Geneva, 08 October
2010 - The Secretary-General of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has announced
a decision to award Certificates of Commendation
to the Airports of Thailand Public Company
and the CITES Wildlife Checkpoint of the
National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation
Department of the Government of Thailand,
at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok.
The Certificates will
be awarded in recognition of a seizure,
made at Suvarnabhumi Airport on 23 August
2010, when officials of the two agencies
discovered a person attempting to smuggle
a live tiger cub out of the country. The
tiger had been carefully concealed in baggage
but was discovered during X-ray screening.
The announcement came
during a tiger conservation event, held
in the margins of the 10th meeting of the
Conference of the Parties to the Convention
on Biological Diversity, which is taking
place in Nagoya, Japan. The CITES Secretary-General,
Mr John Scanlon, praised the work of the
two agencies saying: "In this Chinese
Year of the Tiger and International Year
of Biodiversity, and as tigers face a very
real threat of extinction, it is especially
commendable that this tiger was saved from
entering illegal trade thanks to the efforts
of the Thai authorities. Future generations
should not have to look at the last tigers
behind bars in a zoo. Instead, it is those
criminals who poach and trade tigers that
should be the ones behind bars."
The seizure came after
the port security staff received training
on wildlife smuggling techniques. The Government
of Thailand was supported in these efforts
to fight illegal wildlife trade by the ASEAN
Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN),
the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and the TRAFFIC non-governmental
organization.
Mr Scanlon added: "The
way in which numbers of this species have
plummeted from over 100,000 in the early
1900s to today's estimates of only 3,200,
demonstrates only too starkly why urgent
action is needed if we are to safeguard
tigers and their habitats for future generations."
The Honourable Suwit
Khunkitti, Minister of Natural Resources
and Environment of Thailand, who co-chaired
the tiger event, remarked: "It is critically
important to demonstrate our country's firm
commitment to keeping tigers in the wild
and combating illegal trade in their parts
and derivatives." He added: "While
ASEAN-WEN has made great progress, it is
still young. The truth is, it remains unknown
to some of our national leaders. And of
course, it remains focused on Southeast
Asia. Our region's illegal trade in tigers
and other endangered species is linked to
the rest of the world. Effective wildlife
crime suppression requires top level political
support and global cooperation."
The CITES Secretariat
has played a major role with regard to enforcement-related
issues in the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI),
which is supported by the World Bank. GTI
efforts are to be considered at an International
Tiger Forum, to be held in Saint Petersburg,
Federation of Russia, from 21 to 24 November
2010.
The CITES Secretary-General
intends to present the Certificates of Commendation
to representatives of the two agencies when
he visits Thailand later this year as part
of the preparations for the 16th meeting
of the Conference of the Parties to CITES
scheduled for 2013.
