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Physical Inspection, Wood Identification, Risk Assessment and Forensics: Empowering Law Enforcement Officers to Tackle Illegal Timber Trade in Africa Kampala, 9 December 2024 – Healthy forests sustain biodiversity, livelihoods, and local economies. Home to most of the planet’s terrestrial species, forests provide millions of people with jobs, along with food and fuel for more than 90 percent of the world’s most vulnerable populations. When forests are threatened, so too are the benefits they provide and the survival of wildlife. To

The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime launches its 2023 Annual Report The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) has launched its Annual Report for 2023. The 2023 Annual Report highlights the successes and achievements of countries supported by ICCWC in combating wildlife and forest crime. The Consortium uses targeted and evidence-based approaches to strengthen criminal justice systems and provide coordinated support to enhance responses to wildlife crime. This includes technical assistance, intelligence-led global operations, capacity building, financial investigations

Launch of the World Wildlife Crime Report 2024: New data, trends, threats and possible solutions to combat illegal wildlife trade Vienna, 14 May 2024 The World Wildlife Crime Report 2024 was launched yesterday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, Austria. This is the third report in a series following the 2020 and 2016 publications. The report provides an updated focus on trends in the illegal trade in wildlife species listed in the Convention on

From Seizure to Prosecution: ICCWC hosts first global Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference 1 May 2024 From 22 to 24 April 2024, global law enforcement agencies across customs, police, prosecution from more than 20 countries from South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific, met as part of the first ICCWC Global Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade. The conference was organized by the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) and hosted by one of the five ICCWC partners, the World Customs

Pretoria/Geneva, 6 November 2013 - The first international rhinoceros DNA sampling training workshop was held in South Africa on 5 and 6 November 2013. The purpose of the workshop was to enhance the world’s enforcement capacity to address the wave of rhinoceros poaching that has resulted in the killing of more than 800 animals in South Africa since January 2013. The South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the University of Pretoria’s Veterinary Genetics Laboratory (VGL), in collaboration with

The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) delivered a two-day cutting-edge training workshop to wildlife law enforcement officials from 21 countries in Nairobi, Kenya, from 30 to 31 October 2013. The training strengthened the skills of law enforcement officers from across Africa and Asia, to combat transnational organized wildlife crime more effectively through the use of a broad range of innovative and specialized investigation techniques. It further exposed these officers to hands on training on the use of tools

Nairobi/Geneva, 31 October 2013 – The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) hosted a CITES Rhinoceros Enforcement Task Force meeting in cooperation with its partners in the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), in Nairobi, Kenya, from 28 to 29 October 2013. The meeting was attended by 52 representatives from 21 countries that play a role as source, transit or destination countries in the illegal rhinoceros horn trade chain

Law enforcement support for gorillas Representatives of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) attended the first meeting of the Technical Committee to the Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and their Habitats, which was held on 29 and 30 March in Kigali, Rwanda. The meeting was organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species. The Technical Committee meeting brought together representatives from Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

For use of the media only; not an official document. Geneva, 11 November 2012 – CITES, the convention on international wildlife trade, welcomes the call to combat the illegal trade in wildlife made by US State Secretary Hillary Clinton at an event on ‘Wildlife Trafficking and Conservation: A Call to Action’ held in Washington, D.C. on 8 November, 2012. “...we now find ourselves with all of that positive effort that started 30, 40 years ago being affected by changes that

For use of the media only; not an official document. Bangkok, 5 March 2013 – Wildlife crime has recently been brought to the fore at the highest political level, including through the outcomes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development and resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Building on this international recognition, Ministers and high-level government representatives convened yesterday in Bangkok to discuss the challenges posed by the increasingly-sophisticated illicit trade