ETEE7

Highlights Day 1: 10 March 2013 17
In addition, governments should strive to remove the high-profit lure of wildlife crime by launching
effective awareness-raising campaigns that take into consideration the fundamental factors affecting
consumer behavior, curbing the demand for wildlife products, and strengthening law enforcement
mechanisms to significantly increase the sourcing and distribution costs associated with illegal wildlife
trade. Governments should also (i) commit to a zero-tolerance policy on corruption; (ii) amend laws,
if necessary, to ensure that illicit wildlife trafficking is punishable by at least 4 years’ imprisonment;
(iii) equip judiciaries with better awareness, capacity, and resources to safeguard the effective conduct of
illicit wildlife trafficking prosecutions to the fullest extent of the law and to apply the strongest penalties
available; (iv) investigate wildlife crime suspects for their possible involvement in offenses unrelated to
wildlife and seize their assets; (v) allocate more resources to combating wildlife crime, particularly to
strengthening wildlife law enforcement, trade controls, monitoring, and customs detection and seizure;
(vi) publicize illicit wildlife trafficking as a serious crime and showcase successful prosecutions with
significant penalties meted out; and (vii) promote the establishment of, and active participation in, a
national environmental security task force (NEST) or any similar multiagency cooperative.
Dr. Drews ended by inviting the participants to download a copy of Fighting Illicit Wildlife Trafficking:
A Consultation with Governments from the WWF website.
Summarizing Dr. Drews’s presentation, Ms. Birken reminded the participants of the need for
government agencies, other than ministries of environment and law enforcers, to engage in efforts
to combat wildlife crime, and thanked the judiciaries and other enforcement agencies for attending
this symposium.
Mr. Sean Willmore, president of the International Ranger Federation, first thanked the participants
for the opportunity to represent the park rangers at the front line of conservation. Then he related the
stories and concerns of countless park rangers through pictures and anecdotes in an effort to inform
policy makers, law enforcers, and concerned international organizations about the plight of park rangers
in the context of biodiversity conservation. Most, if not all, park rangers risk their lives, often getting
injured and even dying in the line of duty, without getting any medical assistance or compensation. They
live in pitch tents in the wild, with two armed rangers staying awake at night to guard the camp from
poachers. Often, they wake up in the middle of the night to see animals, apparently perceiving that they
would be safer with the rangers than in the wild, approaching them for safety. Minor cuts suffered by
these rangers can be deadly without the needed disinfectants, while those who survive fatal gunshots
and wounds remain emotionally traumatized and unable to talk about their near-death encounters for
fear that they might be induced to tears and shamed in front of their friends by recalling and describing
these incidents.
Mr. Willmore also told the participants how many rangers in Cambodia have demonstrated
exemplary integrity by refusing to take bribes from poachers, despite the fact that their meager salary
of $30 a month is nowhere near the basic cost of living of $100 a month. Rangers do, however, face the
disincentive of seeing the poachers they arrest get released from prison just a month or so after their
detention, poaching again and firing at them with the same gun, and even hurling death threats at these
rangers and their families. A strong law enforcement chain all the way from the rangers right through to
the judicial system can eliminate this disincentive.