The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) came into effect on 23 November 2010 after the Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Secretary-General of ICPO-INTERPOL, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the President of the World Bank and the Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) have signed a Letter of Understanding which includes this:
HEREBY agree, within the context of their respective responsibilities, capabilities, and priorities to:
- highlight within their institutions the importance of the fight against wildlife crimes and other related violations and promote ICCWC among governments of States, through inter alia, relevant international fora;
- assist countries in reviewing their current responses to wildlife crimes and related violations, facilitate national multi-agency interaction and cooperation, and encourage effective responses throughout the justice system;
- develop a joint work program that will include joint activities in the fields of capacity building, operational support and coordination of transnational interdiction efforts;
- disseminate existing, and jointly develop new, capacity building materials and tools to enhance the knowledge and skills of national agencies in combating wildlife crime and related violations;
- undertake research into the causes, nature, scale and value of wildlife crime and related violations and propose innovative ways to prevent and discourage such crime and related violations, for example, through the provision of socio-economic incentives which encourage local communities to use natural resources in a lawful and sustainable manner and to participate in related monitoring and control efforts;
- assist in promoting best practice in the fields of natural resource conservation and management; and where appropriate, seek donor support to enable the provision of such services in the form of joint projects and programmes.
We further agree that our agencies, when collaborating together, will work under the title, the ‘International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime’.
Meanwhile this month, the Gillard Labor Government’s Fisheries Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2010 finished wending its way through both Houses of the Australian Federal Parliament.
According to the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry this bill will:
Also in November the ever hypocritical Government of Japan began its 2010 Antarctic whaling season and once its government-funded 'research' fleet reaches the Southern Ocean it is expected to kill for commercial sale at least 1,000 whales, including an endangered cetacean species and possibly for the first time since the 2007 agreement, humpback whales.