7 March 2013

Eight states threatened with trade sanctions in relation to their role in illegal ivory trade

At the Conference of the Parties of the of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), eight states (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and China) were identified as key to the trade in ivory and were threatened with trade sanctions if they do not address failures in protection against poaching, and failures in seizing illegal ivory trade.

Six of these states are states which most ivory passes through (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam), the other two are the states were most ivory is bought (China and Thailand).

The news of threat of trade sanctions coincides with the publication of a report that details the increase in levels of poaching. The report concludes that illicit ivory trade activity and the weight of ivory behind this trade has more than doubled since 2007, and is over three times greater than it was in 1998.

Source: The Guardian | Two-thirds of forest elephants killed by ivory poachers in past decade
Source: UNEP, CITES, IUCN, TRAFFIC | Elephants in the Dust - The African Elephant Crisis | A Rapid Response Assessment
Source: The Miami Herald | Ivory trade nations face threat of sanctions

9 January 2013

U.S. law should deal harshly with individuals in the fight against money laundering

In a column published in the New York Times, Robert Mazur argues that making bankers more easily punishable under the law would help in the fight against professional money laundering.

Banks have laundered money for drug cartels and used schemes in order to move hundreds of millions of US Dollars to States that are subject to trade sanctions, such as Sudan, Cuba and Iran. Since 2006, more than a dozen banks have reached settlements with the Justice Department in the United States concerning violations related to money laundering. Mazur argues that ‘without the ability to “wash” billions of dollars of money from illicit sources each year and bank the untraceable profits’ both drug trade and terrorism as being criminal enterprises ‘would falter.’

Source: The New York Times | How to Halt the Terrorist Money Train