ISLAMABAD – WWF-Pakistan and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday to work together through innovative means to curb illegal wildlife trade in Pakistan.
The collaboration will contribute towards enhancing capacities of relevant law enforcement agencies, in particular, Pakistan Customs, to acquaint them with the key aspects of illegal wildlife trade in order to enhance vigilance against wildlife trafficking. Both organizations will also launch joint awareness campaigns to raise awareness on this issue.
Rab Nawaz, Senior Director Programmes, WWF-Pakistan said that illegal wildlife trade is a persistent conservation challenge that could be managed through collaborative efforts. Illegal wildlife trade is recognised as a transnational organised crime due to its lucrative nature and organised criminal networks involved in operating the supply chain of illegal wildlife trade.
“Our previous work has helped unravel the scale of illegal wildlife trade across the country and identify the species which are facing extinction as an outcome of the trade. We rely on the support of partners to highlight and take action against this organized crime,” he said. He further added that WWF-Pakistan has recently initiated a snow leopard conservation initiative focusing on the adoption of a zero-poaching frame-work to protect the species from poaching and illegal trade.
Speaking on the occasion, Cesar Guedes, Representative UNODC said, “Wildlife crime destabilizes ecosystems and alongside habitat destruction, poses a grave threat to endangered wildlife. It does, however, take a greater stretch of the imagination to see how illegal wildlife trade is not solely an environmental injustice, but also undermines state authority, fuels violent conflict and terrorism, impacts national and global security and socioeconomic development. Estimated to generate US$20 billion annually, illegal wildlife trade is one of the largest global illegal activities.”
The partnership between WWF-Pakistan and UNODC-WCO’s Container Control Programme (CCP) aims to strengthen collaboration for effective management of illegal wildlife trade through effective coordination, knowledge and information sharing, and institutional capacity building, of the relevant law-enforcement agencies in Pakistan.
