Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This high-level occasion to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption is a suitable and timely opportunity to highlight the need for anti-corruption action to tackle wildlife crime
Wildlife crime is both driven by corruption and creates significant opportunity for corrupt officials.
Corruption factors along the whole of the value chain, from origin to transit to destination, from poaching to fraudulent documents and cross-border smuggling to final sale.
The international community has on numerous occasions called for the need to address corruption linked to wildlife crime, most prominently in the 2014 London Declaration and through many UN resolutions.
Our friends at CITES have been strong advocates for using the UN Convention against Corruption in this fight. At their last Conference of Parties in South Africa, a ground-breaking resolution was passed on preventing and combatting corruption linked to wildlife crime.
The G20 Anti-corruption working group developed and adopted a set of principles to turn high-level commitments into practical action.
I am proud that UNODC supported the development of these principles and we commend the G20 for their timely adoption.
Going forward, I hope that a mechanism can also be found to enable a broader range of countries to subscribe to the principles.
As guardian of the Convention against Corruption as well as the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, UNODC remains committed to supporting all Member States to fight corruption and wildlife crime.
We work on the ground, helping to build the capacities of national agencies responsible for managing wildlife resources and enforcing relevant legislation.
This includes assistance with developing and implementing corruption risk mitigation strategies, and supporting parallel financial investigations when wildlife crime has been identified.
With our partners of the International Consortium to Combat Wildlife Crime, or ICWCC, we are significantly ramping up efforts to promote both prevention and enforcement strategies to tackle corruption.
ICCWC is a collaborative effort of the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, UNODC, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization, bringing coordinated support to national wildlife law enforcement agencies and to sub-regional and regional networks that, on a daily basis, help defend our natural resources.
Addressing corruption is a core part of both the ICCWC Strategic Programme for 2016-2020 and UNODC's Global Programme to Combat Wildlife and Forest Crime.
We are working together closely to leverage our respective expertise effectively and efficiently.
But much more needs to be done.
I would like to thank our partners in these endeavours, and I encourage all of you to join us in protecting our shared natural heritage from the predations of criminals.
We will not get a second chance.
Thank you.