Conference room 1 CB

1:15pm – 3:00pm

September 26th 2013

Attended by: Wayne Dean Doyle

By Wayne Dean Doyle

Where there is demand, there inevitably will be a supply. Especially when business is so lucrative, the returns are high and the risk is low. The poaching and illicit Wildlife trafficking business is roaring with animals being slaughtered by very organised and sophisticated trafficking cartels who pocket an estimated $10 billion per year. The results of these crimes are unprecedented with disastrous effects all over the world.

For example, an elephant is killed every eleven hours. The rhino in particular is under a poaching red alert currently. In the past eight months in Africa alone, 635 rhinos have been slaughtered for their Ivory tusks.

If this malicious cycle continues, your children will only be viewing illustrations and online, these wonderful animals will become extinct. We have the opportunity to avoid this, and we can, with an actionable global plan with protective shared goals in order to reduce international crimes against our wildlife.

There was a very clear and almost tangible sense of grave concern in the United Nations today. “This particular industry has increased over three thousand percent between 2007 and 2011”, stated William Hague, Secretary of State for the United Kingdom.

According to the World Wildlife Federation, corruption, toothless laws, weak judicial systems and light sentences allow criminal networks to keep plundering wildlife with little regards to consequences. These factors make illegal wildlife trade a low risk business, sustained by high returns.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba stated “Poaching and trafficking activities is one of the top five criminal networks in the world. There needs to be a severe crackdown, engagements of other governments, several international have to come together”, he concluded.

Mr. Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Foreign Minister, stated that “This isn’t our only problem. The profits from these activities are used to purchase fire arms, cartels and to finance terrorist activities”.

Mr. John E Scanlon, Secretary General of CITES, reiterated many of the points made by other delegations such as Thailand and Norway; there must be a international legally binding document which can be enforced and drawn upon to curb this current epidemic.

“This is not only a security issue or an Economic issue; these unprecedented actions are destabilizing states. There must be a collective effort, we need to work across source transit lines and destination states if we are going to win this fight”, he stated.