The time has come for a new global agreement on wildlife crime.
Weighing up to 400 pounds with distinctive markings behind its eyes, the humphead wrasse is an endangered reef fish. It’s considered a luxury food, especially in Hong Kong, and is a victim of illegal fishing.
Campaigners argue that the current system is not fit for purpose and allows criminals to make billions from the theft and sale of wildlife, to the detriment of human health.
“We are calling for the development of an international agreement under the United Nations’ Convention on Transnational Organised Crime, in order to ensure all countries recognise the scale and serious nature of wildlife crime and the devastating impact it is having on so many species, and prioritise it through their law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial mechanisms,”
Multiple conservation groups, government representatives and academics have come together to put out a global call to action to end wildlife crime, as part of UN World Wildlife Day 2020.
Saving wildlife requires us to stop the industrial scale, organised, transnational wildlife crime that is shifting thousands of tonnes of contraband, worth billions of dollars, and leaving death, destruction and instability in its wake. The people behind these crimes are influenced by risk and profit, and to stop them they need to feel the long arm of the law.
“We are calling for the development of an international agreement under the United Nations’ Convention on Transnational Organised Crime, in order to ensure all countries recognise the scale and serious nature of wildlife crime and the devastating impact it is having on so many species, and prioritise it through their law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial mechanisms,”
