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The WCO-Inama project supports Asian Members in including CITES and Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) modules in national training curricula and in developing a group of internal IWT Trainers

26 April 2018

Further to the WCO’s continued commitment to mitigate Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), a range of Train–the-Trainer and Accreditation Workshops are conducted under the auspices of the WCO Inama project. The project aims to strengthen the enforcement capacity of targeted Customs administrations in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the illegal trade in wildlife and in particular on the species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The first Train-the-Trainer and Accreditation Workshop took place at the WCO Regional Training Centre in Melaka, Malaysia, between 9 and 19 April 2018. The event was attended by 11 selected Customs officers, representing 5 Member Customs administrations from the Asia Pacific Region – the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, being the host administration, as well as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The purpose of the Workshop was to raise awareness regarding Illegal Wildlife Trade within the participants, to build their technical skills and knowledge in relation to CITES and to enhance their training skills. Furthermore, the national Customs training frameworks have been evaluated and proposals to further include CITES and IWT were developed. These proposals will be submitted to the respective management teams for their consideration.

Accreditation and Trainings to enhance regional capacity

As a result of the Workshop, part of the participants were pre-accredited as WCO IWT experts and shall be fully accredited at a later stage. All attendees were invited to become CITES diplomats within their administrations.

This Train-the-Trainer and Accreditation Workshop is the first out of 3 planned events that will be conducted under the WCO Inama project. Similar trainings will be delivered for targeted English and Portuguese-speaking Sub-Saharan African countries in Lusaka, Zambia and for French-speaking Sub-Saharan African countries in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A range of Regional IWT Training Workshops, including both Customs and Police officers, will follow throughout 2018-2019, leading ultimately towards a major global Illegal Wildlife Trade enforcement operation, in close cooperation with INTERPOL under the auspices of the International Consortium on Combatting Wildlife Crime (ICCWC).

The entirety of the WCO Inama project is currently funded by the US Department of State and Sweden. This particular activity was sponsored by the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

For more information on the Inama project, please contact Roux Raath, Environment Programme Manager, WCO Compliance and Enforcement Sub-Directorate, roux.raath@wcoomd.org.