Australia
Department of the Environment and Water Resources
www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/index.html
Australia is a proud partner in the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT), and also a Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Movement of wildlife and wildlife products into or out of Australia is regulated by the Australian Government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act). International wildlife trade provisions of the EPBC Act are administered by the Department of the Environment and Water Resources. Please see www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/index.html for further information.
Canada
Environnement Canada | Environment Canada
www.ec.gc.ca
Canada joined CAWT on 12 April 2007: Francais | English
Additional information coming soon.
India
Ministry of Environment and Forests
www.envfor.nic.in
The government of India is represented in CAWT by its Ministry of Environment and Forests, which also manages Project Tiger. For more information, visit www.envfor.nic.in and www.projecttiger.nic.in.
United Kingdom
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
www.defra.gov.uk
The UK Government is committed to combating the illegal trade in wildlife and welcomes the launch of CAWT. The illegal wildlife trade undermines the legal sustainable trade, it pushes some species closer to extinction, and it puts lives at risk. We have a responsibility to do something about it.
To make an impact, action must be taken at the national, regional and international levels. At the national level we have a Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (www.defra.gov.uk/paw) which brings together the organisations and authorities committed to fighting wildlife crime; and a National Wildlife Crime Unit (www.nwcu.police.uk), an intelligence gathering and operational support Unit which leads the UK wildlife law enforcement response.
The UK is a strong supporter of CITES (www.ukcites.gov.uk). At regional level we engage actively with our European Union partners to strengthen the enforcement of CITES, including through developing and implementing an Action Plan for Combating Illicit Wildlife Trade in the European Union.
CAWT gives us an opportunity to complement and support wildlife law enforcement activity globally. It will help us raise political awareness of the effects and impact of the illegal wildlife trade at the highest levels. It will facilitate international cooperation and broaden our understanding of the issues facing producer and consumer countries. The launch of CAWT -- a global partnership -- will bring together the strengths of each and every one of its partners.
United States of America
Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement
www.fws.gov/le
The Office of Law Enforcement contributes to the Service efforts to manage ecosystems, save endangered species, conserve migratory birds, preserve wildlife habitat, restore fisheries, combat invasive species, and promote international wildlife conservation.
Service law enforcement today focuses on potentially devastating threats to wildlife resource-illegal trade, unlawful commercial exploitation, habitat destruction, and environmental contaminants. The Office of Law Enforcement investigates wildlife crimes, regulates wildlife trade, helps Americans understand and obey wildlife protections laws, and works in partnership with international, state, and tribal counterparts to conserve wildlife resources.
Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
www.state.gov/g/oes/env
The Department of State is the foreign policy arm of the United States government. Within the department, the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs is responsible for, among other things, advancing sustainable development and natural resource conservation, including protecting biodiversity and combating the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products. The Bureau seeks to advance these U.S. interests through a wide variety of international treaties, organizations, and public-private partnerships, including the global Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking.
ORGANIZATIONS
World Conservation Union (IUCN)
IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC)
The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is a science-based network of some 7,000 volunteer experts from almost every country of the world, all working together towards achieving the vision of “A world that values and conserves present levels of biodiversity."
Members include researchers, government officials, wildlife veterinarians, zoo and botanical institute employees, marine biologists, protected area managers, and experts on plants, birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. Most members are deployed in more than 100 Specialist Groups and Task Forces. Some groups address conservation issues related to particular groups of plants or animals while others focus on topical issues such as reintroduction of species into former habitats, or wildlife health.
SSC’s major role is to provide information to IUCN on biodiversity conservation, the inherent value of species, their role in ecosystem health and functioning, the provision of ecosystem services, and their support to human livelihoods. SSC members also provide scientific advice to conservation organisations, government agencies and other IUCN members, and support the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements. www.iucn.org/themes/ssc
The IUCN Species Programme
The IUCN Species Programme supports the activities of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and individual Specialist Groups, as well as implementing global species conservation initiatives. It is an integral part of the IUCN Secretariat and is managed from IUCN’s international headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. The Species Programme includes a number of technical units covering Wildlife Trade, the Red List, Freshwater Biodiversity Assessments, (all located in Cambridge, UK), and the Global Biodiversity Assessment Initiative (located in Washington DC, USA
American Forest and Paper Association
Cheetah Conservation Fund
Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) is a U.S.-based NGO working in over 40 countries, including China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam. Our mission is to protect Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, wilderness areas and important marine regions. Central to CI's mission is to prevent species extinctions.
CI's Wildlife Trade Program has a Focus on Asia, where exploitation and consumption are most extreme. Program priorities include:
Safeguarding wildlife in their habitats in key supply countries
- Supporting Cambodian Government law enforcement in the Cardamom Mountains
- Promoting awareness of the WT issue
- Engaging local communities in wildlife protection
- Low level projects/support to partners in Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar
Addressing demand in China:
- Launch of consumer awareness campaign in November 2006
- Monitoring South China markets
- Law enforcement support
- Strong focus on reducing tiger consumption
CI has several institutional strengths which contribute to the Coalition:
- Scientific underpinning to all of our work
- Economics
- Policy/ Governance
- Community engagement
- Global Communications
- Focus on Partnerships
- Global programs
Humane Society International
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.
International Fund for Animal Welfare
Founded in 1969, IFAW works around the globe for a world in which cruel and ecologically unsustainable trade in wild animals is eradicated. It does this by focusing on the increased application of the precautionary principle by wildlife trade relevant international conventions, treaties and legislation, through enhanced compliance and enforcement regimes to eliminate illegal wildlife trade, by increasing consumer awareness of the impacts that trade in wildlife has on conservation and animal welfare and through emergency response.
1) IFAW is a driving force behind many conservation efforts within the framework of national legislation and international conventions. In lobbying governments and delegates to the various intergovernmental conservation treaties, IFAW’s advocacy campaigns draw upon well-researched and factual arguments to give voice to the many individual pro-conservation constituents with no access to the international stage. In particular,
- IFAW was instrumental in bringing like-minded Anglophone and Francophone African elephant range states together to create an African bloc for conservation at the recent,14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES in the Hague, June 3-15, 2007. This resulted in the landmark approval of a nine-year suspension of trade in elephant ivory (including a suspension of any discussions of ivory trade at CITES CoPs).
- Efforts to encourage Latin American and Eastern European International Whaling Commission members to vote in favor of whale conservation at the March 2007 meeting of the IWC were successful.
- Campaigning by IFAW for the adoption by the IWC of a resolution calling on the U.N. Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) to respect the moratorium on commercial whaling was met with resounding success. This resolution laid the foundation for the success of IFAW’s CITES team a week later in Den Haag, Netherlands where efforts by Japan and Iceland to use CITES to undermine protections for the great whales were thwarted.
2) IFAW collaborates in many ways with international and national enforcement agencies to assist their efforts to fight wildlife crime:
- IFAW partners with Interpol on the agency’s Ecomessage system, a mechanism for exchanging information on wildlife crime. Reporting of wildlife crime to the Ecomessage system has increased five-fold since IFAW first became involved, and Interpol has as a result been successful in the past few years in busting significant wildlife trafficking syndicates.
- As part of IFAW’s implementation and enforcement initiatives, IFAW has been working with national governments to organize and conduct wildlife trade law enforcement training and workshops. These training sessions are attended by enforcement officials from customs, police and other relevant authorities and the Environmental Ministries. The training is aimed at educating officials about their rights and obligations, and enhancing their capability to strictly control wildlife trade in their country. Recently, IFAW held trainings in Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Yemen, China, Libya and India (conducted by IFAW’s partner WTI), countries at crucial crossroads connecting African supply countries with Europe and the Far East.
- IFAW is active in supporting the science of tracking illegal wildlife crime through a number of campaign efforts. DNA analysis is being used in Japan and Korea to identify whale species being traded for meat. IFAW also supported the pilot project by Sam Wasser at the University of Washington, US, in developing an innovative new method for analyzing elephant ivory specimens which allows the tracking elephant ivory "hot spots" and key smuggling routes. As a result, enforcement agencies are now able to focus their limited enforcement capacities in target areas.
- The IFAW China office, through the Asian Elephant Protection (AEP) Project, is leading significant efforts on behalf of elephant conservation, such as anti-poaching patrols, community education, elephant population monitoring, individual elephant identification, and behavior studies.
- The poaching problem plaguing the Zakouma National Park region of the Central African nation of Chad is being addressed by IFAW with a grant to support the training of officers, purchase of equipment, horses and materials as well as animal feed and healthcare.
- IFAW is funding the field investigations into Sumatran elephant ivory trade and also other wildlife trade. This involves the collection of comprehensive data, as well as the uncovering and obtaining of evidence such as photos or video of actual wildlife trafficking in Sumatra. The purpose is for this data and evidence to be used to put pressure on the government and the law enforcement agencies to tighten control.
3. Public awareness has the potential in and of itself to be the agent of change. IFAW’s educational campaigns have the multiple goal of raising awareness on issues of wildlife trade, influencing politicians, and changing social behavior, such as encouraging consumers to make informed decisions with the products they buy.
- Consumers of wildlife are at the nexus of wildlife trade, and expanding economies and increased purchasing power worldwide have resulted in increased demand for wildlife products. By launching its "Think Twice!" campaign, IFAW's goal is to educate consumers as to the impact that their animal-based purchases have on vulnerable wild animal populations. "Think Twice!" also offers solutions that redirect tourist dollars to a local souvenir economy better representative of local cultures and customs.
- A series of IFAW investigations into the illegal trade of wildlife on the Internet, particularly on Ebay, garnered an enormous amount of press coverage. As a result of this and IFAW’s coordinated lobbying efforts, Ebay announced its new policy to ban cross-border trade in elephant ivory, saying that “it was the right thing to do.”
- Seeking to combat the promotion of parts and derivatives taken from endangered species for use in alternative remedies, IFAW works together with organizations such as the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the World Society for Traditional Chinese Medicine to educate consumers of the effective, plant-based alternative ingredients to those derived from endangered species. Traditional medicines containing poached animal parts, including tiger bone, bear gallbladder, musk deer, Saiga antelope and rhinoceros horn, continue to be marketed to consumers and practitioners worldwide by manufacturers not sanctioned by either local governments or legitimate practitioners of traditional medicine.
- IFAW leadership of the Whales Need US coalition, an unprecedented coalition of U.S. animal welfare and environmental groups, was key in galvanizing U.S. leadership in preventing a return to commercial whaling via public relations and political efforts. In addition to generating visible public messaging and support for a strengthened U.S. position, the group successfully organized a letter from the House of Representatives to the U.S. IWC delegation demanding U.S. leadership and a strong position with respect to whale conservation.
- IFAW’s launch of an international campaign against Iceland’s return to commercial whaling resulted in significant Icelandic domestic debate on the issue. Signals are that the embers of commercial whaling are dying in Iceland. To date, the meat has not been traded internationally with Japan, the only available trading partner, and there are no plans re-issue the commercial quota.
4. Recognizing that wildlife crime often goes hand-in-hand with recovery of live trafficked animals, IFAW’s emergency response team remains prepared and on constant high alert for situations where rehabilitation and/or re-wilding are appropriate.
- After four gorillas were illegally exported from Nigeria, via South Africa, to the Taiping Zoo in Malaysia in January 2002, IFAW has been working to facilitate the transfer of the “Taiping 4” gorillas to the Limbe Wildlife Centre sanctuary in Cameroon.
- IFAW-supported rehab centers provide critical and life-saving care to recovered animals from attempted smuggling operations and to infant wildlife orphaned by poaching. Recently (beginning of 2007), four tiger cubs were rescued by IFAW and the Federal Governmental Administration Special Inspection “Tiger” on Primorye Territory in Russia’s Far East. In October 2006, five rare and endangered Gyrfalcons – prized as the best possible bird for falconry since the Middle Ages - were confiscated in Moscow. Four of the birds were sent by Russia’s environmental watchdog to IFAW’s wildlife rehabilitation center in Moscow, where they were fully rehabilitated and released to the wild on the Kamchatka peninsula.
To learn how you can help, please visit www.ifaw.org.
Save The Tiger Fund
STTF's Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking (CATT) is an organized approach to an organized crime, featuring a global partnership alliance, an information clearinghouse, and a central 'war' room for collaborative strategies.
CATT works towards several targeted outcomes:
- TCM industry actively discourages use of tiger bone
- Tibetans actively discourage use of tiger skins
- China forbids all trade in farmed tiger parts
- Tiger range & consuming countries conduct joint international law enforcement operations
- Tiger range countries protect wild tigers & punish poaching as serious crime
- NGOs work in alliance on all above
Save The Tiger Fund applies a variety of tools and assets towards the CATT initiative:
- NGO Alliance -- 20+ NGOs
- Toolkit -- Unified messaging
- CATT Alert -- 3,000 subscribers & growing
- CATT web page -- Up-to-the minute �library� on the tiger trade
- TCM partners -- Industry leaders
- Grants to partners
Smithsonian Institution
TRAFFIC
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC was founded in 1976 and is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN - The World Conservation Union. TRAFFIC has a global network of 96 staff based in 27 countries, who gather data on wildlife trade issues to help regulate markets and keep governments and the public informed; undertake in-depth research and help decision-makers to understand the scope, dynamics and impacts of wildlife trade; assist law-makers in the development and implementation of policies and legislation that ensure trade in wild animals and plants is not a threat to biodiversity; and promote sustainable consumption. TRAFFIC provides an "early warning" system by obtaining market intelligence on emerging or newly discovered issues and trends that pose trade-related threats to wildlife; focuses on flagship species threatened by trade; supports trade measures that help improve the sustainability of key wildlife resources; and targets wildlife trade hotspots by taking action in priority trade centres and trade routes, where intervention can bring about the greatest conservation impact. In partnership with WildAid, the TRAFFIC network is playing a key role in implementing ASEAN-WEN by providing needs assessments, training and capacity building to assist the ASEAN Member Countries and their trading partners in making this regional wildlife enforcement network a success.
WildAid
WildAid's signature approach, the Active Conservation Awareness Program (ACAP), has conducted demand reduction campaigns in China, India, and other wildlife consumer nations to great acclaim. ACAP Asia-Pacific wildlife demand reduction campaigns, in partnership with sports, film and other celebrities, major media figures and media outlets (CCTV, Discovery Networks, etc.), are reaching over one billion people with the message "when the buying stops the killing can too."
Wildlife Alliance (see below) is carrying out the law enforcement and field protection programs formerly under the banner of WildAid.
Wildlife Alliance
Wildlife Alliance is the new organization which carries forward the law enforcement and field protection programs initiated by WildAid. Program and projects relevant to CAWT include:
ASEAN-WEN (Association of South East Asian Nations-Wildlife Enforcement Network) support program, led by Wildlife Alliance with Traffic International. Trains, equips, and coordinates regional government anti- wildlife trafficking efforts in Southeast Asia, has recorded numerous success stories in stopping poaching and trafficking in the past year.
Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team, Cambodia: In coordination with Cambodian agencies, Wildlife Alliance has rescued more than 32,000 animals from the wildlife trade in five years-including mammals, reptiles, birds, turtles -and reduced number of restaurants serving wildlife by 90% in Phnom Penh.
Phoenix Fund, Russia: The Wildlife Alliance affiliate in Russian Far East conducts highly effective anti-poaching campaigns to protect Siberian Tigers and Amur Leopards, rebuilding tiger population from 150 to 350-450 over the past decade, and building mass public support to protect wildlife and threatened habitats.
Wildlife Alliance Organizational Strengths Contributing to CAWT Principles include:
Wildlife Law Enforcement Expertise: Training of park rangers, customs, police, and legal agencies to identify, interdict, prevent, and prosecute transnational wildlife crime.
Anti-Poaching and Anti-Wildlife Crime Capacity Building: Conduct trainings to governments and NGOs to track, prevent, interdict and prosecutethe illegal taking of terrestrial and marine wildlife in such biodiverse
locations as Southeast Asia, Costa Rica, Palau, etc.
Wildlife Policy reform: Work with governments in developing countries to implement and solidify wildlife protection laws and treaty obligations.
Wildlife Conservation Society
WCS-International saves wildlife and wildlands by understanding and resolving critical problems that threaten key species and large, wild ecosystems around the world. Our Hunting and Wildlife Trade program includes 66 projects in 27 countries in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and throughout Asia.
WCS's core strengths relevant to CAWT include:
World Wildlife Fund
WWF is one of the world's largest independent conservation organizations, with close to 5 million supporters and a network active in more than 100 countries on five continents.
WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:
- conserving the world's biological diversity
- ensuring that the use of renewable resources is sustainable
- promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Through its global network and especially the work of TRAFFIC - the wildlife trade monitoring network which is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN-The World Conservation Union, WWF works to stop illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade.
This includes supporting enforcement of CITES, the international convention that regulates international trade in wildlife; promoting new laws; helping with anti-poaching activities and public education.
Above all, the aim is the conservation of species subject to international trade -- reducing over-exploitation and encouraging sustainability and legality in wildlife trade -- by informing all those involved, including the general public, about the environmental harm that illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade can cause, and by providing guidance and support to counteract it.
Tens of thousands of different animal and plant species are harvested from the wild for trade. WWF focuses on priority species, for which illegal and unsustainable trade pose a serious threat to their continued survival, as well as on national, regional, and international laws and agreements to control wildlife trade.
Other partners range from other conservation organizations to local communities and governments.
Links:
www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/species/problems/illegal_trade/index.cfm
www.panda.org/species