Trafficking

In collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Forestry of Côte d’Ivoire, WA BiCC organized a training workshop for French-speaking ECOWAS member states from the 21st to the 25th of October on the application of CITES by judges and prosecutors. The goal of the workshop was to strengthen their capacity to support the CITES Management…

Liberia is on track to losing significant populations of its wildlife and stands a risk of having some of its critically endangered species being completely wiped out in ten years if no action is taken. Mama Liberia is blessed with the largest remaining portion (42%) of the Upper Guinea rainforest; a forest that runs through…

Abuja, Nigeria, 29 March 2019 – In the face of continued levels of illegal wildlife trade, which is destroying the natural and cultural heritage of their region and undermines sovereign efforts to manage their own resources, West African nations, under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met to define a…

Porous borders. Lack of awareness. Commit to change. Certain phrases kept resonating at a high-level stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, that convened government agencies and their private sector and civil society partners intent on combatting wildlife crime in Nigeria and along its borders. Wildlife crime, which includes trafficking and illegal trade…

USAID West Africa’s Mission Director Daniel Moore has commended the actions of individual WA BiCC program staff and partners, following the successful rescue of an endangered pangolin. The story highlights the importance of raising awareness of critical conservation issues in our communities. Director Moore, who was speaking at a WA BiCC planning event, recognized the…

Building further on the momentum of Days 1 and 2, Day 3 got underway with the usual recap of the previous day’s activities. This quickly segued into a presentation by the Executive Secretary of the Abidjan Convention, Abou Bamba, on the structure and function of the Partnership. He introduced the Terms of Reference for the…

After a positive tone and momentum was firmly established on Day 1, the second day of the Abidjan Aquatic Wildlife Partnership Workshop got underway with a recap of the first day’s proceedings. Participants then dived into a plenary discussion focused on ensuring that the Mission of the AAWP aligns with the spirit and letter of…

Over the years, in wildlife conservation, there has been a lot of targeted effort into saving and conservation of terrestrial species, however their aquatic counterparts have not received as much attention. Interestingly, these aquatic species are under equal threat, some of which we do not fully understand due to the lack of data, especially in…

The third and final day of the workshop on “Developing a Coordinated Response to Wildlife Trafficking in West Africa” started with a review of the draft recommendations to high level decision-makers in a Plenary session. Following this important step, the CITES management authority representative from Benin presented the final version of the “Strategic Areas of…

Following up on the progress made on the first day of the workshop on “Developing a Coordinated Response to Wildlife Trafficking in West Africa”, Day 2 started early with a breakout session where the countries worked together to refine draft priority needs assessments and associated recommendations. Discussions emphasized the way each country is invested in…