28 February 2011: The Senior Experts Group of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) recently met in Vienna, Austria, to agree its programme of work for 2011.

The ICCWC was launched during the International Tiger Conservation Forum in November 2010 and comprises five partner agencies: the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); INTERPOL; UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); the World Bank; and the World Customs Organization.

At the meeting in Vienna, experts agreed to develop a programme of work including a programme to establish Controlled Delivery Units in countries affected by trafficking in wildlife, especially illegal logging. In addition, for 2011, the Consortium committed to: holding a senior-level seminar involving Customs and the police from the 13 countries in Asia where tigers are still found in the wild; supporting the CITES Ivory and Rhinoceros Enforcement Task Force in bringing together law enforcement officials from countries affected by illegal trade in elephant and rhinoceros parts and products, to design strategies to combat such trade and facilitate intelligence exchange of intelligence; providing training support to officials in the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN); and completing a Wildlife and Forest Crime toolkit, which countries can use to review their current response to such crimes. [UNODC Press Release] [CITES Press Release]