APA – Dakar (Senegal) – The illegal international trade in animals is one of the threats to the conservation of biodiversity.
Several national and international laws protect numerous species of fauna and flora (terrestrial and aquatic or marine). Despite this, these animals are illegally trafficked by a number of criminal networks, generating large sums of money. According to Aba Sonko, a water and forestry engineer specialising in wildlife, illegal wildlife trafficking generates 23 billion dollars a year.
“That’s why it’s not easy to eradicate something that generates so much money, because traffickers get round the control strategies. But national synergy can limit the scourge,” said Mr. Sonko on Tuesday in Dakar, on the fringes of a national consultation workshop on wildlife trafficking organised by USAID’s “Dekkal Geej” (Regenerating fish stocks) project.
According to Colonel Babacar Dione, Deputy Director of Water and Forests, Hunting and Soil Conservation, more than 6,000 species are illegally trafficked around the world by some fifty nationalities.
These species, “he said, are used without permits or authorisation, and are imported and exported without the CITES paper that regulates trade in wild species.”
Commenting on the workshop, Colonel Dione said that it would enable a plan of action to be drawn up to curb the illegal trafficking of wild species with a view to conserving biodiversity.
According to Amadou Mactar Niane, programme manager for the “Dekkal Geej” Project, the two-day meeting will also provide an opportunity to take stock of the fight against wildlife trafficking and to identify the various problems associated with wildlife trafficking.
TE/ac/fss/abj/APA