Wildlife Diplomacy – Ending the Trade in Illegal Wildlife Products

A new push is urgently needed to fight the illegal trade in wildlife products.  On 18 May, HRH The Duke of Cambridge will join United for Wildlife (UfW) meetings in Gland, Switzerland. UfW is a collaboration of seven conservation organisations and the Royal Foundation. Convened by the Duke, they have joined forces to tackle conservation crises. A task force chaired by William Hague will meet in Gland to tackle the trafficking of illegal products through engagement with the transport industry. A separate UfW meeting at IUCN headquarters will discuss next steps in the drive to secure better on-site protection for wildlife, reduced demand for illegal products, improve law enforcement, work with the private sector to reduce trafficking and engage with young people on conservation issues.

For decades, Britain has been at the forefront of such efforts. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a range of impressive international initiatives. For a while, prospects were better for some key elephant and rhino populations. Sadly, that time is over. The illegal wildlife trade is booming. Poaching threatens endangered species and causes intense suffering.  Rhino horn is now worth more than gold and is more valuable on the black market than diamonds or cocaine. The ivory trade has more than doubled since 2007. UNEP estimate that the trade costs between $7 and $23 billion every year in lost revenues, primarily for governments in the developing world.

Happily, the UK is once again showing real leadership. Last year’s London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade delivered an historic agreement, with undertakings from countries around the world to tackle both demand and supply. Ahead of that, we launched a £10 million Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) challenge fund. Since then there has been solid progress. Over the past 12 months ivory stockpiles have been destroyed in countries from Hong Kong to Chad. There is now tightened security, more training and more arrests across the globe. Partnerships between governments and NGOs have helped to raise awareness and encouraged changed behaviours. The range of actions by different countries and other partners is hugely impressive. 

On 25 March 2015, Botswana hosted the second IWT Conference in Kasane to take stock and build momentum. The Kasane Statement contained 15  new commitments to action on demand reduction, the legal framework for tackling money laundering linked to IWT, tougher law enforcement, and involving communities in protecting their wildlife resources and free themselves from this horrific trade. Britain announced an extra £3 million for the IWT challenge fund – bringing the total to £13 million – as well as additional support to IUCN for the African Elephant Database.  Vietnam will host the next conference.

Hopefully, all this will be a turning point in the fight against IWT. The damage to security, government revenues and those affected by the trade is undeniable. But we should also fight for the sake of the animals. This is a personal passion – in the early 1990s I designed an elephant conservation and rural development project in Ruaha, Tanzania. Elephants are incredible creatures – intelligent and compassionate, with an elaborate group support structure. They grieve. Even those who survive poaching can be scarred for years.  Elephants, Rhinos, Snow Leopards and other victims of IWT deserve much better from us. The time to end wildlife crime is now.