Wildlife Alliance

LONG known to be a wildlife trade hotspot, South-East Asia has seen little co-ordinated enforcement on the illegal trade that flows freely across the borders of countries in this region.

Steve Galster of Wildlife Alliance believes the ASEAN initiative has made significant progress in the past two years.

That changed in 2005 when 10 governments launched the Association of South-East Asian-Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-WEN), an inter-governmental law enforcement agreement to combat the flourishing wildlife trade.

Steve Galster of Wildlife Alliance believes the Asean initiative has made significant progress in the past two years. Two non-governmental organisations were instrumental in pushing for the formation – WildAid (now known as Wildlife Alliance) and Traffic, the wildlife trade-monitoring network.

A driving force behind Asean-WEN, Steve Galster of Wildlife Alliance believes the initiative has made significant progress in the past two years. He says that despite the seemingly lack of action on the ground in most countries, solid foundation has been laid that will enhance co-operation between enforcement agencies of the countries involved.

Police and customs authorities of member countries joined the network in May 2006 to support cross-agency and cross-border co-operation in the regional fight against wildlife crime.

John Sellar, senior enforcement officer for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) said: “There is still some way to go before this network is a true wildlife Interpol. But as police and customs collaborate with national Cites officers, Asean-WEN can obtain what it needs to put some major wildlife criminals out of business and behind bars where they belong.”

While other countries are getting their acts together, Thai enforcement capacities have been greatly enhanced through help from Wildlife Alliance. Enforcement officers have been trained in surveillance, interrogation and investigation techniques, species identification and care, conservation laws, effective raids, and the ties between illegal wildlife trade and other illicit activities such as drug smuggling.

With intelligence sharing facilitated by Asean-WEN, Thai enforcers have busted numerous shipments of endangered species such as pangolins, tigers, clouded leopards and tortoises as well as shahtoosh shawls (made from the hair of the endangered Tibetan antelope) in the country’s entry points and retail outlets.

Galster says the challenge for the network is beyond confiscation but in performing long-term investigations that will cripple syndicates and convict kingpins.

To read related stories, visit Wildlife CSI at TheStar Online