Canada Seizes Endangered Animal Parts
A series of search warrants, executed simultaneously on November 20, 2002, resulted in the seizure of more than 260 black bear gall bladders. Environment Canada Wildlife Enforcement Officers, the Quebec and Ontario Provincial Conservation officers, the RCMP and the Toronto Police Service, executed 60 search warrants in businesses and private dwellings in Quebec and Ontario. All individuals are suspected of being involved in a large bear gall bladder trafficking network with possible links in Quebec, Ontario, the United States of America and Asia.

Environment Canada received information from United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Intelligence about the sale of bear gall bladders via the Internet. This information led to an extensive investigation that uncovered a large network of trade and traffic in gall bladders and other wildlife.

Bear gall bladders are sought after for use in traditional Asian medicine. The foreign black market value of bear gall bladders can range from $2,000 to $10,000 each. Canada is the largest remaining habitat of the black bear and the illegal trade in bear parts is increasing and creating significant pressure on the population of this species. The seizure of 260 gall bladders means that it is likely that more than 260 black bears were killed to obtain them.

Though the black bear is not endangered in Canada, internationally many bear species are threatened or endangered. In order to protect these species, trade and trafficking in any bear parts is regulated via the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This Convention is given force in Canada via the Wild Animal Plant Protection and Regulations of International and Inter-provincial Trade Act.

Executing the search warrants was an integral part of the enforcement operation that originated in the United States and expanded to Quebec, with an investigation conducted by the Société de la faune et des parcs du Québec. Over 200 federal and provincial wildlife officers executed these search warrants. This effectively dismantled a large bear gall bladder poaching and trafficking network.

Environment Canada intelligence officers will continue to gather information and to collaborate with international enforcement agencies in an effort to more fully document and break the international links in the network. The investigation is continuing and prosecutors will determine what charges will be laid against the suspects. For further information, please contact Yvan Lafleur, Director, Enforcement Branch, Environment Canada, at Yvan.Lafleur@ec.gc.ca.

UK Creates National Wildlife Crime Intelligence Unit
Michael Meacher, the United Kingdom's Environment Minister, announced the creation of a new National Wildlife Crime Intelligence Unit to counter the organized multi-million dollar illegal wildlife trade. The new Unit, based within the National Criminal Intelligence Service, will concentrate on combating serious wildlife crime at both national and international levels. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is contributing $707,000 (£440,000) towards the establishment of the Unit. Police Chief Constables are contributing a further $160,808 (£100,000).

The new Unit will:

Mr. Meacher commented that he was "convinced that the need for this Unit is greater now than ever before. Crimes against wildlife continue, pushing some of our most endangered species ever closer to extinction. And as the net closes in on these criminals, they find ever more sophisticated ways of evading detection. We need equally sophisticated techniques to make sure that we track down, prosecute and punish these 'big time' criminals . . . In financial terms, some estimates have put the illegal wildlife trade as second only to the illegal drugs trade. One estimate suggests that the global wildlife trade amounts to as much as 20 billion US dollars per year, with possibly a quarter of that being illegal."

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 introduced tough new enforcement measures aimed at combating crimes against native wildlife species in England and Wales, including increased penalties of fines of up to $8,039 (£5,000) or terms of imprisonment of up to six months for people found guilty of these offenses. Police officers' powers have also been strengthened, with new powers of arrest and improved search warrant provisions being introduced. For more information on the UK's efforts to combat wildlife crime, visit http://www.defra.gov.uk/paw/default.htm.

IUCN/ITTO Workshop to Address Transboundary Conservation Areas in Tropical Forests
Coordination of enforcement and policy development was on the agenda at the Workshop on Transboundary Conservation Areas in Tropical Forests on February 17-21, 2003 in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, sponsored by IUCN and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).

There is growing recognition that effective biodiversity conservation depends on an ecosystem management approach that integrates protected area management into wider land- and water- use planning. Ecosystems and species do not recognize political borders, which have usually been defined for historical and geo-political reasons, without reference to ecological functions or processes. Clearly, strategies to conserve biodiversity must emphasize transboundary cooperation in relation to shared ecosystems and other conservation concerns.

In response to this reality, the number of Transboundary Conservation Areas (TBCAs) has grown rapidly during the last 15 years - from 59 such areas in 1988, mainly concentrated in Europe and North America, to 169 in 2001, distributed throughout all regions of the world. The International Tropical Timber Organization's TBCA program, for example, now covers some 24 million acres in nine tropical countries. In recent years the conservation community has focused considerable attention on the special conservation and security benefits of TBCAs. Through the joint efforts of conservation experts and practitioners, tools have been developed for improving the effectiveness of TBCA management, including good practice guidelines. The conservation community has also increased understanding of the role TBCAs have in promoting regional cooperation while safeguarding ecosystems split by state boundaries.

Nevertheless, many protected areas - including TBCAs - lack sufficient action and investment to ensure their functioning and survival. Practitioners, decision-makers and experts have to consider how these critical activities will fare in light of current and future challenges. With the World Parks Congress approaching in September 2003, the time is right to bring together individuals with significant experience and knowledge on technical, policy and scientific protected areas issues to identify the key challenges currently facing TBCAs in a tropical forest context.

The joint ITTO/IUCN workshop identified opportunities for improving the effectiveness of TBCAs and developed materials and messages that will contribute to the upcoming World Parks Congress elaborating on the role of TBCAs in tropical forest conservation and management. For more information and proceedings, visit http://www.iucn.org/themes/fcp/activities/transboundary1.htm.

Leading Caviar Smuggler Pleads Guilty
A United States man for Long Island, NY who prosecutors say is the largest distributor of caviar in the country pleaded guilty yesterday to violating endangered species laws. Caviar comes from sturgeon, the majestic fish that have been depleted worldwide because of the voracious human appetite for their eggs.

Arkady Panchernikov, an owner of Caviar Russe, the Madison Avenue caviar bar, pleaded guilty to six counts of trafficking without proper permits and to falsely labeling inferior grades of caviar as beluga. He faces a prison term of up to 21 months, a penalty of $400,000, and the loss of his import license. Prosecutors in federal court in Brooklyn and agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service said that because of Mr. Panchernikov's dominance in the American caviar market, the case was a milestone in the worldwide effort to protect sturgeon. Although it is legal to sell many species of caviar, international agreements and American law provide a complex system of permits for import and distribution to control the market.

Edward Grace, the wildlife agent in charge of the case, said the guilty plea by Mr. Panchernikov showed that enforcement efforts in what have been called the caviar wars have become sophisticated and have moved away from reliance on chance encounters by law enforcement agents with individual smugglers. The New York region is a center of international efforts to control the depletion not only of Russian sturgeon, which have long been over harvested, but also of paddlefish and shovelnose sturgeon, which are native to the United States. The fish must be killed for the roe to be extracted.

Mr. Panchernikov's lawyer, Gerald L. Shargel, said that regulations for the caviar trade were stiffened in 1998 in accord with international agreements. His client's guilty plea, he said, "shows his failure to conform with those regulations." Mr. Panchernikov would have faced a possible sentence of as long as 30 years and a fine of more than $1.5 million if the case had gone to trial. A longer version of this article first appeared in the New York Times. (See William Glaberson, Distributor Of Caviar Pleads Guilty In U.S. Court, NEW YORK TIMES, November 2, 2002).