AU, TRAFFIC to Combat Illegal Wildlife Trade

The African Union (AU) and TRAFFIC, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), have signed an agreement to protect Africa’s wildlife from illegal trade and support development.

Development Diaries understands that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the continental body and the NGO would act as a framework to combat the illegal trade in Africa’s wildlife and biodiversity including flora and fauna on land, wetlands, and marine ecosystems.

In its 2020 Living Planet report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) put the loss of natural habitat at the top of the list of causes of the decline in wild animals.

According to the WWF analysis, wild animal populations fell by an average of 68 percent between 1970 and 2016.

The recognition of wild flora and fauna as important to biodiversity and Africans’ livelihoods, especially during post-pandemic recovery, has gathered momentum among AU member states.

AU’s Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE), Josefa Sacko, who signed the MoU, called the step a significant one towards implementing the AU’s wildlife strategy.

‘For the African Union, this is an important MoU for the safeguarding of Africa’s wild biodiversity. We are looking forward to deepening our already great collaboration with TRAFFIC’, Sacko said in a statement.

‘[The AU welcomes] TRAFFIC’s technical support and policy which stems from its evidence-based experience on how to keep the use and trade of wild harvested flora and fauna at legal and sustainable levels, and on how to best combat any illegal trade and overexploitation threatening our biodiversity.’

For his part, the Executive Director of TRAFFIC, Richard Scobey, reiterated TRAFFIC’s commitment to collaborating with the AU.

‘We are committed to improving the sustainability of Africa’s wildlife, environment and legal trade to support national economies and local development across the continent alongside the African Union Commission’, he said.

‘It is a promising and welcome step towards sustainable wildlife trade in Africa’.

TRAFFIC is expected to assist the AU and its member states to prepare for and build relationships at multilateral summits such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Methods like the Trade in Wildlife eXchange (TWIX) platforms in Central, Southern and Eastern Africa is expected to help to reduce demand for illegally and unsustainably harvested wild fauna and flora at the end of the supply chain.

Additionally, TRAFFIC is expected to assist the AU in the effective implementation of the Green Recovery Action Plan and provide support to the ‘Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions’ component.

TRAFFIC is an international NGO that works to ensure the wildlife trade is not a threat to the conservation of nature.

Source: AU

Photo source: Frontier Official

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