Support for the Implementation of the Lusaka Agreement on Cooperative Enforcement Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora

The international Task Force to combat cross-border wildlife crime in Africa is a brainchild of wildlife law enforcement officers from eight from eastern and southern Africa countries meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in December 1992 under the auspices of the Zambian Ministry of Tourism and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Considering the alarming rate of trafficking of wildlife resources and the problem of lack of co-operation between wildlife law enforcement agencies in different countries, the officers recommended the signature of an agreement to enable the establishment of a Task Force, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF).

Since 1992, UNEP continued to build and enhance the capacity of Parties to the Lusaka Agreement in order to effectively combat illegal trade in wild fauna and flora under the Agreement. In this regard, with the support from UNEP, the Parties undertook an evaluation and an assessment of the implementation of and the impact thus far created by the Agreement during its first decade of existence (1994-2004) and made recommendations for its improvement. As the result of the evaluation and the key recommendation for its improvement, the Parties in collaboration with UNEP developed a long-term strategic plan of action for the implementation of the Agreement on a short, medium and long term basis. Moreover, with the support from UNEP, LATF acquired in 2005 ivory and other species detectors for curbing illegal trade in wild fauna and flora as well as organized and conducted training course on the effective use of the equipment/garget. 

Finally, UNEP will support in cooperation with LATF, its 8th Governing Council in October 2006, to be held in Nairobi. It will review the progress made in the implementation of the Agreement as well as progress made in the execution of the past GC Decisions, and particularly in this session, review of the LATF Strategic Plan (2005-2015).

List of activities

• Course on the use of the ivory detector, Kenya (December 2005) ;
• Supporting all Governing Council of LATF, and soon the 8th session scheduled in Nairobi in October 2006.