Beyond Seizures

Adopting the ICCWC indicator framework as a tool to measure effective enforcement responses to trafficking of CITES listed species.

More needs to be done to secure criminal justice responses to wildlife crime to bring about long-term, sustainable, and impactful change. In this information document submitted to CITES CoP19, we argue there is an overreliance on seizures as a data source in the context of CITES. Seizures alone are an incomplete response to crime and an insufficient indicator of enforcement and there is an urgent need to increase comprehensive post- incident investigations, along with the adoption of tools to assess effective enforcement.