The contraband was found in the luggage of a passenger travelling from Istanbul in Turkey, en route to Casablanca in Morocco, although the caviar is believed to have originated in Iran.
International trade in caviar is regulated through CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), and while limited trade is permitted, shipments must be accompanied by appropriate documentation.
Initial tests reveal the caviar is from the Beluga Sturgeon, a species that can live to 100 years and weigh more than two tonnes, and whose caviar is considered the most valuable of all.
Caviar, the eggs or roe of sturgeons and paddlefish, is considered a delicacy, and is especially popular around Christmas time. However, there are serious concerns over the sustainability and legality of the trade in caviar from the Caspian Sea region, which has known links to organized crime.
Numbers of Beluga Sturgeon, like the other five sturgeon species found in the Caspian Sea region, have plummeted in recent years—some by more than 95%, such that all are now listed as Critically Endangered in the wild by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
This September, European Union Member States decided to suspend the import of wild sourced caviar from countries in the Caspian Sea region, because of deep concern over the conservation status of sturgeon species.
“The future for wild sturgeons in the Caspian Sea is very bleak indeed”, said Rob Parry-Jones, Director of TRAFFIC Europe.
“Strong measures need to be adopted and enforced by the range States, supported by actions in consumer countries. The EU’s decision to suspend imports of wild sourced caviar from the Caspian Sea region, following the advice of its Scientific Review Group, is one such step.”
“Border enforcement actions for caviar coming into or transiting through the EU are another necessary step. The Italian authorities are to be warmly congratulated on this significant seizure.”
воскресенье, 23 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Beluga caviar seized in transit
суббота, 22 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Key tropical timber trade meeting in Japan
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The ITTO is an intergovernmental organization whose members represent about 80% of the world's tropical forests and 90% of the global tropical timber trade.
TRAFFIC will be present at the meeting as observer and through its role on ITTO’s Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG).
A key topic on the agenda will be ITTO’s interaction with CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna).
CITES is the principle intergovernmental agreement dealing with trade in all wildlife species, yet at the most recent meeting of Parties to CITES, proposals for listing timber species in the Convention’s Appendices were conspicuous by their near absence.
“The role of CITES in helping regulate a sustainable global timber trade is a crucial area where the ITTO can make substantial progress this week,” said Chen Hin Keong, TRAFFIC's Global Forest Trade Programme Leader.
Tropical timber species already listed in CITES include Big-leaf Mahogany, Cedrela, Afromosia, Guayacan, Almendro, Ramin and Red Sanders. Other tropical tree species listed due to their non-timber values include African CherryPrunus africana, Asian yews and agarwood.
TRAFFIC’s input into the workings of the ITTO include investigations into the discrepancies in timber trade export and import figures between countries trading within Asia and recommendations on how and why these arise—and crucially, how they can be used to determine if illegal trade is taking place.
Another key topic is the role of tropical forests in mitigating the effects of global climate change.
2011 has already been designated the International Year of Forests.
“2011 could mark a watershed in the fate of the world’s forests, whose potential for maintaining a stable world economy and a healthy planet ecosystem is only ignored at our own peril,” said Chen.
пятница, 21 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Experts link up to combat illegal wildlife trade in Sri Lanka
National wildlife enforcement network formed;)
Leadership from the country’s Department of Wildlife Conservation, along with Police, Customs and other relevant government institutions and experts, has seen the birth of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Enforcement Network (SLaWEN).
The Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development, was Chief Guest at the“Linking up with South Asia” meeting that brought together representatives of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Enforcement Network with those from international agencies involved in regulation of wildlife trade, including INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), IUCN and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
Emerging from years of civil conflict, the economy of Sri Lanka is rapidly developing, and the nation’s rich biodiversity offers great potential for increased ecotourism. But the need for safeguards is clearly apparent to combat any illicit activities that may accompany the country’s nascent trade boom.
Briefing participants, Dr Chandrawansa Pathiraja, Director General of the Department of Wildlife Conservation said:“In an era where the country’s economy is moving forward, the Department of Wildlife Conservation has a major role to play in developing the ecotourism industry which has the potential to be one of the county’s main foreign revenue earners.
“This will be nullified if the biodiversity, including wildlife, is not conserved properly.
“Hence it is time for action and this is the grid, law enforcement agencies should get together and protect nature for the betterment of both the present generation and generations to come.”
Leopard are at risk from poaching to supply demand for their parts elsewhere in Asia, while the Sri Lanka Navy has reported a number of recent arrests of people allegedly involved in the illicit conch trade; the polished shells are smuggled to India and beyond.
James Compton, TRAFFIC’s Senior Director for Asia-Pacific, noted:“The strategic need for wildlife enforcement networks in tackling illicit activity has been amply demonstrated, and it is extremely heartening to witness the initiatives here in Sri Lanka to forge national structures as a backbone for collaborative action throughout the wider Asia region.”
“Through active implementation of such enforcement networks, the region is entering a new era in tackling international wildlife crime effectively.”
Later this month, the South Asia Experts Group on Illegal Wildlife Trade will meet in Bhutan to take forward priority actions under the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN).
TRAFFIC’s efforts to catalyse national and inter-governmental wildlife enforcement networking in South Asia are generously supported by the US Department of State.
четверг, 20 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Thai Customs gear-up to fight ivory trafficking
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Already this year, Royal Thai Customs officers at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport have intercepted close to 4.5 tonnes of ivory, all of which is believed to have originated from Africa. Almost half of the total was seized in a single bust comprising 239 tusks in February.
“In order to suppress the illegal ivory trade completely, the Royal Thai Customs is conscious that good co-operation both internationally and domestically is the most effective way to uncover any illegal shipments among the 5,000 transiting the airport each day. Teaming up with TRAFFIC will help bring us up-to-date on the latest ways to ensure criminals don’t avoid detection. Further, this workshop will benefit all Customs officers at the operational level to offer them support and to exchange work experiences too,” said Mr. Tanat Suvattanametakul, Director of Suvarnabhumi Airport Cargo Clearance Customs Bureau.;)
“This type of training should be institutionalized into existing curricula so that all newly graduated Customs officers are fully aware of the issues,” said Mr. Suvattanametakul.
The two day workshop between 13–14 December will involve more than 40 participants drawn from various Customs Departments who will receive training from national experts and technical resource staff from TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
“TRAFFIC is pleased to help with Thailand’s efforts to step up the fight against the illegal trade in ivory and other endangered wildlife products,” said Chris Shepherd, Deputy Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
“The time is ripe for building on the achievements of the past year, and to stop those who profit from robbing the world of its wildlife.”
Thailand has the largest unregulated ivory market in Asia. It is home to a skilled industry of carvers who turn the raw tusks into works of art including statues, amulets, jewelry, and figurines for sale to domestic and international buyers.
The industry survives, in part because of a legal loophole that allows a legal domestic ivory market to thrive, and into which illegally imported ivory is laundered.
“Once ivory has been smuggled into the country, it becomes almost impossible to distinguish the illicit goods from those acquired through the legal loophole,” said Shepherd.
“While further commitment to effective law enforcement at Thailand’s borders is a welcome initiative, these efforts will be severely undermined unless the country puts in place an effective domestic ivory registration and certification scheme.”
Large numbers of African Elephants are killed each year for their tusks, and represents a major factor in the decline of the wild population which currently stands at about half a million. Much of the poaching is to supply illicit ivory markets in Asia”
For further information please contact:
Elizabeth John, Senior Communications Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, T: +603 7880 3940, +60122079790 Email: jlizzjohn@yahoo.com
Notes
1. Major ivory seizures at Suvarnabhumi International Airport by Royal Thai Customs in 2010:
February: 239 tusks weighing two tonnes
April: 1.4 tonnes
July: 117 tusks weighing 765 kg
August: 16 pieces of cut ivory weighing approx 90 kg
2. International trade in ivory is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
3. Poaching of elephants in Africa has been increasing in recent years. Currently the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) is regarded as Endangered and the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Both are threatened by a variety of issues including poaching and illegal trade, habitat loss and degradation.
About TRAFFIC
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of IUCN and WWF. TRAFFIC works to support government agencies in law enforcement networking across Asia and globally to combat illegal wildlife trade. Technical assistance across the enforcement continuum, including facilitation of inter-governmental dialogues, engaging the judicial sector, and working with WWF to improve linkages from national level agencies to field-based rangers, is provided on demand to member countries of the ASEAN and South Asia Wildlife Enforcement networks, as well as to China and its immediate neighbours.
среда, 19 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Agencies in Borneo forge closer co-operation on wildlife trade issues
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The three-day workshop, funded by the Goetz Foundation and WWF, has been jointly organized by the Sabah Wildlife Department and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. The workshop began with a call for greater regional collaboration in conserving the island’s biodiversity among the three countries that share the island of Borneo.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Assistant Minister of Culture, Tourism and Environment Datuk Ellron Alfred Angin said:“A course such as this is not only aimed at increasing knowledge and skill of enforcement officers, but also aimed at building effective networks to allow all of you to support each other in your respective workplace and also in this region.”
“We also believe that full commitment to our responsibility as custodians of this precious natural treasure is most important to ensure that those who are violating the law shall not escape from punishment.”
The three day Wildlife Trade Regulation Course takes place from 14–16th December and involves around 40 participants from a variety of Borneo’s enforcement agencies, including the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry, Royal Malaysian Customs, Department of Fisheries and the Brunei Darussalam Departments of Forestry and Agriculture and Agrifood.
They will receive training from national experts and technical resource staff from TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
Ellron also told participants that nature in Borneo was facing a crisis with rainforest disappearing rapidly, with illegal hunting and trade threatening its wildlife.
He cautioned that good legislation alone was not enough to would not guarantee protection of natural resources. Effective law enforcement was crucial if countries were successfully to combat illegal wildlife trade and conserve Borneo’s riches.
The island of Borneo is renowned for its great biodiversity which attracts thousands of tourists each year. That same biodiversity is also becoming increasingly attractive to illegal wildlife traders who take advantage of the long and often remote borders around and within its shores.
In order to combat such transboundary crime, it is vital that enforcement agencies work closely together. This workshop provides a valuable opportunity for agencies from the countries and states that make up the island to meet and learn about regulating and investigating the wildlife trade. This workshop is the fourth to be conducted by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia for Borneo’s enforcement agencies within the past 18 months.
вторник, 18 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Building wildlife law enforcement capacity to combat illegal wildlife trade in South-East Asia
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South-East Asia has long been a hotspot in the multi-billion dollar global trade of wildlife but many wild species, including timber, birds, reptiles and mammals are illegally traded in the region.
According to statistics compiled by the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), more than 16.9 tonnes of wildlife products were seized in around 200 law enforcement actions across South-East Asia between January and September 2010.
The ASEAN-WEN also estimates that 13,000 tonnes of turtles are illegally shipped to China every year from ASEAN countries.
Experts from ASEAN-WEN and TRAFFIC-Southeast Asia will serve as trainers during the four-day“Training of Trainers” workshop where a number of illegal trade case studies will be presented.
“If left unchecked, currents trends in the illegal wildlife trade will result in massive and irrevocable biodiversity loss. The Training of Trainer workshop presents a unique opportunity to reduce this trend and to safeguard the region’s precious plant and animal resources for generations to come” said Mr. Rodrigo U. Fuentes, Executive Director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB).
Mr Manop Lauprasert, Senior Officer of the ASEAN-WEN Program Coordination Unit added“the criminals involved in the illegal wildlife trade are well organized and financed. It’s only by working together and pooling our skills, knowledge and resources across the region can we hope to combat wildlife trafficking effectively.”
The current course aims to equip wildlife law enforcers with skills in identifying threatened reptile species that are commonly traded, familiarize them with international regulations governing wildlife trade, such as those under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), and upgrade participants’ skills in conducting their own training courses on wildlife regulation.
Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Dr William Schaedla said,“We really are starting with the basics. Most law enforcement personnel never get any training in areas related to wildlife crime. With this course, we’re imparting necessary skills to the right people.”
It is the second in a series of training workshops that seek to involve and enhance the capabilities of ASEAN and neighbouring countries in the understanding and application of taxonomic knowledge as part of a project on“Taxonomic Capacity Building and Governance for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity” funded by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund.
The project aims to promote the science of taxonomy which is increasingly considered a fundamental tool required by the global community to implement the Millennium Development Goals and the development targets set by the World Summit for Sustainable Development.
The current training course takes place from 17th-21st January at the Novotel Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and will be conducted by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia with support from Japan’s Ministry of Environment, and the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN).
Notes to Editors
• The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is an intergovernmental regional organization that facilitates cooperation and coordination among the 10 ASEAN Member States (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) and with relevant national governments, regional, and international organizations on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of such natural treasures. ACB facilitates discussion and resolution of cross-country biodiversity conservation issues and envisions capacity development of the ASEAN Member States for policy development and coordination through education on key biodiversity-related multilateral environment agreements, as well as increased knowledge and skills to assess regional/national situations and develop appropriate response mechanisms. ACB also aims to enhance competence of Protected Area managers of the ASEAN Member States through the conduct of capacity building series workshops and conferences with partner institutions.
• The ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) aims to address illegal exploitation and trade in CITES-listed species within the ASEAN region. It is an integrated network among law enforcement agencies in the 10 ASEAN Member States (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam), involving CITES authorities, customs, police, prosecutors, specialized governmental wildlife-law enforcement organizations and other relevant national law enforcement agencies. This ten member network also aims at facilitating cross border collaboration to fight against illegal wildlife trade in the region. For more information, visit www.asean-wen.org
• TRAFFIC works to support government agencies in law enforcement networking across Asia and globally to combat illegal wildlife trade. Technical assistance across the enforcement continuum, including facilitation of inter-governmental dialogues, engaging the judicial sector, and working with WWF to improve linkages from national level agencies to field-based rangers, is provided on demand to member countries of the ASEAN and South Asia Wildlife Enforcement networks, as well as to China and its immediate neighbours.
понедельник, 17 января 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - New regulation denied opportunity to prevent illegal abalone harvesting
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Abalone are types of sea mollusc (known locally as perlemoen), in great demand in East Asia for their meat and shell. Overfishing and disease have caused serious declines in several species world-wide.
Numbers of one species found only in South African waters,Haliotis midae, have declined dramatically since the 1990s, largely because of highly organized illegal plundering of stocks.
The illegal fishing industry has known links to domestic drugs trafficking and Asian crime syndicates, with the majority of the catch smuggled to Hong Kong.
In an effort to regulate the harvest and prevent unsustainable and illegal exploitation ofHaliotis midae, in 2007 the South African Government placed the species in Appendix III of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
An Appendix III listing is a means by which a country can ask for assistance from all other CITES member States to help control trade in a particular species.
The measure was aimed to highlight abalone trade passing illegally through neighbouring countries and was the first time CITES measures had been used to regulate international trade in any abalone species.
“While it seems clear that the listing only had a temporary impact on illegal harvest and trade in the species, it was never properly implemented in South Africa and its potential as a regulatory and monitoring tool was therefore never properly tested,” finds the TRAFFIC study.
The listing was withdrawn in May 2010 with the South African Government citing administrative difficulties, principally owing to misunderstandings around the role of the various government agencies in CITES permit endorsement.
“The withdrawal ofHaliotis midaefrom CITES Appendix III is troubling as it appears to be based on institutional constraints, rather than a fundamental flaw in the CITES instrument and process,” said Markus Bürgener, Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, and author of the report.
According to Bürgener, the Government should investigate affordingHaliotis midaeand similar looking abalone species greater protection under CITES, backed up with adequate resources.
“Almost all abalone range States experience illegal harvest and a CITES listing could assist compliance efforts for species found in these countries,” he said.
Other features in the latest edition of theTRAFFIC Bulletin—the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated to studies of the global trade in wildlife—include an investigation into the poaching of Malayan Sun Bears in Malaysia where they are in demand for use in traditional medicines and for their meat. It is hoped that new legislation introduced in that country will have a deterrent effect on this illegal trade.
TheBulletinalso includes a comprehensive report of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES. An editorial on this theme examines the future direction of this Convention in the light of the Doha meeting and the failure there to address some serious conservation management challenges.
TRAFFIC Bulletin 23(1)(PDF, 1.5 MB), including all the above articles plus much more.