New Funds are Allocated by France and Monaco to Step Up the Fight Against Wildlife Crime

Geneva, 26 June 2017 - France and the Principality of Monaco have made a generous contribution to financing the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), which is a collaboration between the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization to strengthen criminal justice systems and front-line efforts to combat wildlife crime.  This funding will support the implementation of the ICCWC's Strategic Programme for 2016-2020. 

This support follows the adoption of a decision taken at the 17^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP17, Johannesburg, 2016), encouraging CITES member states to provide financial support to the Consortium to ensure it can continue to provide coordinated global support to the law enforcement community in its fight against wildlife crime. 

"Thanks to the generous financial contributions from France and the Principality of Monaco, the ICCWC will be able to enhance its support to range, transit and destination countries affected by illicit wildlife trafficking," stated John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES.  "The ICCWC is delivering on an increasing number of well targeted activities in response to growing demand from countries requesting the ICCWC’s support.  The funding provided by France and Monaco makes an important contribution to enabling the ICCWC to deliver support and capacity building to step up the fight against wildlife crime." 

"International wildlife crime must be combated on several levels - nationally, regionally and internationally.  This is what the ICCWC is doing.  This cross-cutting initiative has already demonstrated its effectiveness in the development and provision of essential tools for States in law enforcement and criminal justice, as well as in the social and economic sectors," emphasised Gilles Tonelli, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. "For all these reasons, the Principality of Monaco sees the ICCWC as an essential means of achieving the sustainable development goals." 

The ICCWC provides essential front-line support for a wide range of activities aimed at strengthening anti-fraud capacity and improving geographic and intersectoral cooperation to combat wildlife crime.  This spirit is at the heart of the ICCWC's Strategic Programme for 2016-2020, a comprehensive strategy aimed at strengthening criminal justice systems and providing coordinated, well-targeted support in key sectors where the Consortium is uniquely placed to contribute significantly to the fight against wildlife trafficking. 

The need to strengthen international collaboration and coordination to combat wildlife trafficking and the important role of the ICCWC has been widely recognised at the global level.  France's contribution of EUR 85,000 for activities undertaken in 2017 and Monaco's promise of EUR 200,000 over the next four years are the first of many pledges received from the Parties to CITES in 2016 at CoP17 and the Hanoi Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade to support and facilitate the Consortium's initiatives that are currently under way.