EU to support Africa’s anti-wildlife trafficking efforts with €30m

As part of a 30m Euro intervention, the European Union (EU), on 5 December, sign a 17.2m Euro agreement with three UN institutions working jointly to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products throughout Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.
The new ‘cross-regional wildlife programme’ will focus its activities in the regions’ most important protected areas, national transit points, and in some of Africa’s most important trans-boundary ecosystems.
The new project aims at tackling the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products at three levels which include the MIKE Programme, that will lead the implementation of activities to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife at a number of priority protected areas located in critical trans-boundary ecosystems throughout Eastern and Southern Africa.
It will also incorporate the national and regional levels with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which will lead activities focused on reducing the international trafficking of wildlife products by strengthening and expanding their highly successful Container Control Programme, improving criminal justice responses and enhancing capacities through the criminal justice chain.
The regional level, activities under CMS will focus on developing and strengthening the governance and collaborative management mechanisms for some of most important ‘trans-boundary conservation areas’ throughout eastern and southern Africa.
This innovative project, building on the strengths of each of the three implementing organizations’ experience, will be signed at a high-level event of the ongoing UNEA-3.