HRH ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING MEETING

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

U.S. Intervention Remarks at HRH Illegal Wildlife Trafficking Meeting
Remarks
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
London, United Kingdom

May 21, 2013
Your Royal Highness, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

I first want to thank Her Majesty’s Government and His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cambridge, for their leadership in combating wildlife trafficking, and for bringing together a wide variety of perspectives in this forum. It is only through collective action that we can protect the world’s wildlife sanctuaries and help impacted communities achieve a secure and sustainable future.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a high-level event on the issue last November, which mobilized the international community in a call to action. She noted that wildlife trafficking, like other forms of illicit trade, relies on porous borders, corrupt officials, and organized criminal networks, all of which undermine our collective security and prosperity. Secretary of State John Kerry similarly supports robust action and partnerships to combat the illegal trade in wildlife and to strengthen law enforcement cooperation across borders against illicit networks engaged in this activity.

Trafficking in wildlife is not a benign activity. It is a criminal threat that requires a criminal justice response. Time is our enemy as we work to save endangered wildlife and our world heritage.

In many parts of the world, we are witnessing the involvement of dangerous criminals in what used to be considered a conservation issue. By some conservative estimates, the illegal trade in wildlife is worth $8-10 billion each year.

Traffickers are drawn to the high profit potential and low risk of detection and prosecution.

Park rangers are frequently outmatched by well-equipped poachers; in fact many park rangers have been killed while trying to protect their parks and the wildlife that roam freely in them.

We are committed to helping our partners fight back and prevent greater insecurity and destabilization.

We have taken a comprehensive approach to this issue; not only for the purpose of conservation, but also from a security perspective that requires a strengthened law enforcement and criminal justice response.

In April 2013, the UN Crime Commission adopted a resolution introduced by the United States and Peru entitled, "Crime prevention and criminal justice responses for illicit trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora." This resolution advocates for a comprehensive approach to combat wildlife trafficking, notably by encouraging member states to designate wildlife trafficking as a "serious" crime, thereby unlocking the ability of governments to utilize the international cooperation tools contained within the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. We also applaud the UK as G8 host this year and welcome the efforts of the G8 Roma-Lyon Group to address wildlife trafficking.

The Department of State has been engaged on the diplomatic front to raise the profile of wildlife trafficking as a criminal concern in bilateral and multilateral fora including: APEC, ASEAN, East Asia Summit, U.S.-China Joint Liaison Group on Law Enforcement Cooperation, and the G8 Roma-Lyon Group. We are also developing innovative public-private cooperation through cooperative platforms at the OECD and the World Economic Forum to combat illicit trade including wildlife trafficking, human trafficking, counterfeit medicines, narcotics, and other emerging threats.

The Department of State has also provided regional law enforcement training targeting supply and demand regions for wildlife trafficking at the International Law Enforcement Academies in Gaborone and Bangkok.

By placing wildlife trafficking within the context of our broader goals of combating corruption, dismantling transnational organized criminal networks, and promoting the rule of law, we can leverage our respective political will and capabilities to enforce our laws, prosecute wildlife traffickers, and repel poachers before a slaughter, and punish illicit actors whose criminal intent is to pillage, profit from, and destroy our ecosystems, habitats, and communities.

We believe the experience of the regional Wildlife Enforcement Networks holds promise for a concerted effort to strengthen enforcement and prosecution. These networks – linking law enforcement and environment officials, prosecutors, and policy makers and supported by donors and NGOs – combat wildlife trafficking through training, capacity-building, and information exchange. USAID has invested $17 million since 2005 to support ASEAN-WEN’s and South Asia WEN’s efforts to combat illegal wildlife trafficking through the initial ASEAN-WEN Support Program, the current ARREST Program, and INTERPOL’s Project PREDATOR. The United States has provided more than $7 million since 2005 to support wildlife conservation in Central America and the Dominican Republic, including funding for the Central American Wildlife Enforcement Network (CAWEN). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides $10 million annually for wildlife protection throughout Africa and Asia targeting elephants, rhinos, great apes, and marine turtles. Funds are used to prevent poaching and to improve investigation and prosecution of wildlife crimes.

We continue to work to strengthen existing partnerships and build support for a global system of regional wildlife enforcement networks (WENs) to improve enforcement effectiveness, coordination, and cooperation. In March 2013, the Department of State sponsored the first meeting to convene all the existing WENs, plus countries that may create WENs in their regions, on the margins of the CITES Conference of Parties-16 held in Bangkok, Thailand. We have actively supported the development of new regional WENs in Central Africa and the Horn of Africa to share cross-border information and to conduct exchanges. Staying ahead of these illicit networks will take a global effort, with all of us working collaboratively across sectors, governments, and organizations.

The United States stands ready to work with our partners both bilaterally and multilaterally, with civil society and the private sector, to combat these threats. We must be bold, decisive, and fight networks with our own networks.

Through collective action and a multi-sector approach, we can constrict the global illegal economy, downgrade the threat posed by poachers, and help communities nurture transformative and sustainable markets, moving their economies into the investment frontiers of tomorrow and safeguarding their human capital, national assets, and natural resources.

U.S. OFFICIALS REMARK'S ON FIGHTING INTERNATIONAL CRIME

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Remarks
David M. Luna
Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Jakarta, Indonesia
January 26, 2013
 
Good morning.

It is a pleasure to be here with you as we begin the new APEC year.

The United States applauds the leadership of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as the APEC Host Economy in 2013 and the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as Chair of this year’s APEC Anticorruption and Transparency (ACT) Working Group.

Your Excellency, Bambang Widjowanto, KPK Deputy Chairman, as a previous Chair of this very important and influential sub-forum in APEC, let me congratulate you on your appointment as our new ACT Chair and commend your life-long commitment to promoting human rights, advancing the rule of law, and safeguarding integrity in Indonesia.

The KPK remains a model within APEC on prosecuting high-level corruption cases, including within the police and security agencies, and demonstrating to us all that no official is above the law. The ACT must continue to support the KPK and all of our economies’ anticorruption authorities to eradicate corruption, safeguard integrity and public trust, and restore people’s faith in government as a steward of equality and justice.

I would also like to thank the Government of the Russian Federation for its leadership last year, and applaud all of the economies here for our collective achievements in 2012. I am confident that we will make great gains this year on developing an APEC regional network of anticorruption authorities that further protects our economies against abuses of power and the plunder of our national assets, human capital, and natural resources.

In 2013, we must work together to achieve the three core objectives outlined in our ACT five-year strategy: 1) to minimize impunity and kleptocracy by preventing and prosecuting public corruption; 2) to level the playing field for all businesses by fighting foreign bribery; and 3) to shut down the illegal economy and criminalized markets by combating corruption and illicit trade.

Combating Impunity and Kleptocracy: Enough is Enough!

No economy is immune from corruption, nor can any economy combat it alone. In addition to effective governance within our own jurisdictions, we must take collective action to improve governance across borders and reconfigure the way we fight corruption with smarter, more holistic strategies and approaches. We must work to prevent the flow of illicit funds, including proceeds of corruption.

APEC Leaders recognized the ACT work program in the 2012 Vladivostok Declaration on Fighting Corruption. They emphasized their commitment to investigate and prosecute corruption; to enforce our domestic bribery laws and laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials; to fight money laundering and deny safe haven to assets illicitly acquired by individuals engaged in corruption. They also vowed to combat illicit trade by attacking the financial underpinnings of transnational criminal organizations and illicit networks; stripping criminal entrepreneurs and corrupt officials of their illicit wealth; and severing their access to the global financial system.

The Vladivostok Declaration also renewed and elevated APEC Leaders’ commitment to "enhance public trust by committing to transparent, fair, and accountable governance" to empower communities to monitor government policies and voice their perspectives on the use of resources.

Voice and accountability can not only help check corruption, but also allow our citizens and communities to take hold of their destinies, enjoy higher standards of living, and trust that their governments exist to do good. Transparent and open governments tend to pursue cost-effective policies; minimize misallocation of resources; and attract investment from companies looking for solid investment environments and opportunities. This is why eight APEC member countries (Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, and the United States) have joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2011 to promote transparency, enhance accountability, and fight corruption. Indonesia is also a co-chair of the OGP’s Steering Committee this year, and its leadership of both the OGP and the ACT presents an opportunity for us all to further our efforts to enhance public trust and raise standards of living.

Our Leaders have spoken. They have repeatedly affirmed their will to combat corruption across the Asia Pacific region. We must answer them with a transformative good governance agenda that will anchor economic growth and development from Moscow to Jakarta, from Beijing to Lima, from San Francisco to Sydney, and transform people’s lives across all markets in APEC.

ACT colleagues, we must act decisively and collectively to implement the five-year strategy. I am confident that we can fulfill our Leaders’ mandate and achieve APEC’s broader agenda to secure open markets, economic prosperity, and the rule of law.

Fighting All Forms of Bribery

Continued cooperation with the private sector is a critical component of our efforts to level the playing field for businesses across APEC economies.

Our recent work with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and other partners has ushered in a new era of cooperation between the public and private sectors. This partnership is enhancing market integrity and forging a more connected, innovative, and dynamic Asia Pacific region that thrives on openness and a rules-based approach to trade and investment.

We can do more. Building on the APEC Santiago Commitment, the APEC Code of Conduct for Business (Business Integrity and Transparency Principles for the Private Sector), and the Complementary Anti-Corruption Principles for the Public and Private Sectors, we can vigorously enforce domestic bribery laws, including laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials, and fulfill our international obligations. I also hope that we can continue to share experiences and best practices in combating foreign bribery, enlist the private sector as a partner in combating bribery, and provide specialized training to make greater inroads on this important front.

We can minimize corruption as a significant market and trade barrier and improve the investment climate in our economies by ensuring that we effectively investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them, in compliance with our respective domestic laws and international obligations, where appropriate, under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and similar instruments.

The United States looks forward to working with Indonesia, China, and all economies to support stronger bribery enforcement, prosecutions, and other actions in APEC in 2013-2014.

Combating Illicit Trade and Shutting Down the Illegal Economy

Sustainable economic growth also depends on our progress to combat illicit trade and its pernicious impact on the environment and markets.

Illicit trade and the illegal economy undermine social stability and the welfare of our communities. Illicit enterprises not only distort the legal economy, but they also divert revenue from legitimate market drivers such as businesses and governments. Illicit trade further hampers development by preventing the equitable distribution of public goods. But this goes beyond just economic harm. The illegal economy also incurs a significant negative social cost, and in some cases, devastates vital ecosystems and habitats.

The dumping of toxic waste contaminates our food and water supplies. Illegal logging and deforestation or poaching exacerbate climate change and undermine our ability in APEC to advance inclusive, green, sustainable development. Poaching and trafficking of endangered wildlife robs economies of their natural assets and their future.

The corruption that allows counterfeit or ineffective pharmaceuticals to enter our communities endangers public health, denying the sick effective treatment and permitting deadly diseases to mutate and become untreatable.

The corruption that allows traffickers to move people across borders and exploit them with impunity not only violates individuals’ basic rights and freedoms but also stunts both their and their communities’ economic potential and political development.

Kleptocracy and the embezzlement of national revenue and assets that are intended to finance the future for our citizens impair the ability of communities to make the investments necessary to stimulate growth. Revenue that could be used to build roads to facilitate commerce, hospitals to save lives, homes to raise and protect families, or schools to educate future leaders and entrepreneurs is instead siphoned away for private gain.

APEC has a number of tools in its toolkit to combat corruption and illicit trade, and we have an ongoing opportunity to work together to comprehensively and holistically combat corruption, as well as illicit finance more broadly; to foster integrity in global markets and supply chains; and to protect and promote economic growth and shared prosperity.

Among them is the ACT Multi-Year Project that Thailand and Chile are co-leading on ways to combat money laundering, recover the fruits of corrupt and criminal activity, and track illicit financial flows. As kleptocrats and criminal entrepreneurs continue to hide the proceeds of their crimes in legal structures such as offshore shell companies and foundations and then launder most of that through casinos, financial institutions, or real estate into the global financial system, we must bring them to justice and, where possible, return their illicit wealth back to impacted communities.

To do this effectively, we must also target more aggressively the financial facilitators and service providers who commit crimes in helping corrupt officials, criminals, and illicit networks inject their dirty money into our financial system.

The APEC-ASEAN Pathfinder Workshop on Combating Corruption and Illicit Trade that will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in June 2013, will advance a dialogue among partners across the Asia Pacific region and strengthen cooperation by creating a network of anticorruption authorities, promoting information and intelligence exchanges, and facilitating cooperation and information sharing in investigations related to corruption and illicit trade and efforts to shut down the illegal economy.

More broadly, we can and should support the effective implementation of global anti-money laundering standards promulgated by the Financial Action Task Force. Among these are preventive measures that facilitate financial transparency and help prevent the flow of proceeds of corruption.

Converting Political Will into Action: Regional Networks and Partnerships

We can build on our APEC anti-corruption and transparency commitments and the collaborative relationships around this table to create a regional network of anti-corruption bodies that would facilitate the sharing of intelligence and information, as well as the sharing of best practices and challenges in effectively tracking cross-border corruption, other crime, and illicit financial flows.

The United States is more committed than ever to combating corruption and illicit trade, and we look forward to the discussion here in Jakarta.

Together, we will create a better, more prosperous future by uniting our efforts to combat corruption and support accountability and good governance. We must turn our shared interests into collective action by developing more comprehensive approaches to combating corruption so that we can prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them.

Again, I wish Indonesia a great and successful year in APEC 2013 and applaud my ACT colleagues for developing and pressing forward on a vibrant course of action to fight corruption and promote integrity—a course that I know will lead us towards economic growth and a stronger foundation to build the new markets and investment frontiers of tomorrow.

Thank you.