7 July 2014: At a side event organized during the sixty-fifth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES SC65), the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) launched its Strategic Mission 2014-2016. The Mission sets forth the agenda to fight wildlife and forest crime, providing the first strategic framework for the consortium’s activities and future directions since its establishment in late 2010.

ICCWC is a partnership among the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and the World Customs Organization (WCO). Five focus areas are identified in the Strategic Mission: strengthening cooperation and coordination; analyzing current responses to wildlife and forest crime; building national enforcement capacity; raising awareness and political support; and improving the use of knowledge and innovation in responses to wildlife and forest crime.

Also, on the eve of SC65, the CITES Secretariat announced that it signed a EUR 12 million agreement with the European Commission to minimize the poaching of flagship species in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). The programme, ‘Minimizing the Illegal Killing of Elephants and other Endangered Species (MIKES)’ is a 50-month long programme focused on generating regular and reliable information on the status and threats to elephants and other flagship species based on law enforcement benchmarks and ranger-based monitoring systems. The programme builds on the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) Programme, which has been developed and implemented by CITES in collaboration with African elephant range States, with the support of the European Commission and key partners, since 2001.

The CITES SC65 is being held from 7-11 July 2014, in Geneva, Switzerland. [CITES Press Release on ICCWC] [ICCWC Strategic Mission 2014-2016] [CITES Press Release on MIKES]