12 March 2014
UNWTO, UNODC and African Ministers Join to Fight Illegal Wildlife Trade
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On the occasion of the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and African Tourism Ministers from Ghana, Guinea, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe committed, in response to the growth in illegal wildlife trade, to join hands in finding a means to stop it.

unodv-unwto10 March 2014: On the occasion of the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and African Tourism Ministers from Ghana, Guinea, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe committed, in response to the growth in illegal wildlife trade, to join hands in finding a means to stop it.

Bradnee Chambers, Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), also in attendance, stressed that losing iconic wildlife would be like losing the Eiffel Tower or the Great Wall of China.

At this meeting, participants reviewed the current situation in individual countries, shared experiences, and discussed the tourism sector’s role in addressing poaching and illegal trade. Official representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Eritrea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Principe, Uganda and Zambia also attended the discussions. Jochen Flasbarth, the German State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, highlighted the importance of addressing poaching from a wider perspective and welcomed the commitment of the tourism sector. [UNWTO News]

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