Poaching and illicit trafficking of wild fauna and flora have a significant impact on species and entire ecosystems, local communities and their livelihoods, national economies, and national and regional security.
On 13 April 2015, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) co-hosted an International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) high-level side event on "Wildlife and Forest Crime: A Serious Crime" in the margins of the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha, Qatar.
The event was opened by the President of the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Sam Kutesa, and co-chaired by the UNODC Executive Director, Mr. Yury Fedotov, and CITES Secretary-General, Mr. John E. Scanlon. Representatives of five Member States together with the five agencies comprising ICCWC, namely the CITES Secretariat, the World Customs Organization (WCO), INTERPOL, UNODC, and the World Bank, actively participated in the event, alongside a number of other organizations.
The event provided a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the scale and nature of wildlife and forest crime, which has escalated in recent years. Wildlife poaching and trafficking now poses a serious threat to the survival of some of the world's most charismatic species, as well as many other lesser known species.
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Further information
The Doha Declaration on integrating crime prevention and criminal justice into the wider United Nations agenda to address social and economic challenges and to promote the rule of law at the national and international levels, and public participation
Para 9(e): To adopt effective measures to prevent and counter the serious problem of crimes that have an impact on the environment, such as trafficking in wildlife, including flora and fauna as protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, timber and timber products and hazardous waste, as well as poaching, by strengthening legislation, international cooperation, capacity-building, criminal justice responses and law enforcement efforts aimed at, inter alia, dealing with transnational organized crime, corruption and money-laundering linked to such crimes;
About the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
The 13th United Nations Congress brings together policymakers and practitioners in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice, and has a significant role in shaping international and domestic policy on these issues. The Congress provided a unique platform for ICCWC to raise awareness among countries of the importance to recognize illegal trade in wildlife and forest products as a serious transnational organized crime, in particular under relevant United Nations instruments such as the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC).
About ICCWC
The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) is the collaborative effort of five intergovernmental organizations working to bring coordinated support to the national wildlife law enforcement agencies and to the subregional and regional networks that, on a daily basis, act in defence of natural resources.
The ICCWC partners are the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretariat, the World Customs Organization (WCO), INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Bank. The mission of ICCWC is to usher in a new era where perpetrators of serious wildlife and forest crime will face a formidable and coordinated response, rather than the present situation where the risk of detection and punishment is all too low.
In this context, ICCWC works for, and with, the wildlife law enforcement community, since it is frontline officers who eventually bring criminals engaged in wildlife crime to justice.
ICCWC seeks to support the development of law enforcement that builds on socially and environmentally sustainable natural resource policies, taking into consideration the need to provide livelihood support to poor and marginalized rural communities.
Learn more about ICCWC by visiting http://www.cites.org/eng/prog/iccwc.php