6 October 2010: The Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has awarded a Certificate of Commendation to the General Directorate of Customs of the Czech Republic and the Czech Environmental Inspectorate.

The Certificate recognizes their “exemplary efforts” to combat illegal trade in parrots. Since 2006, the two Czech agencies have collaborated on a long-term investigation relating to the smuggling of rare parrots, which has required liaison and coordination with other law enforcement bodies around the world and with the INTERPOL General Secretariat. The investigation has uncovered widespread forgery of CITES documents, false declarations of captive breeding, and use of fake marking rings. [UNEP press release]