The EU functions as a hub for global wildlife trafficking and has a key role to play in the fight against it. During the past two years, IFAW has joined forces with other NGOs to advocate for the revision of the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking (WTAP) adopted in 2016. In November 2022 we welcomed the revised WTAP, which is an important milestone to fight wildlife trafficking, introducing measures that have the potential to make a real impact within and outside of the EU, if fully implemented by all the involved stakeholders. The revised WTAP aims to guide EU action against wildlife trafficking in the period until 2027. While the focus of the WTAP is on wildlife trafficking, it makes links with the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations and other related policies, like One Health and health risks related to the trade in wild animals. In the coming years, IFAW will work to ensure the WTAP is promptly and effectively implemented by the EU Commission and Member States.
Region: European Union
Project website: https://www.ifaw.org/press-releases/the-eu-launches-new-action-plan-to-fight-wildlife-trafficking
IFAW’s Wildlife Crime Prevention program in China addresses wildlife trafficking through conducting comprehensive wildlife crime and policy research to support effective enforcement and policy enhancement, collaborating with relevant industries to adopt zero-tolerance policy and take action and changing wildlife consumption behavior and social norm through social mobilization and science-driven campaigns.
IFAW’s online monitoring and analysis of criminal cases in the last decades suggest that trade of endangered live animals as pets is becoming an increasingly alarming problem. To tackle this issue, IFAW analyzes the policies, regulations and seizures in China and surrounding areas and studies the development trend and regulatory loopholes of the wildlife breeding and trading industry to advocate for stronger long and more rigorous enforcement. Meanwhile, IFAW provides capacity building trainings for channels related to illegal wildlife trade (such as social media platforms and companies in logistics industry). We also analyzes the driving factors of illegal consumption to explore intervention strategy to change consumption behavior.
Project Website: Combatting illegal wildlife trade in China
The campaign, dubbed “Not A Pet,” shines a much-needed spotlight on the illegal trade of live wild animals sold as pets in the United States while also highlighting the risk of disease emergence, spill over, and spread caused by the legal and illegal live exotic pet trade. The initiative aims to connect with potential owners of exotic pets to help them understand the risks to animal and human health and the specialized and expensive care required for these wild animals.
PR: IFAW, AZA Collaborate on #NotAPet Campaign
Website: https://www.notapet.net/
NEOH presents the opportunity to carry out One Health approaches following the recommendations of the earlier projects and the Nigerian Strategic One Health plan. It will continue efforts to understand underlying mechanism of disease transmissions between humans and animals, combining methods of epidemiology, anthropology and virology to unify efforts towards enhanced animal, public and environmental/wildlife health under one umbrella. This will ideally result in early detection of pathogens with pandemic potential and in parallel, concrete responses caused by zoonotic pathogens. The project shall create and strengthen inter-institutional, inter-sectoral partnerships nationally and internationally. Leadership and coordination in combination with an emphasis on innovation, training, surveillance, publication of research outcomes, wildlife conservation and risk communication will be the major outputs of the institutions involved.
Source: https://www.fli.de/de/startseite
Commercial breeding of wildlife, also referred to as ‘farming’, is seen as the more common practice for the trade of wild animals and their products. On the one side, it provides income to the people, increases food security and has the potential to substitute the supply from wild populations to meet market demand, while on the other side, it can contribute to sustaining demand for wildlife products and is associated with unforeseeable health risks to humans, animals and the environment. A vivid example is the reported transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on mink farms in Europe in 2020/21, where the virus was introduced by humans after which it has spread and evolved further in mink before it went back into the human host. High infection pressure, low biosecurity measures and high contact rates within the animal population as well as between animals and farm workers provide an ideal ground for the rapid spread and evolution of human pathogenic microorganisms.
Since 2007, CEWS monitors (formal and/or common methods) the global illegal and legal e-commerce of wildlife. We are the only NGO doing formal monitorings of the e- commerce outside of Central and Eastern Europe, and the only NGO doing it globally.
Our results are shared during CITES CoP’s, with the enforcement authorities, INTERPOL, NGO’s, media, the monitored classified advertisements and social media platform managers. Our lobbying helps to protect endangered wildlife from the exploitation and trade, raise awareness about the international e-commerce of fauna species, and the urgency needed for the governments to act, by monitoring their own e-commerce of wildlife to tackle and enforce it properly.
We formally monitor the illegal and legal e-commerce of wild fauna in Africa, Asia and the Americas, but more recently we have focused in Mexico, Canada, and the US, but in each monitoring we choose different countries in Latin America.
Each project is unique and differs in results, species of animals checked, countries monitored, demand and specimens found from past formal monitorings which CEWS has done for more than a decade and half. The runtimes of the projects are between 6 months and multiple years, depending on the specific setting.
CEWS uses advocacy, education and lobbying to let the public and governments learn about how the e-commerce of wildlife is decimating the international fauna populations.
More information can be found on CEWS’s website, for instance, further resources on e-commerce and CITES CoP 19.
The general objective of this project is to strengthen the basis for risk management, prevention, and monitoring of zoonotic diseases through a regional plan for the implementation of the One Health approach in the Maya Forest under three thematic lines: 1) Capacity building for monitoring, prevention and early warning of animal diseases, 2) Risk reduction and best practices, for which the support and participation of local actors will be essential, and 3) Exchange of experiences, seeking the collaboration and participation of key actors from government institutions, civil society, universities and community leaders at the Maya Forest level, to replicate and give continuity to the activities carried out, looking for spaces to provide training to communities, resource guards or other officials under the One Health approach, providing technical and scientific support to strengthen the One Health approach strategy in the Maya Forest.
Photo Credit: WCS
Live wildlife is commonly seized as evidence during enforcement efforts targeting illegal wildlife trade. Current capacity to manage live wildlife in many countries is weak leading to (i) increased risks of injury or disease to Government officers in contact with animals, (ii) diminished evidentiary value of the animals, and (iii) reduced potential of conservation benefits from rehabilitated, seized wildlife. These conditions also reduce the motivation and commitment of frontline enforcement officers who can be hesitant to act on cases that could result in live animal seizures. The project’s overarching goal is to increase government’s capacity to ensure the health and well-being of seized live wild animals and of people handling them. The project employs a multi-layered approach that combines (i) development of global best-practice Standard operating Protocols (SOPs), capacity assessment frameworks and localized training curricula with, (ii) targeted capacity interventions, and (iii) national legal and regulatory reform.
Photo Credit: ‘Pangolin’ by Paul Hilton, WCS
We seek to enhance capacity of law enforcement officers in high-priority Southeast Asian countries to detect and prosecute wildlife-related crime cases in key source sites and along the illegal supply chain. We will achieve this by supporting government and community-led approaches to site-based protection of key source sites, establishing capacity to receive, manage, and analyze information and intelligence on wildlife trafficking and by building capacity to address cyber-enabled wildlife trafficking.
Photo Credit: DNP WCS
The project will build the Department of Animal Health’s (DAH) surveillance capacity through engagement of provincial sub-DAH agencies and regional laboratories in sample collection and testing from wildlife farms. Involving wildlife management agencies will enhance the current surveillance network, which supports the implementation of surveillance activities, managing, analyzing, and communicating data and results for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in Viet Nam. The flexible web-basd Wildlife Health Intelligence Platform (WHIP) database, adapted for wildlife health surveillance data in Southeast Asia during the WildHealthNet project (2019-2022), will be used for data management. transferring information on events with positive cases to Viet Nam Animal Health Information Managemnt System (VAHIS), an online animal disease reporting system managed by DAH, will be enacted to maximize disease outbreak monitoring and management. The surveillance team will review and evaluate general farm hygiene, and feedback shared with related stakeholders and partners for improving and refining surveillance guidance based on lessons learned after the “data review and sharing” process.
Photo Credit: ‘Civet on Wildlife Farm’ by WCS Viet Nam