Guatemala joins the Americas to combat illegal wildlife trade
Delegations from the Americas met on 10 October at the FCO in London to commit to future engagement on Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT).
Thérèse Coffey (DEFRA) - Minor Garcia (CONAP)
Representatives of Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and the US attended the meeting. Minor García, Deputy Director of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) represented Guatemala.
Deputy Director Garcia and other countries’ delegates were hosted by Thérèse Coffey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. According to official statistics, illegal wildlife trade is worth more than £17 billion a year, and is directly linked to transnational organized crime structures.
Participating countries recognised that Illegal Wildlife Trade is a major issue in the Americas, and that it should be treated as a serious and organised crime that affects the economy, security, indigenous communities and ecosystems in the region.
Representatives decided to work collaboratively to tackle the trafficking of flora and fauna, including poaching, on a regional and international scale. To affirm this intention, all delegations recognised the need for regional collaboration on this issue.
At the end of the meeting, delegations welcomed the announcement from Peru that it will hold a regional conference on IWT in Lima in 2019, building on the work undertaken at London 2018.
This special meeting took place in the margins of the global conference on illegal wildlife trade, which ended 12 October in London and was organized by the British Government. Politicians, entrepreneurs and civil society from around the world met to seek for medium and long term solutions to tackle this problem.