Wildlife Alliance

For Immediate Release

Training to Take Down the Wildlife Trafficking Mafia

July 7, 2008 

(Bangkok, July 7, 2008) On Friday, Thai authorities completed two weeks of intensive training in how to detect and arrest the criminal syndicates looting the region’s natural ecosystems.

Organized by the Thai Nature Crime Police under the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), Thailand’s second Nature Crime Investigation Course (NCIC) at the Royal Police Cadet Academy in Nakorn Pathom Province underlined strong resolve and broad support for the fight to protect Southeast Asia’s biodiversity and natural resources.

Led by senior Thai officers and law enforcement trainers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service, the course brought together police, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys for the first time on this issue. In total, 29 participants representing 17 divisions of the Thai Police, the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, and the Department of Agriculture completed the NCIC. Observers from Vietnam, India and the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) also attended.

The course began with a dramatization of organized crime involvement in nature crime performed by Patravadi, Thailand’s top theater group. This forceful reminder of the shadowy networks behind wildlife trafficking set the tone for two weeks of high-tempo training covering the latest techniques in surveillance, criminal profiling and interviewing, as well as effective raid and arrest procedures. Participants left the classroom to enact investigations and raids on Sampran’s streets, closely mimicking real wildlife crime scenarios.

Royal Thai Police Major General Charamporn Suramanee, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigations Bureau, said increasing confiscations and arrests "reflected the Thai government’s seriousness in combating wildlife crime." Major General Charamporn also emphasized the importance of interagency cooperation to stamp out these crimes as he officially opened the NCIC. "It’s not up to a certain agency to stop this problem but up to all of us to conserve our nation’s biodiversity for the next generation," he remarked. Major General Charamporn thanked the United States for its support of the training.

Royal Thai Police Major General Surasit Sangkhaphong, Senior Thai Government Liaison Officer to the ASEAN-WEN Program Coordination Unit, stressed the importance of trainings to increase enforcement capacity throughout the region, not just in Thailand, for the sake of global biodiversity.

“Wildlife smuggling and illegal logging operations are a serious threat to the environment, particularly in Southeast Asia,” said Major General Surasit. “This training delivers knowledge and skills to help law enforcement officers protect wildlife and habitat. We hope this course will pave the way for more nature crime enforcement training throughout the region. For the health of our planet, it’s crucial that we increase law enforcement capacity to protect biodiversity here in Southeast Asia.”

Steve Galster, Chief of Party for the ASEAN-WEN Support Program, which provided technical and logistical support to the course, emphasized the importance of these trainings in taking regional nature crime enforcement to the next level.

“As our friends from the Patravadi Theatre Group demonstrated so well, enforcement needs to move beyond the arrest of impoverished poachers and "mules" if we are to really tackle nature crime,” said Galster. “Tougher laws and full-scale, coordinated investigations can help put the criminal organizers, the kingpins, behind bars . It’s the only sure way to stop them plundering the region’s forests.”

Conservation groups TRAFFIC, Wildlife Alliance and Thailand’s PeunPa Foundation provided technical and logistical support to the course through the ASEAN-WEN Support Program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The NCIC wrapped up with a visit to Khao Pratub Chang Wildlife Care Center, allowing participants to view the diverse range of protected wildlife that their departments and divisions are rescuing from the illegal trade. Trainers hoped this would further motivate officers to rescue those animals slipping through the net -- destined for tanneries, dinner plates or exotic pet dealers -- and arrest the criminal networks behind the trade.

To support the efforts of Wildlife Alliance's Thai partner, PeunPa, to protect national parks in Thailand and provide ongoing support of ASEAN-WEN activities, visit our Donate page, select "Thailand" from the drop-down menu, and make a donation of your choosing.

For more information contact:

Steven Galster                                                                
Director of Field Operations
PeunPa Foundation
Bangkok, Thailand
Tel +66 81 8059317
Email: Steve.Galster@gmail.com 

Nicholas Sorenson
Director of Special Projects
Wildlife Alliance
Washington, D.C., USA
Tel: +1 (202) 223-6350
Email: sorenson@wildlifealliance.org

Dr David Lawson
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia
Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 (2) 262 0529
Email: dave@iucnt.org

Notes for Editors:

1. ASEAN-WEN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network.  It involves the law enforcement agencies of all ten ASEAN countries and facilitates cross-border collaboration in the fight against illegal wildlife trade in the region.  The network was first suggested at the 13th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) in October 2004, further developed by senior ASEAN environmental officials in October 2005, and launched by ASEAN member countries on December 1, 2005 at an official meeting in Bangkok.

2. Under ASEAN-WEN, police, customs and environmental management agencies are forming national task forces and cross-border intelligence sharing links to successfully curtail the wildlife trade.

3. ASEAN-WEN is the world’s largest wildlife law enforcement network, comprising enforcement officers from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The United States and China are also cooperating with ASEAN-WEN.

4. The ASEAN-WEN Program Coordination Unit (PCU) has been established inside the Thai Government and program officers can be reached via the email address: pcu@asean-wen.org

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Wildlife Alliance is an international conservation organization whose mission is to protect and preserve wildlife, forests and oceans for future generations. Our field operations, formerly carried out under the name WildAid, train and equip park rangers to fight crimes against nature, and prevent poaching and illegal habitat destruction in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Russia and the Western Pacific through collaboration with governments and communities. We improve the management of protected areas, support sustainable development initiatives, and empower countries to enforce transboundary wildlife regulations. For more information, please visit wildlifealliance.org.