Combating Wildlife Trafficking between Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines

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Wildlife trafficking - the poaching and illegal transit, trade, and sale of wildlife - is a  lucrative form of transnational organized crime (TOC) that have decimated populations of species, such as elephants, rhinos, pangolins, and more. Wildlife trafficking fuels corruption; threatens the rule of law, peace and security; spreads disease; and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism revenues.  Criminal organizations are increasingly involved in this illicit trade, especially the illegal movement of wildlife from source countries to demand countries, such as the movement of ivory from Africa to Asia.  Traffickers exploit porous borders and weak institutions to profit from trading in illegal wildlife.  Wildlife and wildlife products are transported through multilevel illicit networks of criminal intermediaries and government officials. In 2013, the U.S. government established an interagency Task Force to address the problem of wildlife trafficking by identifying priority areas for interagency cooperation and action. The National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking was released in 2014, which led to the Implementation Plan for the National Strategy. The Plan focuses on strengthening law enforcement, reducing demand for trafficked wildlife and wildlife goods, and building international cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking (CWT). In 2016, Congress passed the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act, which enshrines the role of the Task Force and its National Strategy and Implementation Plan. These commitments are reflected in the greatly increased amount of resources – human, technical, and financial – that we are devoting to target the problem of wildlife trafficking. To advance the U.S. National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking and its associated Implementation Plan, INL aims to achieve specific objectives to reduce the poaching and illegal trade of wildlife through effective programming at the national, regional, and international levels in key source, transit, and destination locations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.  INL leverages its unique foreign assistance authorities to contribute to the global fight against wildlife trafficking. For this funding opportunity, INL intends to focus on the sub-region between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, an area that is particularly vulnerable to criminal activity. The program will include technical assistance to: 1) increase interdiction of trafficked wildlife; 2) build investigative and enforcement functions; and 3) develop cross-border regional cooperation. To that end, funds will support work that increases the ability of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines to combat wildlife trafficking within the shared territory around the Sulu and Celebes Seas.

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