-day regional workshop that took place in 2004 in El Salvador. Participants included government and NGO representatives from Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

HSI organized and executed national workshops in each country to develop action plans for improved CITES compliance and to stop the illegal trade in wildlife.

HSI pursued programs with local NGO partners in each country to build local capacity to promote wildlife protection. The projects include educational and outreach campaigns, wildlife studies, infrastructure and organizational support, training programs, multimedia development and assistance to programs supporting economic alternatives to wildlife harvesting, such as eco-tourism initiatives, throughout the region.

HSUS/HSI's Institutional Strengths

• A powerful support base with more than 10 million members and constituents.
• Is headquartered in the United States, which is one of the world's largest importers and exporters of wildlife and also one of the most influential countries.
• A proven track record when it comes to lobbying U.S. national, state and local legislative bodies.
• A wealth of CITES expertise, having participated as an observer since the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 1973.

Enforcement, ecotourism to help dolphins in Peru
February 2007  |  Humane Society International  <>  United States

Regional CITES Training in Central America
2007  |  Humane Society International

National CITES Workshop, Dominican Republic
2007  |  Humane Society International

HSI Small Grants Program
2006  |  Humane Society International