The air transport sector has a crucial role to play in the fight against illegal wildlife trade, as pointed out last week at the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) Global Sustainable Aviation Summit 2015 in Geneva.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Secretary General John E Scanlon urged all airports to put in place prominent CITES displays to raise awareness amongst the travelling public of the scale and consequences of illegal trade in wildlife, and of the serious penalties that apply to trading illegally.
Pointing out there are today over 1.1bn international tourist arrivals a year; 100,000 flights every day; and 500mn containers shipped a year, the official explained that transnational organised crime groups are exploiting these legitimate forms of transport to move their contraband. Illegal rhino horn and pangolin scales are often transported by air. Raw illegal elephant ivory is being largely transported by sea, whilst most illegally traded worked ivory appears to be transported by air.
As Scanlon observed, “illegal trade in wildlife is happening at an industrial scale, but in the context of the overall volumes of air and sea transport, we are often searching for a ‘needle in a haystack’, with only a tiny fraction of the overall cargo or passengers carrying illegally traded wildlife”.
For enforcement efforts to be effective, enforcement agencies require good information and intelligence, which is where the transport sector can play a critical role, with their staff doubling as extra sets of eyes and ears on the ground – looking, listening and passing on information about anything that looks suspicious to relevant authorities.
A Transport Task Force established by The Royal Foundation, under the patronage of the Duke of Cambridge and chaired by William Hague to address how the transport sector can assist in combating illegal trade in wildlife has already identified three areas where the transport sector can assist, which were shared with the Summit, namely: adopting and publicising a zero tolerance policy on illegal trade in wildlife; raising awareness among customers, clients, passengers and staff of the scale, nature and impacts of this illegal trade (including through airport displays and inflight magazines and videos); and supporting customs and other enforcement agencies through the provision of information or intelligence gathered by staff working on the ground.
This work is ongoing with the Taskforce set to complete its final recommendations in late 2015. There is a global collective effort underway across governments, the United Nations, international and national organisations, philanthropic entities, the private sector, local communities and dedicated individuals to combat illegal trade in wildlife – and two weeks ago the UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include specific targets on ending poaching and smuggling.
In response to the aviation industry being lobbied, especially recently, to take a stand on certain legal wildlife products being carried as cargo, Scanlon clarified that the focus is on illegal trade in wildlife, stopping which requires a scaled up, collaborative effort, in which ATAG members are key players.
