Tigers for Tigers shares their thoughts to the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking

We would like to follow up on our previous post regarding the public meeting with the Advisory Council for Wildlife Trafficking.

On March 20^th, 2014, the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking convened in Washington D.C. to take public comments on the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The National Tigers for Tigers Coalition was represented at the event and provided their suggestions to the Council. 

Overall it was a great experience, and I am thrilled by the recommendations provided by the sub-committees of the Advisory Council. If we can ensure that the recommendations matriculate into shift action, I’m very excited for the near future. I can’t wait to bring my experience back to the coalition and I believe that there are a lot of opportunities that we can take part in.

Since the previous meeting in December 2013, the Advisory Council has divided into four sub-committees to address various concerns. They are as follows:

• Legal Framework and Reform
• Enforcement
• Communication and Advocacy
• Public/Private partnerships

We would like to highlight a few critical recommendations.

Legal Framework and Reform:

In the United States, wildlife crime sits on the bottom of the totem pole in regards to criminal penalties. The current price of rhino horn is $60,000 per kilogram and the average sentencing for wildlife trafficking is only two months. So as you can imagine, the overall risk for criminal syndicates is extremely low.

To combat this issue, the sub-committee is recommending to modify multiple federal statutes that govern wildlife crime. This will increase the tools and resources available to the proper authorities to address the crisis and will place wildlife trafficking among other very serious criminal offences, like drug and sex trafficking.

In the near future, I believe that this is a great opportunity for the National Tigers for Tigers Coalition to get involved and to support these recommendations on Capitol Hill.

Enforcement:

We also need to ensure that there is strict law enforcement, domestically and internationally. The enforcement committee recommended to modify the U.S. sentencing guidelines to increase the penalties and monetary fines for wildlife crimes, and to educate judges on the severity of wildlife crimes.

The United States also pays a very critical role in international enforcement. They are recommending an increase in collaborations and technical assistance with Wildlife Enforcement Networks like ASEAN-WEN, to direct future international undercover operations like Operation Cobra 2, and to work to disrupt kingpins on national and regional levels.

In regards to enforcement, it was great to hear that all of our recommendations provided in our public comments were being considered.

Communication and Advocacy:

“If there is one thing that the U.S. knows how to do, it is to affect consumer demand,” Carter Roberts, CEO of the World Wildlife Fund. We need to focus more on changing consumer behavior than just increasing awareness.

The sub-committee brought up the idea of a demand reduction Summit with professionals in social media, social and consumer behavior, physiologists and more to determine the best strategies to make the possession and use of illegal wildlife products “un-cool.”  Complimentary to the Summit, they recommended a round table of private and public companies within targeted sectors, like the transportation and food industry to develop collaborations.

Within our recommendations to the Council, we advised to work with organizations like WildAID to build effective digital media campaigns focused on demand reduction domestically and internationally.

Public/Private Partnerships:

The final sub-committee addressed the need to develop effective partnerships with the public and private sectors. The sub-committee was interested in addressing executives of the transportation industry, who may unknowingly, be contributing to wildlife trafficking. If we can develop effective codes of conduct policies and improve communications between these sectors and the government, we will have a greater understanding of the trade.

Conclusion:

I believe that now is a very critical time for the United States to become a leader in addressing the wildlife crisis across the globe. The ultimate goal that we can all agree on is to reduce/eliminate demand for illegally traded wildlife parts. The initial recommendations provided by the Advisory Council is a great start in reducing demand and we are happy to play a role in the discussion.

All the best,

Sean Carnell