Training on the Prevention of Wildlife Crime and Trade with emphasis on coastal and marine species - By GoI-UNDP-GEF-GoAP Project

               Illegal wildlife trade is perceived to be a high profit and low risk activity and has grown to become the fifth largest illegal global trade after narcotics, counterfeiting, human trafficking and oil trafficking. Besides driving many endangered species towards extinction, illegal wildlife trade strengthen criminal networks, undermines national security, and poses increasing risks to global health.

          Wildlife crime manifest itself in many ways from the illegal international trade in wildlife to the deliberate persecution of animals. India has nearly 6.5% of the worlds known wildlife species, and is one of the mega diverse countries of the world. The global demand for wildlife species and its products puts at risk the mega diversity of the country. The changing market dynamics and the lifestyles make the existing regulatory regimes inadequate in dealing with the wildlife crimes assuming organized status. It calls for coordinated actions in combating the wildlife related crimes including building capacity for scientific and professional investigation along with other measures.

Against this background, specialized capacity development training was conducted for the enforcement department’s viz., AndhraPradesh Forest, Indian Coast Guards, Indian Customs, Kakinada Marine police, Corporate Sectors under the GoI-UNDP-GEF-GoAP Project. The training was largely focused on capacity development for the support of investigative operations by the way of identifying the important coastal and marine species regularly in the trade, questioning wildlife smugglers, risk management and ethics and professionalism in building wildlife cases.

The resource personnel from wildlife crime control bureau, Chennai was imparted training on “wildlife crime and trade with special reference to coastal and marine species” date 13/09/2013 at Hotel Royal Park.