British Royals Hold Summit to Curb Wild Life Trade

Leaders from 46 countries pledged last week to act together to combat a growing illegal wildlife industry, following a high-level meeting convened by the UK government and the British royal family.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague hailed the event as a “turning point” for addressing a £12 billion (US$20 billion) a year illegal trade - ranked as the fourth most valuable crime behind human trafficking, the arms trade, and drugs.

Participating states - including key consumer economies such as Vietnam and China - inked a 13-page London Declaration calling for “decisive and urgent action” to eradicate wildlife product markets, ensure effective legal deterrents, strengthen enforcement, and enhance community engagement as a means of securing alternative sustainable livelihoods.

International commercial trade is prohibited on all species listed under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which includes, among others, populations of elephants, tigers, and turtles.

In recent years, however, demand for contraband wildlife products has skyrocketed - a trend that analysts largely attribute to a rising affluent Asian middle class. A 2013 inter-agency report, for example, suggests that illegal ivory trade activity worldwide has more than doubled since 2007.

The latest data indicates the extent to which threatened species have been hit by the trade increase. A report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature suggests that since 2004, the Central African region has lost two-thirds of its elephant population.

In January, South Africa released official figures documenting a 50 percent rhino-poaching spike in 2013 alone.

Thursday’s London conference ushered in an additional pledge geared specifically towards the booming ivory trade, as the governments of Botswana, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon, and Tanzania launched an “Elephant Protection Initiative.”

Reflection on these various policy options was the goal of an illegal wildlife trafficking symposium that preceded the intergovernmental summit, the former convened by HRH Prince William’s United for Wildlife alliance and hosted by the Zoological Society of London.

Botswana will host a follow-up high-level event in 2015 to discuss progress on international cooperation to tackle the topic.