USA LAUNCHES WILDLIFE TRADE CAMPAIGN

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US launches campaign against Asia wildlife trade

 

 

Saturday, 24 September , 2005, 18:19

 

Washington: Amid the danger of an avian flu pandemic, the United States launched

a global coalition to lobby Asian governments to tighten enforcement on wildlife

trafficking.

The growing trade in smuggled wildlife, according to experts, has increased the

risk of infection by the avian influenza virus, which has killed at least 63

people in Southeast Asia.

 

The US-led global Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking " will focus its initial

efforts on Asia, a major supplier of black-market wildlife and wildlife parts to

the world, " the State Department said.

 

The coalition " will focus political and public attention on growing threats to

wildlife from poaching and illegal trade, " it said.

 

 

 

Seven major US-based environmental and business groups with global interests and

programs have joined the coalition, the department said, adding that government

and non-government partners from Asia and Europe were expected to join in the

coming months.

 

Deputy US Assistant Secretary of State for Environment Claudia McMurray

announced the formation of the coalition at the conclusion of the prestigious

Wildlife Film Festival in Jackson Hole in Wyoming state on Friday.

 

Unchecked demand for exotic pets, rare foods, trophies and traditional medicines

is driving tigers, elephants, rhinos, unusual birds and many other species to

the brink of extinction, threatening global biodiversity, a State Department

statement said.

 

" Added to this is the alarming rise in virulent zoonotic diseases, such as SARS

and avian influenza, crossing species lines to infect humans and endanger public

health, " it warned.

 

Three patients under observation with symptoms of bird flu in Indonesia had

visited a zoo infected with the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

believe the dreaded disease is spread by wild species, which carry the virus

from infected areas and pass it to other flocks at stop-off points along their

globe-crossing migratory routes.

 

In Europe, animal welfare organizations have reportedly appealed to the European

Union to halt imports of wild birds, claiming that the exotic pet trade is

increasing the risk of bird flu reaching the continent.

 

Leading environmental and quarantine agencies in Australia say the lucrative

trade in illegally obtained wildlife presents a significant disease risk in the

country.

 

Partners in the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking are already working with

the government of Thailand and other members of the Association of Southeast

Asian Nations (ASEAN), the State Department said.

 

The Thai government will in October host a regional wildlife trafficking

workshop for law enforcement officials and officials responsible for compliance

with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

 

" Soon after the workshop, Southeast Asian environment ministers are expected to

announce the development of a regional wildlife trafficking law enforcement

network, " it said. No details of the network were immediately available.

 

William Armbruster, a State Department spokesman, said the coalition " expands on

the CITES effort by forming a structure to work with non-governmental

organizations to address the same issues and concerns. "

 

Last year, ASEAN member states -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,

Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- agreed to develop a

regional action plan on trade in wild flora and fauna.

 

Wildlife trafficking is a soaring black market worth 10 billion dollars a year,

second only to arms and drug smuggling, according to the State Department.