In July 2015, the conservation world changed forever: wildlife crime became no longer simply a matter of environmental concern, it had become an issue that world governments needed to address as a matter of urgency to tackle corruption, the undermining of good governance, the rule of law and even national security. What brought about this seismic shift in international attitudes and what does the future hold for the conservation world?
I work for TRAFFIC, the leading non-governmental organization specializing in wildlife trade issues. We aim to ensure that trade in wildlife is legal and sustainable, benefitting humanity without posing a conservation threat to the animal and plant species in trade (TRAFFIC, 2015a). However, many species are illegally and / or unsustainably exploited. TRAFFIC has monitored, documented and reported the rapidly rising increase in illegal elephant ivory and rhino horns, the animals poached at record levels to supply these trades. We have been among those seeking to raise awareness of this international animal poaching crisis and its associated ills at the highest political levels in order to secure the resources and attention needed to curtail it. Increasingly alarmed by the unfolding drama and sluggish international response, in August 2012, in collaboration with our partner WWF, TRAFFIC launched a joint Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign that ran until 2013 to bring the rapidly deteriorating situation to the attention of global decision makers (WWF, 2015). Nothing could have epitomised how international attention is now focused on this issue than when, on 30th July 2015, at the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Member States adopted an historic Resolution
on Tackling the Illicit Trafficking in Wildlife (United Nations, 2015).