Secretary-General's statements

  Corruption as an enabler of wildlife and forest crime Joint Statement of Mr Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC and Mr John Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES  Saint Petersburg, 3 November 2015 As the world turns to realising the new development agenda with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, we are concerned that spiralling wildlife and forest crime, fuelled by corrosive corruption, can impede vital progress.

Corruption is “an insidious plague” that is present in the wildlife sector just as it is in other sectors, indeed in virtually any form of human activity. A clear message of the determination of the international community to work to prevent and combat corruption was sent with the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) of the UN Convention Against Corruption in 2003 and its entry into force in 2005.

Keynote Address 'CITES and wildlife trade – how CITES works and what it is and isn’t’ John E. Scanlon Secretary-General, CITES Secretariat Tbilisi, 20 October 2015

Global trade in wild animal and plant species, including fish and timber, is on the rise - both legal and illegal. Legal and sustainable trade in certain species, such as the wool of the vicuna or the bark of the African cherry tree, can benefit people and wildlife. The current surge in illegal wildlife trade, estimated to be in the billions of dollars annually, is having devastating economic, social and environmental impacts. But not all the costs of wildlife trafficking can be quantified. Iconic species like elephants, and the lesser-known but heavily trafficked pangolin, are being driven toward what experts warn may be the next big extinction.