Director-General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I hope you have had a fruitful discussion.
Unfortunately, my schedule did not allow me to be here sooner, but I am grateful to all of you for taking the time on the first day of the Crime Commission to join UNODC to launch the third edition of the World Wildlife Crime Report.
Let me take this opportunity to thank our CITES partners and the Member States with us today, in particular our distinguished panellists from Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. I would also like to express my gratitude to the US, the UK, and Germany for supporting this important research.
The CCPCJ offers an important platform for sharing perspectives and expertise on preventing and tackling wildlife crime.
This topic is a growing global priority, as we work together to safeguard biodiversity and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including target 15.7 to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna.
You have heard the research findings already, so I would just like to emphasize two messages from the report - first, a message of warning, and second, a message of hope.
The warning from the third World Wildlife Crime Report is that wildlife trafficking is happening everywhere, and some of the species most at risk, from rare orchids to exotic fish, do not receive the same level of attention as iconic species like elephants.
Many of the more than 4,000 species affected by wildlife trafficking could disappear before our eyes.
The report also shows that the impacts of wildlife trafficking radiate far beyond the species in question, harming whole ecosystems, compromising efforts to mitigate climate change, and endangering people and communities who depend on the sustainable management of natural resources.
Add to that the corruption and illicit flows associated with wildlife crime, which undermine good governance and the rule of law, and contribute to instability and insecurity.
So let us take this opportunity to pledge funding and renewed commitment to strengthen responses to wildlife trafficking, to stop the transnational organized criminal groups behind this crime before it is too late.
But just as it warns us of the immense dangers, the third UNODC World Wildlife Crime Report also offers evidence and reason for hope.
The findings show that when countries of origin, transit and destination take coordinated, concerted action to tackle wildlife trafficking, we can achieve remarkable results.
The report details progress in protecting elephants and rhinoceros through enforcement responses on the demand and supply side, with high-profile law enforcement action against the kingpins running trafficking networks, and sustained public and policy attention to this challenge.
As a result, fewer of these iconic animals are being poached, and seizure levels and market prices have declined over the past decade.
An analysis of laws protecting the environment that UNODC is also launching later this week with the support of France shows that 164 UN Member States criminalize wildlife trafficking violations, with 86 of them having penalties that meet the UNTOC definition of a serious crime.
This is the highest level of criminalization of the nine environmental sectors examined in the review.
So we can see that our collective efforts to raise awareness and sharpen responses to wildlife crime since the first World Wildlife Crime Report came out in 2016 have brought concrete results.
Now we need to keep up the fight.
We need to promote comprehensive initiatives to curb demand as well as supply, and to support partnerships with the private sector and civil society.
And we need donors to support developing countries and the UN to invest in data collection and analytical capacities, and to provide technical assistance for cross-border anti-trafficking operations, coupled with coordinated responses to stop corruption and money laundering.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I encourage you to make use of this new report to support targeted and effective action to end wildlife crime.
Working together, we can advance and broaden the progress we have already achieved together, to protect fragile ecosystems and communities at risk before it is too late.
Thank you.