Washington, DC, June 5, 2007 - Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environment, and Science Claudia A. McMurray will lead an international discussion on partnerships to improve wildlife law enforcement at the regional and international level, including the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking, at the annual conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) on June 5, 2007, in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Topics to be discussed include the usefulness of partnerships as part of an overall effort to raise public and political awareness of trafficking issues; how to catalyze the political will to create partnerships; how regional organizations (such as the ASEAN Wildlife Law Enforcement Network) can serve as a framework for partnerships; the challenges in setting up partnerships; the lessons learned about effective organization and cooperation within partnerships; and suggestions for partnership formation in other regions.

In addition to McMurray, representatives from Interpol, the CITES Secretariat, ASEAN-Wildlife Enforcement Network, the North American Wildlife Enforcement Group, and TRAFFIC will speak about effective cooperation to improve wildlife law enforcement.

The Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking is a global effort that has 19 partners – including governments, international organizations and non-governmental conservation groups, – committed to ending the illegal trade in wildlife.  The objectives of the Coalition are to raise public awareness of the impacts of wildlife trafficking, to stamp out the supply of these products by strengthening wildlife law enforcement, and to catalyze high-level political attention to this issue.

Currently, wildlife trafficking generates about $10 billion annually on the black market.  The demand for exotic pets, rare skins and furs, and traditional medicines is undermining global efforts to protect endangered and threatened species.  The illegal trade in wildlife may also contribute to the spread of virulent infectious diseases, such as avian flu and SARS.  International cooperation to detect, track, and treat these diseases is undermined by this illegal trade.  And wildlife trafficking is often closely linked to international organized crime and increasingly involves many of the same offenders and smuggling routes as trafficking in arms, drugs, and people.

More information is available at  http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/or/85972.htm