6 March 2013: An event held on the sidelines of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 16) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) discussed ways to address transboundary wildlife crime by using advanced technology collaborations.

The event, titled “Bytes Beyond Borders: Strengthening Transboundary Information Sharing on Wildlife Crime through the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS) Initiative,” highlighted the use of the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS), a transboundary information-sharing platform that responds to the need for a regional governance model to compile data on transboundary wildlife crime from national wildlife authorities.

The WEMS initiative has led to a partnership between the UN University (UNU) Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the University of Twente, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force for Co-operative Enforcement Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora (LATF), and the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University.

The event brought together experts from CITES, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), INTERPOL and enforcement officials from CITES Member States to review current developments of WEMS-Africa and explore the potential of a WEMS-Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). [UNU News]