TRAFFIC – the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature.
TRAFFIC has an enviable reputation as a reliable and impartial organization, a leader in the field of conservation as it relates to wildlife trade. The organization was established in 1976 and has developed into a global network that employs around 100 staff based in nearly 30 countries. TRAFFIC’s work is research-driven and action-oriented, committed to delivering innovative and practical conservation solutions based on the latest information.
TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and is governed by the TRAFFIC Committee, a steering group composed of members of these partner organizations. A central aim of TRAFFIC’s activities is to contribute to the wildlife trade-related priorities of these partners. TRAFFIC also works in close co-operation with the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
TRAFFIC’s Vision is of a world in which trade in wild plants and animals is managed at sustainable levels without damaging the integrity of ecological systems and in such a manner that it makes a significant contribution to human needs, supports local and national economies and helps to motivate commitments to the conservation of wild species and their habitats.
WORK UNDER RAFT
Legality Training Seminars
TRAFFIC, together with WWF GFTN, is building industry capacity to comply with the US Lacey Act and emerging policies that require companies to demonstrate the legality of their wood product exports with the introduction of Exporting in a Shifting Legal Landscape – a guide to legal exports. This unique guide provides producers and processors in Asia with the information they need to protect their market access by maintaining compliance with domestic laws and sourcing timber that was legally taken in the country it came from.
The guide has been disseminated to hundreds of wood manufacturing company and industry association representatives through legality trainings in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, conducted from July-September 2010 Kick-off events in each country brought together US and local government officials to express their support for the shared objective of bringing legality and transparency to the global timber trade that links Asia-Pacific producers and processors to consumers in the US, Europe and elsewhere. Exporting in a Shifting Legal Landscape is available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese , Malay and Vietnamese. This is one part of TRAFFIC and WWF GFTN’s larger portfolio of work to support Lacey Act implementation.
Contact: Sarah Morgan (smorgan@traffic.netnam.vn), Communications Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia – Greater Mekong Programme.
Customs Collaboration
TRAFFIC is bringing its particular experience working with Customs officials to bear in RAFT’s efforts to promote responsible forest products trade. In 2009 and 2010, TRAFFIC partnered with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), which undertook a study of available instruments and actions to strengthen collaboration between Customs officials to prevent trade in illegal timber products. The outcome of this work – Enhancing Customs Collaboration to Combat the Illegal Trade in Timber – is a report which considers the role of Customs administrations in combating trade in illegal timber with the latest information on existing and potential options to strengthen enforcement through increased collaboration.
The report builds on the initiatives of the Asia Forest Partnership and East Asia and Pacific FLEG to promote cooperation among Customs, Forestry and other authorities. By collaborating to enforce relevant laws – with counterparts in other countries, and with other domestic agencies – Customs officials can help ensure that trade is a driver of improved forest management, and not the inverse.
Contact: Mr. Chen Hin Keong (hkchen@pc.jaring.my), TRAFFIC Global Forest Trade Programme Leader – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
