Bangkok, 4 September 2024 -The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) and WWF co-hosted a side event at the 8th IUCN Regional Conservation Forum on Wednesday at Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Bangkok, under the theme Reimagining Conservation in Asia: A Nature Positive Future.
The side event, titled Innovative Approaches to Combat Illegal Wildlife Trade, highlighted the advances in technologies used to detect and suppress wildlife crime, fostering broader collaboration in conservation efforts, and addressing global development priorities.
The side session involved an overview of the efforts by the DNP and WWF in Thailand to reduce demand for wildlife products, including ivory, among Chinese travellers. This demographic has been identified as a key consumer group of ivory in the Greater Mekong region, according to the longest running elephant ivory consumption research held annually by WWF since 2017.
Quote by Mrs. Sunee Sakseau, Director of Division of Foreign Affairs, Department of National Park, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation.
Everyone here today, whether directly or indirectly involved, plays an essential role in conservation. By sharing a common vision and working together, we can strengthen our efforts against wildlife trade. Today’s event underscores the importance of close cooperation and developing new, effective ways to combat illegal wildlife trade sustainably.
Quote by WWF Beijing Office
Liu Song, Programme Director, Eliminate Illegal Trade of Endangered Flagship Species at WWF’s Beijing Office, showcased how WWF China is leveraging social media marketing to innovatively curb illegal wildlife trade and reduce demand on endangered wildlife products. Liu Song explained, “Through the technology of social media platforms, we can more precisely target the audience, ensuring that information on species conservation and laws and regulations is effectively delivered. Additionally, by initiating the Sustainable Travel Alliance with other travel industry players, we remind the public in innovative forms to refuse the endangered species products, becoming responsible travellers.”
Following the presentation by DNP and WWF, private sector partners from JD.com Group and Ctrip.com Group that have been engaged in the ivory demand reduction work spoke about delivering sustainable and wildlife friendly messages beyond the conservation community. The speakers highlighted the importance of including non-traditional stakeholder groups in conservation efforts in order to have meaningful conservation impacts.
Quote by JD.com Group
Ying Wang, Vice President of JD.com Group said:” JINGDONG Logistics with technology-driven initiated the sustainability strategy project “Green Stream Initiative” in 2017 and has responded to initiatives of sustainable development launched by WWF. This year, JINGDONG Logistics launched the “Action Initiative to Protect Endangered Species and Combat the Illegal Wildlife Trade” in collaboration with WWF by establishing a thematic operation site in Kunming, Yunnan and circulating 100M waybills along with parcels to encourage the public to pledge against buying and transporting endangered wildlife products, thereby reducing demand for biodiversity conservation.
Edison Chen, Vice President of Trip.com Group said: “Trip.com Group recognises the essential link between nature and people and launched ‘Sustainable Travel Alliance ‘together with WWF and other travel industry players in 2020. We strive to reduce our carbon footprint, focus on wildlife conservation, and offer global travellers more sustainable travel options.”
Finally, WWF and representatives from a USAID funded End Wildlife Crime project presented on developing technologies to combat the illegal wildlife trade, such as using Machine Learning in to flag suspect shipments through the maritime sector as well as to detectonline wildlife trade, developing modelling software which predicts zoonotic risks and future opportunities to collaborate and standardise training curricula and engage with regional civil society platforms.
Learn more about WWF’s work on reducing demand for elephant ivory, its engagement with the maritime sector, its efforts to combat wildlife related cybercrime, its work on zoonotic disease risk reduction, and its focus on raising awareness to combat the illegal wildlife trade.
Please contact Penthai Siriwat for any additional inquiries: penthais@wwf.or.th
