An exchange meeting on “The concerted fight against crime on the flora and fauna in Africa,” was held on August 28 in Brazzaville
The capital of the Republic of Congo has been home on August 28, of an exchange meeting on the theme: “The concerted fight against crime on the wildlife in Africa.” The event brought together the governments involved in the fight against illegal logging and illegal trade in wildlife, including eco-guards, police, justice, police, customs and navy. The pretext for this meeting was clear from the reports and statistics published in the last two decades by international organizations, agencies of the UN system and the media nations: crimes on wildlife cause a lot of damage.
Over the past five years, the Task Force on the Lusaka recorded 90 cases of large seizures, 74 ivory elephant and 82 rhinoceros horns. In addition, recent reports of the monitoring program of illegal killing of elephants revealed that 17,000 elephants were slaughtered in 2011, 15,000 in 2012 and 14,000 in 2013, on the African continent. These figures have told the Director of the Task Force of the Lusaka Agreement, Bonaventure Ebayi that: “The current complexity of poaching including protected species such as elephant, rhino, gorilla, chimpanzee and traffic specimens and products remain a major challenge we all face.”
It was therefore a question for the member countries of the Lusaka Agreement, to clarify, organize, plan and define the method of execution that domains priority action. Issues relating to compliance with the mandates of institutions and people skills in this area of bilateral cooperation and inter-service and inter-sectoral collaboration were also discussed. In the opinion of the Chief of Staff of the Minister of Forest Economy and Sustainable Development, Michel Elenga, “Every state has a legal and institutional arsenal that guarantees the conservation of natural resources.”
Problems to date are located at two levels. The first is related to the lack of technical and financial resources, the second relates to the degree of awareness and consideration that each of us gives to issues of conservation. To raise awareness of stakeholders of the Lusaka Agreement, it was announced that the fight against trafficking in products of biodiversity will be the focus of an international conference on the issue to be held this year next in Congo. The Lusaka Agreement was adopted in 1999. This is a signed Zambia multilateral partnership after a ministerial conference held under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It involves the performance by the stakeholders, activities that would reduce and eradicate the illicit trade in wildlife in Africa. The Agreement currently has nine m ember countries, including Congo.