3rd Global meeting of Wildlife Enforcement Networks
The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in cooperation with its partners from the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) and with generous funding support from the United States of America convened the Third Global Meeting of Wildlife Enforcement Networks (WENs) on 21 to 22 August 2019, alongside the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP18), in Geneva, Switzerland.
The meeting provided a platform for further enhancing synergies between existing initiatives and regional enforcement bodies, strengthening cooperation at regional and global levels, and exploring potential activities to be pursued with the aim of further strengthening responses to wildlife crime.
The meeting also engaged in targeted discussions to refine Guidelines for Wildlife Enforcement Networks. These guidelines will provide a self-assessment tool that can be used to establish a new WEN, or to strengthen an already existing WEN. The two-day meeting reviewed the proposed guidelines and provided concrete recommendations for strengthening and finalizing the self-assessment tool.
Report of the meeting
The report of the meeting is available here. For information on the key outcomes of the meeting refer to session nine of the report.
The agenda of the meeting is available here.
Resource materials (network information sheets and presentations):
Information Sheets:
Association of Southeast Asian Nations Working Group on CITES and Wildlife Enforcement (ASEAN CITES and WE); China National Inter-agencies CITES Enforcement Coordination Group (NICEGG); Commission of Central African Forests / Central Africa WEN (COMIFAC); European Commission Enforcement Working Group ; European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL) ;Horn of Africa Wildlife Enforcement Network (HA-WEN); Latin American Environmental Prosecutors Network / South America Wildlife Enforcement NetworkWEN (SudWEN); Lusaka Agreement Taskforce (LATF); North America Wildlife Enforcement Group (NAWEG); Red de Observancia y Aplicación de la Normativa Silvestre para Centroamérica y República Dominicana / Central America WEN (ROAVIS); Rhino and Elephant Security Group (RESG); South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) and; World Customs Organization (WCO) Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices (RILO) of Central Africa and West Africa
* Availability and content of information sheets based on responses by the different networks to the questionnaire circulated by ICCWC before the meeting.
Directory of network focal points:
Directories of wildlife enforcement network focal points, and other enforcement and species specific focal points can be found here.
Presentations
Session Five - Enhancing links and synergies between existing initiatives:
- Financial and Transportation Task Forces, Naomi Doak, The Royal Foundation.
- Global Wildlife Programme, Elisson Wright, World Bank; Lisa Farroway, United Nations Development Programme.
- Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online; Tania McCrea-Steele, IFAW; Crawford Allan, TRAFFIC.
- International Law Enforcement Attaché Programme, Lizz Darling, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Session Six – Promoting the use of existing tools and services
- ICCWC Menu of Services, Edward van Asch, CITES Secretariat.
- INTERPOL tools and services and INTERPOL Wildlife Crime Working Group, Carmen Franco, INTERPOL.
- ICCWC Anti Money-Laundering Training Programme, Elisson Wright, World Bank.
*All content and materials included in the presentations is the sole responsibility of the respective presenters
Please refer to the meeting report for additional details on discussions during Sessions 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9.
The meeting followed the first and second global meetings held respectively in the margins of CITES CoP16 (Bangkok, 2013) and CITES CoP17 (Johannesburg, 2016).
