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PRESS RELEASE The World Customs Organization (WCO) released its second edition of the Illicit Trade Report . The 2013 Report contains five sections, covering drugs; environment; IPR, health and safety; revenue and security. The Report builds on its first edition, the 2012 Report, and provides a comparative analysis of trends and patters in these five key risk areas of enforcement, based on Customs seizures reported through the WCO Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) database by its Members. The objective of the

The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) today announced the launch of a new web portal, designed to support capacity-building efforts by improving access to information on ICCWC tools and activities to combat wildlife and forest crime. The dedicated portal on ICCWC, available through the CITES website ( www.cites.org ), provides up-to-date and expanded information on the many tools that ICCWC makes available to support national enforcement agencies and regional enforcement networks in their fight against poaching and illicit

Geneva, 10 February 2014 – The CITES Secretary-General, Mr John E. Scanlon, today welcomed the excellent results achieved by law enforcement officers from 28 countries during Operation COBRA II, a month-long global operation to combat illegal wildlife trade, which ended on 27 January 2014. “This second Operation COBRA initiative shows what can be achieved when law enforcement authorities across range, transit and destination States work together in a coordinated manner. It also serves to highlight that intelligence-led operations are essential

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. The Consortium also secures USD 600k to strengthen national enforcement capacities Geneva, 25 July 2012 – The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) today launched its Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit on the occasion of the 62nd meeting of the CITES Standing Committee being held in Geneva from 23 to 27 July 2012. ICCWC also announced that it has secured USD 600,000 for the current fiscal year to

For use of the media only; not an official document. Bangkok, 7 March 2013 – The first global meeting of wildlife enforcement networks took place alongside the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to scale up regional enforcement capacity and coordination to respond to the serious threat posed by wildlife criminal networks. Wildlife law enforcement officers from around the world convened in Bangkok

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