Serious wildlife crimes are organised and transnational, fuelled by corruption, and have  devastating impacts on wildlife, local communities, national economies, security, public health and entire ecosystems. Despite the severe impacts of such crimes, existing wildlife trade bans (both international and national) are not adequately enforced and we do not have a global agreement on wildlife crime.

Created in June 2020, the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime was created to encourage States to fill serious gaps in international law by advocating for and offering technical support to:

Create a new global agreement on preventing and combating wildlife crime, in the form of an additional Protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC);

Amend existing international wildlife trade laws, particularly the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), to include public health and animal health into decision making, or to develop a new international instrument;

And adopt a new international agreement on pandemic prevention.