Report back to Congress on the
Eradicate, Neutralize, and Disrupt Wildlife Trafficking Act of 2016
P.L. 114-231, Sec. 201
The Eradicate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act (P.L. 114-231; 16 U.S.C. §§ 7601-7644) (the Act) directs the Secretary of State, in session with the Secretary of the Inside and the Secretary of Commerce, to undergo Congress a report that lists Focus International locations and International locations of Concern, as outlined within the Act.
Wildlife trafficking stays a critical transnational crime that threatens safety, financial prosperity, the rule of regulation, long-standing conservation efforts, and human well being. E.O. 13773 of February 9, 2017, referred to as for a complete and decisive strategy to dismantle organized crime syndicates and particularly acknowledged the connection between wildlife trafficking and transnational felony organizations.
The Activity Power on Wildlife Trafficking (Activity Power), co-chaired by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Inside, and the Lawyer Basic, brings collectively 17 federal departments and companies to implement the Nationwide Technique for Combating Wildlife Trafficking (the “Nationwide Technique”). The USG’s three-pronged strategy to combating wildlife trafficking – strengthening regulation enforcement, lowering demand, and constructing worldwide cooperation – deprives criminals of a key supply of financing, lowering the felony risk posed to U.S. residents.
The Activity Power’s work to fight wildlife trafficking is making a distinction on the bottom at residence and worldwide. Activity Power efforts and actions are higher coordinated throughout the USG: efficiencies are recognized and leveraged, redundancies eradicated, and assets used extra strategically; worldwide outreach continues to broaden; and improved intelligence has recognized new areas of labor and alternatives for U.S. engagement. Working in partnership with the non-public sector, native communities, and NGOs, the USA has led the best way globally, securing agreements and commitments from governments and stakeholders to take pressing motion in any respect ranges. Highlights of Activity Power efforts are included within the separate strategic overview, as referred to as for in Sec. 301(d) of the Act.
To enhance accountability and reporting on technique implementation, the Activity Power developed a number of indicators for monitoring USG-supported actions to deal with wildlife trafficking in Focus International locations. These indicators are designed to measure inputs, outputs, or outcomes of regulation enforcement capability constructing and cooperation efforts, coverage reform, and demand discount actions tailor-made to every nation. Additionally they measure dimensions of how significantly wildlife crime is perceived or addressed in every nation. U.S. missions in all 28 Focus International locations reported indicator knowledge in 2020. Nearly each submit reported supporting host nation wildlife regulation enforcement efforts with coaching or different assets in 2020. Twenty-five of 28 posts reported seizures of property, proceeds, and unlawful wildlife or wildlife merchandise by regulation enforcement authorities. Twenty-two of 28 posts reported knowledge on arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of wildlife traffickers. The Activity Power additionally obtained knowledge on demand discount indicators for 14 of the 28 Focus International locations. In whole, USG demand discount efforts for unlawful wildlife merchandise reached an estimated 226 million folks in 17 Focus International locations.
Focus International locations[1]
Methodology for Figuring out Focus International locations
State labored carefully with the opposite companies of the Activity Power to make use of each qualitative and quantitative info to establish Focus International locations and International locations of Concern, as outlined in Part 2 of the Act, for the 2017 END Act Report. Technical specialists and scientists from Activity Power companies established a course of to investigate wildlife trafficking info and gathered a set of related and accessible knowledge. This evaluation included analysis of information drawn from public reporting by USG companies, worldwide entities such because the Conference on Worldwide Commerce in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Worldwide Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the UN Workplace of Medication and Crime, in addition to NGOs such because the Middle for Superior Protection Research, TRAFFIC, the Environmental Investigation Company, and Transparency Worldwide. Data from the required nationwide assessments strengthened and augmented our earlier findings.
Activity Power companies, together with these represented at U.S. missions abroad, reviewed the preliminary evaluation and offered further info that was usually solely accessible regionally. These country-specific analyses helped to spherical out the worldwide knowledge, together with by offering info on further species resembling felines, primates, and marine species. Companies additionally thought-about the trajectory of wildlife populations and the impacts of trafficking, authorities, and personal sector efforts to forestall unlawful commerce, and the presence of authorized or poorly regulated home markets for species threatened by wildlife trafficking.
The Activity Power additional evaluated whether or not governments had lately taken steps to enhance laws, laws, and/or enforcement and different traits such that the nation is rising its efforts to fight the unlawful commerce in wildlife. Subsequent to the preliminary 26 Focus International locations recognized within the 2017 and 2018 reviews, the 2019 report listed a further two Focus International locations. No Focus International locations have been added or eliminated in 2020 or 2021.
2021 Focus International locations
State, in session with the Departments of the Inside and Commerce, and with USAID, agreed that every one 28 of the international locations and jurisdictions listed as Focus International locations within the 2020 END Act Report ought to stay listed. Every nation beforehand listed continues to be a “main supply of wildlife trafficking merchandise or their derivatives, a serious transit level of wildlife trafficking merchandise or their derivatives, or a serious shopper of wildlife trafficking merchandise,” and designation seems to have contributed to elevated consideration to combating wildlife trafficking in some Focus International locations.
This willpower relies on evaluation of the statutory standards within the Act and doesn’t replicate a optimistic or destructive judgment of the listed international locations or point out that these international locations should not working diligently to fight wildlife trafficking. Certainly, the USA has longstanding partnerships with many of those international locations with respect to combating wildlife trafficking and acknowledges the sturdy political will that already exists in lots of of those international locations to sort out this downside. State and different Activity Power companies stay up for persevering with shut and constructive relationships with these international locations as we work collaboratively to fight wildlife trafficking. No new focus international locations have been added.
In step with Part 301 of the Act, U.S. missions in every Focus Nation developed a strategic plan based mostly on the U.S. mission’s evaluation of wildlife trafficking inside that nation. U.S. companies used the strategic plans to information and coordinate USG approaches and responses to the wants and gaps recognized within the evaluation. The Activity Power co-chairs, together with USAID, developed and distributed templates for each the assessments and strategic plans. All Activity Power companies, each at submit and in Washington, have been invited to contribute to their growth. The Activity Power reviewed the assessments and strategic plans for completeness and consistency, recognizing variability based mostly on location, assets throughout the U.S. mission, and former engagement within the concern.
U.S. missions in all Focus International locations have accomplished their assessments and strategic plans. Collectively these paperwork present an summary of the problems associated to wildlife trafficking in that nation, establish key areas for strategic intervention by the USG, and both set up a brand new platform or assist current constructions throughout the mission to information a coordinated, “entire of USG” strategy to interventions.
2021 Focus Nation Checklist (in alphabetical order)
Bangladesh
Brazil
Burma
Cambodia
Cameroon
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area
India
Indonesia
Kenya
Laos
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mexico
Mozambique
Nigeria
Individuals’s Republic of China
Philippines
Republic of the Congo
South Africa
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Vietnam
Zimbabwe
International locations of Concern
2021 International locations of Concern
To establish International locations of Concern among the many 28 Focus International locations as directed by Part 201(b) of the Act, State, in session with the Departments of the Inside and Commerce and with USAID, reviewed publicly accessible info in addition to labeled materials that indicated that governments actively engaged in or knowingly profited from the trafficking of endangered or threatened species. In 2020, no International locations of Concern have been faraway from the checklist, and Cambodia, Cameroon, and Nigeria have been added. There have been no adjustments to this checklist in 2021. This designation doesn’t point out that every one elements of the federal government are or have been concerned in wildlife trafficking, however that there are critical issues that both high-level or systemic authorities involvement has occurred. The Activity Power will, amongst different issues, make sure that USG companies coordinate efforts amongst U.S. federal companies and non-federal companions to implement the U.S. mission strategic plans developed in accordance with part 301 of the Act, with a view to supporting these international locations and their governments to scale back commerce in and shopper demand for illegally traded wildlife and wildlife merchandise.
2021 International locations of Concern Checklist (in alphabetical order)
Cambodia
Cameroon
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Laos
Madagascar
Nigeria
[1] Observe that this checklist contains each international locations and jurisdictions
