Under this major goal, there are 12 targets, the 15.7 of which is “Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products.”

●Current Situation

The World

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

Image source: United Nations

On 20 December 2013, the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim March 3 as World Wildlife Day. The date is the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973, which plays an important role in ensuring that the species’ survival is not threatened by international trade.

The Secretariat of CITES, in collaboration with other relevant United Nations organizations, facilitates the implementation of World Wildlife Day.

With 183 member states, CITES remains one of the world's most powerful tools for biodiversity conservation through the regulation of trade in wild fauna and flora.

Source: United Nations

China

In recent years, Guangdong has severely cracked down on illegal activities involving wild animals and plants, improved the protection network of wild animals and plants and their habitats, solidly carried out in-situ and ex-situ protection of rare and endangered species, and clearly stipulated the “comprehensive ban on eating wild animals” in provincial legislation. The provincial, municipal, and county levels have comprehensively established a joint meeting system for cracking down on illegal trade in wild animals and plants, severely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving wild animals and plants, strengthening the monitoring, early warning and prevention and control of epidemic sources and diseases, strengthening the control of alien species and artificial cultivation of resources of medicinal wild plants, and promoting the sustainable recovery and growth of wild animal and plant resource populations.

Source: People's Government of Guangdong Province, Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province

●Cases

The World

United Nations combats wildlife and forest crimes

Image source: United Nations

Since 2014, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been working with member states in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region to implement the Global Programme for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime. Through this program, UNODC aims to ensure that wildlife crime, illegal logging, and related crimes are treated as serious transnational organized crimes.

Following are some examples of their work from across the Southeast Asia region.

1. Strengthening policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks.

UNODC provides technical assistance to review and revise laws and regulations. In Vietnam, they supported the review and revision of the Environmental Crimes chapter of the Penal Code. The new law was approved in June 2017 and came into force on January 1, 2018.

2. Enhancing knowledge and skills to investigate and prosecute related criminal activities, including specialized training courses, law enforcement advisory programs, and e-Learning programs.

Law enforcement advisory programme is a new approach in delivering regular and sustained law enforcement mentorship and capacity building support, which has been trialed in Lao PDR and Myanmar since 2017. UNODC’s team of international law enforcement advisors are working on a regular basis with interagency investigation teams in each country to utilize advanced investigation techniques in real transnational wildlife crime cases and support information and intelligence exchange with investigators from other countries.

3. Enhancing cooperation at bilateral, regional, and international levels, including bilateral cooperation, regional cooperation, and international cooperation. 

For example, they organize activities such as bilateral policy dialogues on wildlife trafficking issues, and bring relevant authorities together to facilitate bilateral intelligence exchange, skills exchange, etc.

4. Data gathering, analysis, and reporting.

UNODC conducts assessments to identify strengths and challenges in national criminal justice responses to wildlife and forest crime, and where relevant, recommend solutions to improve the response. Since 2015, assessments have been conducted in the following ASEAN countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. UNODC also periodically conducts research on illicit financial flows related to wildlife crimes and contributes to regional working papers.

Source: UNODC

International cooperations to combat illegal bio-trade

TRAFFIC, Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce, is a leading non-governmental organization working to ensure that trade in wild species is legal and sustainable for the benefit of the planet and people. United for Wildlife (UfW) is an unprecedented alliance between seven of the world’s most influential conservation organizations and The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. The collaboration between Conservation International (CI), Fauna & Flora International (FFI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), WWF-UK, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and The Royal Foundation hopes to lead the way to substantially increase the global response to major conservation crisis. 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is responsible for the majority of overseas development assistance from the United States Government and works to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing security and prosperity for America and the world. 

A recent partnership between TRAFFIC and USAID, "Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species (ROUTES)", brought together aviation and maritime stakeholders, together with NGO and government partners, to strengthen responses against the trafficking of wild species in the transport sector.

The ROUTES project has achieved industry-wide progress by creating awareness and training resources for airport, aviation, and transport staff and an online database of aviation wildlife seizures to support the development of anti-trafficking policies.

Crime Stoppers International (CSI) is a non-profit organization with a global network of more than 800 accredited national and local Crime Stoppers chapters operating in 30-plus countries across six continents.  

In collaboration with Crime Stoppers International (CSI), TRAFFIC has also developed Wildlife Sentinel, a mobile reporting app allowing airport staff to report suspicions of trafficking to law enforcement anonymously.

Source: TRAFFIC

China

Guangdongissues terrestrial wildlife conservation action plan (2023-2030)

Image source: Nanfang Daily

The Terrestrial Wildlife Conservation Action Plan of Guangdong Province (2023-2030) deploys and implements 10 key actions to promote the establishment and improvement of a scientific and standardized terrestrial wildlife protection system.

1. Carry out investigation, monitoring and evaluation of wild animal and plant resources, and establish a database about animal and plant diversity in the province;

2. Start in-situ protection with national parks as the core, build ecological corridors and biodiversity protection networks, and protect and expand habitats and original sites of rare and endangered wild animal and plant species;

3. Conduct ex-situ conservation actions led by national botanical gardens, and comprehensively promote ex-situ conservation of rare and endangered wild animals and plants, their population expansion, genetic characteristic maintenance, returning to the wild, and the preservation of their germplasm resources;

4. Implement rescue and protection actions for rare and endangered species, implement 78 key species protection projects represented by Chinese pangolin, South China tiger, Cycas fairylakea, and water pine, and create a national brand in species protection;

5. Reinforce the ability to contain and rescue wild animals and plants, and comprehensively improve the ability to rescue and protect wildlife;

Image source: Nanfang Daily

Image source: Hong Kong Commercial Daily

Nan’ao Office, Dapeng New District, Shenzhen, has a forest coverage rate as high as 87% and enjoys abundant animal and plant resources. There are more than 60 kinds of rare and endangered plants and more than 200 kinds of terrestrial wild animals. In order to strengthen the protection of forests, animals, and plants, Nan’ao Office has introduced scientific and technological methods such as drones to strengthen forest protection supervision. In the first half of 2023, Nan’ao Office discovered and stopped four illegal acts involving forestry, confiscated 477 illegal kindling materials, and saved wild animals such as cobras,  copper-head trinket snakes, red-feathered chickens, and owls in 26 cases.

In order to further strengthen the publicity and education on forest and wildlife protection, recently, Nan’ao Office and the Shenzhen Nature Reserve Management Center jointly launched a themed publicity activity at the Nan’ao Cultural and Sports Center, attracting more than 30 families to participate.

Source: Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province, Nanfang Daily

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiated by the United Nations

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change while ensuring that no one is left behind.