International Air Transport Association also known as IATA recently announced the launching of an Assessment Tool to help with Airport Wildlife Trafficking and this will enable the respective airport authorities in different countries to catch any wildlife smugglers in the long run saving the endangered species.
This Assessment Tool, that was developed jointly with World Customs Organization – WCO with the support from USAID-ROUTES Partnership, is going to be piloted within this month of November 2016at Maputo International Airport. However it will be passed on internationally in 2017. It is designed to help various analyze and evaluated their supply-chain in terms of security, overall intelligence as well as risk management, their reporting processes and staff awareness in addition to their procedures plus policies relating to screening of passengers and all air cargo.
Alexandre de Juniac the CEO and Director General at IATA said that the unlawful trafficking of any wildlife products, such as several well-known plus endangered species, is currently a big problem that the aviation sector takes extremely seriously, and to fight this illegal trade is going to need team effort. The CEO went on to say that they are working in closely partnership with CITES,USAID-Routes plus WCO, along with other organizations to help make the entire world a more challenging for traffickers of wildlife to operate. In conclusion he said that the common goal is to protect our valuable wildlife inheritance so that the generations to come can also enjoy it.
Kunio Mikuriya the Secretary General of WCO said that actors within the air transport industry can perform the duties of being the ears as well as the eyes of the law enforcement agencies and in fact can be helpful partners in the fight to get rid of wildlife trafficking on the planet. This Assessment Tool will help them to discover the weak spots in the procedures along with the practices, usually used by traffickers, and the ways of fortifying them.
The unveiling of this Assessment Tool was announced as governments met at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference held in Hanoi – Vietnam, to talk about methods of getting rid of trafficking. This Tool is the most recent development within the air transport sector’s initiatives on this crucial issue. At the start of this year, IATA, together with Twenty six (26) of its member-airlines signed the Duke of Cambridge’s United for Wildlife-Transport-Taskforce-Buckingham Palace Declaration. The Signatories have dedicated to increase awareness among people about trafficking of wildlife, train staff-members to help locate traffickers, as well as enhance cooperation among transport bodies, the regulatory agencies and the enforcement organizations. In accordance with this responsibility, IATA, in support with USAID, has developed a video to assist raise awareness of wildlife trafficking among airline staff especially those serving at the frontline.
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