Overcoming barriers to fighting wildlife crime
ildlife trafficking, like drug and human trafficking, is often a trans-boundary crime. Animal parts and products, non-timber forest products, and living creatures heading to the pet trade find their way across borders every day, passing fluidly between jurisdictions and human societies.
Given legal and language barriers, it can be challenging to catch criminals, follow leads, or even keep up to date on the policies and legislation that govern wildlife.
These are very real concerns for the participants in a recent cross-border cooperation workshop in which members of the Provincial Wildlife Enforcement Networks (P-WENs) from five provinces in the Golden Triangle area of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar met in Tachileik, Shan state, Myanmar. The workshop, which was organized by WWF, was attended by a range of wildlife authorities and law-enforcement officials, including representatives from the national and provincial forest departments, forest police, customs, prosecution, and police, to name a few.
Mia Signs
