Bangkok--7 Oct--ASEAN-WEN LEEO
Security Ministers upgrade Wildlife and Timber Trafficking as a serious transnational organized crime under the purview of the ASEAN Plan of Action to Combat Transnational Crime
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers on Thursday (Oct 1) signed a declaration reinforcing the Southeast Asian grouping's commitment to combating cross-border crime in the region. The 10th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC) and its related?meetings concluded with the adoption of the "Kuala Lumpur DeclarationinCombating Transnational Crime".Thedeclaration was signed by the ministers and heads of delegates from the 10ASEAN countries, where Malaysia, the Chair Country of ASEAN, was represented byDeputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also HomeMinister.The 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration adds trafficking of wildlifeand timber, as well as people smuggling to that list.Thailand will be incharge of plans to combat the trafficking of wildlife and timber, whileMalaysia will oversee efforts against people smuggling, along with moneylaundering and sea piracy.
The declaration will ensure that the fight against Wildlife and forest crime will now be at par with similar government law enforcement priority actions against crimes like drug trafficking, human?trafficking and smuggling, terrorism, and arms smuggling. With this prioritization security agencies and financial complements will be mobilized to strengthen ASEAN's response.In August 2014the Foreign Ministers from the EastAsia Summit (EAS) endorsed wildlife crime as a new threat under theNon-traditional Security and Non-proliferation purviewin the region.This was adopted by the leaders at the 9thEAS in November 2014, where the Heads of all ASEANmember States and Governments – as well as those from Australia, People'sRepublic of China, Republic of India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand,Russian Federation, and the United States of America– agreed on the East Asia Summit Declaration on Combating Wildlife Trafficking. In particular, this agreement requested the ASEAN Ministers Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC) to consider recognizing environmental crime as a serious transnational crime.
The proposal to include wildlife and timber trafficking on the ASEAN Senior Officials on Transnational Crime (SOMTC) agenda was initially led by the?Royal Thai Police with support of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), the USAID-funded ARREST Program (Asia's Regional Response toEndangered Species Trafficking) led by the Bangkok-based anti-trafficking groupFreeland and partners like the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and theAsia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) of the National University ofSingapore (NUS).Since 2009, theUSGovernment, through its support ASEAN-WEN and Freeland have been providingtechnical support to ASEAN champion countries in the negotiations, specializedworkshops and research that ledto the inclusion of wildlife and timber crimeonto the" 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration in Combating Transnational Crime".Since 2014, the Royal Thai Police withsupport from both Freeland and UNODCorganized specialized pre-SOMTC workshopsto facilitate consultations and academic discourse in the upgrading process. InApril 2015, Freeland and the UNODC presented a joint paper on"LegalFramework toaddress wildlife and timber trafficking in the ASEAN region: Arapid assessment", a strategic policy guide on the legal environment towardscriminalization of wildlife and forest crime in theregion, which wasreferenced in future higher-level confabs.
The Kuala Lumpur Declaration complements recent top-level statements and actions in support of combating wildlife crime in the region. In 2014, the ASEANAPOL (ASEAN Chiefs of Police) General Assembly recognized wildlife crime as a priority agenda, and in 2012, parliamentarians of ASEAN issued a resolution urging the SOMTC to upgrade wildlife crime as a priority agenda, and the strengthening of legislative responses to combat wildlife crime.
"Freeland congratulatesthe ASEAN Ministers for this strategic directive to mobilize the largersecurity community in the region to fight wildlife and timber trafficking",said Steven Galster,Director of Freeland. "We are proud of have been part ofthis monumental process, which started in 2009 through our support to the RoyalThai Police and ASEAN-WEN delegations to earlySOMTC negotiations. We are pleased that in this effort, UNODC, APCEL-NUS and the US Government have leveraged their respective support to the AMS and the SOMTC Process." He added, that"However, itis urgent for ASEAN to push for national follow-up commitments andoperationalization of this new security mandate, and to utilize andstrengtheningexisting regional enforcement support bodies, ASEAN-WEN andASEANAPOL."