The Wildlife Conservation Society has joined partners to announce an illegal wildlife trade conference which will take place in Peru Oct. 3 and 4, 2019.

The announcement was made during the CITES conference in Geneva.

The Peru meeting, which has been named The First High Level Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade in the Americas, is being hosted by the Government of Peru, specifically its Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI), the Peruvian Wildlife and Forestry Service (SERFOR) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RREE).

The conference is supported by a wide range of leading organizations and governments including the World Bank, European Union, WCS, British Embassy, U.S. Embassy, WWF, IFAW, U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Defenders of Wildlife and OCEANA. ​

In attendance will be UNODC, CITES, EL PacCTO from EU, USFWS and IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialists group.

Said Padu Franco, director of the WCS Andes Amazon & Orinoco Region: “This historic conference to be held in Peru will be key to bring governments and organizations together to address the wildlife trafficking threat affecting species across the Americas and to stop illegal trade coming in and out, and across this region. At WCS, we are honored to work with all the organizers and are committed to ensure that this conference is a turning point to address wildlife trafficking threats across the Americas.”

Watch this video to learn more: https://twitter.com/TheWCS/status/1165698192312295424.

The video documents the great extent of illegal wildlife trade across the Americas. It notes, for example, that the macaw population in Central America has been reduced to less than 2,000 individuals; and in Peru alone, more than 79,000 illegally traded live specimens were confiscated between 2000 and 2017.

The conference, which will be held in Lima, will focus on the illegal wildlife trade issues faced by the countries of the Americas. The purpose: To build alliances between the countries in the region and the main transit and destination countries for the coordinated prevention and control of illegal wildlife trade. Attending countries will draft the “Lima Declaration,” which will serve as a uniting call to fight against illegal wildlife trade as a serious crime that threatens biodiversity and environmental and human security.

The conference will bring together governments and conservation organizations from all the countries of the Americas and from invited countries around the world. This marks the first regional conference of the Americas to address illegal wildlife trade as one of the severe threats to biological diversity in this part of our planet.

To learn more, go here: https://www.serfor.gob.pe/conferencia-alto-nivel-americas-comercio-ilegal-vida-silvestre

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