Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have announced a new partnership, tagged United for Wildlife, a flagship programme to end global illegal wildlife trade.
UNODC will be supported by DP World, a long-standing advocate for increased action in the fight against illegal wildlife trade (IWT).
The new three-year agreement, coming into force on August 1, will see The Royal Foundation and UNODC combine resources and expertise in the global fight against IWT, which is worth up to $20 billion yearly and is associated with violent crime, corruption, and other forms of trafficking.
The high-level collaboration underlines the global nature of the threat posed by IWT, which robs the planet of its most precious natural resources and funds organised crime, directly affecting already vulnerable communities.
United for Wildlife was founded by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2014 to end illegal wildlife trade. It fosters collaboration across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors to increase identification and investigation of wildlife crime, and aims to make it impossible for traffickers to exploit any vulnerability in global transport and financial systems.
Infusing United for Wildlife’s private sector and NGO partnerships with UNODC’s global network of wildlife crime advisers and relationships with global law enforcement entities and national governments, the partnership will scale the programme’s collective ability to enable detection and disruption of the harmful trade.
UNODC officers and objectives focused on United for Wildlife will be integrated into key UNODC programmes, working to expand United for Wildlife’s visibility, membership, and regional coverage. Officers will be based in Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
