ILLEGAL INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING IN AFRICAN WILDLIFE TARGETED IN AGREEMENT TO SET UP WORLD'S FIRST INTERNATIONAL TASK FORCE FOR ACTION
LUSAKA, 9 September-Six eastern and southern African countries today signed an agreement here in Zambia to set up the world's first international wildlife task force.
Ministers from Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia signed the Lusaka Agreement on Cooperative Enforcement Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora which aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate illegal international trafficking in African wildlife. The signing of the Agreement marks an end to two years of intense negotiations by law enforcement officers, lawyers and diplomats.
Interpol estimates the total world-wide illegal trade at $5 billion annually, second in monetary value only to narcotics. The effects of that situation have been particularly devastating for Africa. The last 35 years have seen the loss of 97 per cent of Africa's rhinoceros species and, in many countries, over 90 per cent of the elephant populations.
Under the agreement, a task force will be formed to combat the international syndicates smuggling wildlife out of the region. It will have an international legal character and be responsible to a governing council made up of the parties to the Agreement.
The Task Force will investigate violations of national laws pertaining to illegal trade in all wildlife and disseminate information on activities relating to them. Each Party will designate a national bureau, responsible for liaison with the Task Force. At least one officer from each national bureau will be seconded to the Task Force headquarters.
Under agreed rules, those seconded field officers, commanded by the Task Force Director, will carry out cross-border operations and investigations in close cooperation with national bureaus and be responsible for facilitating closer cooperation between them. A Task Force Intelligence Officer will gather and analyze information using a centralized database.
Officially opening the Ministerial Meeting, Zambia's President, Frederick J.T. Chiluba, said: "The Agreement provides a legal basis for cooperative law enforcement so far achieved nowhere else in the world. Many will now be eager to see how successful we shall be in implementing this proposed convention in practice." President Chiluba went on to say the Agreement is a "simple necessity to realize the aims of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Biodiversity Convention."
Addressing the Ministers, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Elizabeth Dowdeswell, said "illegal wildlife trade, as with other causes of environmental impoverishment, has no respect for national borders." She noted that law enforcement officers have been consistently frustrated by lack of resources and inability to conduct effective investigations to break up the large, sophisticated smuggling operations. "The Lusaka Agreement does provide the framework for that solution, at least in Africa. I hope this Agreement can also provide a precedent for similar initiatives aimed at enforcing international law in the future," she said, adding that UNEP hopes the Agreement will inspire other regions in the world.
The Agreement is open for signature by all African States from 12 September to 12 December at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, and thereafter for three months at the United Nations in New York. It will enter into force after the fourth instrument of ratification, approval, acceptance or accession has been deposited with the United Nations Secretary-General. It will remain open for accession by an African State after closure for signature.
The Agreement will achieve its objectives "as early as three months after entry into force," predicted a senior South African law enforcement official. That optimism is shared by the UNEP Executive Director who said the Agreement will succeed because it is a practical arrangement based on needs articulated by field officers in the region.
There is already considerable world-wide interest in the Agreement. The CITES and Interpol have participated in the negotiations and pledged support in its implementation. Financial support has been given by the Governments of Canada, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.
From the United Nations Department of Public Information.
