 Hello everybody, thank you for staying on after lunch now that Chairman Royce has moved on to greener pastures. I'm James Deutsch from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the panel this afternoon moves on from the connection between the poaching crisis in Africa and insecurity and the policy agenda on to solutions on the ground for dealing with this issue. And in particular, two sets of linked approaches that have been pioneered across Africa, both of which involve linkages between the governments and the private sector, public-private partnerships and conservancies with local communities. Let's get started right away. Before I introduce the panel, we have a brief video message from Senator Chris Coons who wanted to join us today but wasn't able to and who has just introduced a bill in Congress on community conservancies and public-private partnerships and he's recorded this message. Hi, I'm Senator Chris Coons. I'm Senator Chris Coons from Delaware. I'm sorry I can't be with you there today at the conference but I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you briefly. First thank you to Derek Schlickheisen, to Jennifer Cook and to Ben Huber for organizing this terrific conference around what is a critically important issue for our time, wildlife trafficking. My own first exposure to the carnage of wildlife trafficking was back in 1984 when I lived with the St. Brewer tribe during a study abroad trip in northern Kenya. I was 20 years old at the time and ever since then I've continued to deepen my understanding of just how far-reaching and devastating the impact of wildlife trafficking is to local communities and entire regions. Unfortunately, the problem of poaching has grown at an alarming rate since I first encountered it decades ago. Just last year over 1,000 rhinoceroses were illegally killed in South Africa, a 9,000% increase since 2007 and since 2005 two subspecies of African rhinos and one subspecies of Asian rhinos have completely disappeared while several others have reached critically low population levels. Today, poaching and trafficking not only threaten to extinguish iconic wildlife in Africa, but this multi-billion dollar industry is fueling dangerous criminal syndicates around the globe that threaten security for all of us. There's no simple solution to a problem of this scope and that's why I'm gratified to see this conference bringing together so many experts from different organizations and groups to focus on fighting cross-cutting innovative solutions. We will only stop wildlife trafficking together if we empower and incorporate a diverse range of voices from U.S. government agencies to our partners abroad, from American NGOs to international organizations, conservation groups, the security sector, the private sector, and community groups on the ground. We will only stop wildlife trafficking if we work hand in hand with local communities on the ground to gain their input and their mind. We need to build on their expertise and work with them to find solutions that work for them. In Congress, there are promising signs of momentum towards tackling wildlife trafficking. For one, this issue has real and rare bipartisan support. Last year, I co-chaired a hearing on wildlife trafficking with Senators Jeff Flake of Ben Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, and Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida. Recently, members in both the House and Senate have also begun working on bipartisan legislation to combat this crisis. I'm currently working on the End Wildlife Trafficking Act, which builds on the national strategy on wildlife trafficking that they released last year. My bill will attempt to break down silos between our government security and conservation efforts. By requiring cooperation between all agencies to address this global issue while still providing flexibility for country-specific and regional initiatives as one of the largest consumers of illegal wildlife and wildlife products, the US needs to take a strong stance in combating wildlife poaching and trafficking. I'd like to briefly highlight a few specific ways this bill will address the issues at the heart of this wildlife trafficking crisis. One, the bill creates a grant program to fund social marketing and public information campaigns aimed at reducing demand for wildlife and illegal wildlife products. This demand, which has exploded in the last several years, has made selling illegal wildlife products highly lucrative, further encouraging people to poach rhinos and elephants and other wildlife. In addition, my bill will further facilitate on-the-ground conservation, to stimulate economic development in communities currently turning to poaching as one of the only reliable sources of income. By helping communities to grow conservation, ecotourism, and other means of livelihood, they will no longer be tempted by illegal trafficking. Finally this legislation will promote the formation of public-private to catalyze innovative technological solutions or to repurpose existing technologies to fight wildlife crime. As you well know, some of the best, most creative solutions come out of partnerships between industries and across the private and public sectors. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this bill that I plan to introduce in just a few weeks. And to continuing to build by partisan supporter of this issue as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We need to be united on this important issue and I'm thrilled that Senators Flake and Markey are holding a hearing on this issue this Thursday. Wildlife trafficking, and community stability, economic development, and the very fabric of our ecosystems as we know them today. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, so thank you for all that you do, I am confident that together we can curb poaching and wildlife trafficking. So this afternoon we have an incredibly distinguished panel. Senator Hussain Datto from Kenya has been a leader in providing for support for community-based conservation activities linked directly to the livelihoods of the people that he serves and we're delighted to have him with us. Ian Saunders, an expert in both security and in wildlife conservation with experience from the UK and Tanzania, is the co-founder of the SAVO Trust who works closely with the Governor helping to protect wildlife and work with local communities around Kenya's largest national park. Jean-Marc Framont is the conservation director of the African Parks Network, one of the strongest park management NGOs in Africa, and is probably best known for his work in Odzala National Park in the Republic of Congo which he helped to expand geographically and helped co-manage working with the European Union before he moved on to African Parks Network. And Major General Johann Juester, after a distinguished career in the South African Defense Forces, is now in charge of anti-poaching in South Africa's park and is on the front line of the fight against elephant and rhino poachers in Kruger National Park. So we're really grateful that all of you can be here to talk to us about some of the new approaches to dealing with this crisis on the ground where it matters most in Africa. We'd like to start with Governor Dotto, who I guess is going to be presenting together with, jointly with Ian on their work together. Governor Dotto and Ian Saunders, please. Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, Governor Dotto and I, just to give you a bit of background, work very closely together in the Taina River County area of Kenya. Governor Dotto is the governor of that region, one of Kenya's largest counties, and it also has one of the smallest human populations, but it is geographically situated in an area which could be described as at risk. I'll come to that a bit later. But we work together both within the county government structure, I advise Governor Dotto on certain things within the government, his government, and he is also a board member of the Savo Trust, so it's a very, very close working relationship. When I first met the governor, it's quite a daunting thing because when you meet a chap that was probably the single person most responsible for stopping genocide in Taina River, and then you're going to go and talk to him about stability. You need to get all your facts right. And so I was really pleased when, initially what was supposed to be a half an hour meeting, after three and a half hours, we were still agreeing with each other. And that really was the birth of what we now call a philosophy called Stabilization through Conservation. Unfortunately, so far today we've had quite a bit of doom and gloom. There has become, I think, in the last 12 months, a real realization, a general realization, which only a small percentage of us were aware of previously of the level of threats and the complex threats that we're facing in our natural environments, not just in Africa, but around the world. And so one thing that we, when Governor Dada and I first started talking about was what was at the root of the problem that we're facing. And we've had a very comprehensive debate almost today here about all the multi-level threats and sort of core reasons why we are where we're at, ranging from corruption to terrorism to accountability. But the bottom line is it's a human problem. Can I have the first slide please? And in conservation, people get into conservation for different reasons. Many, and most of us, because we have a love of wildlife and the natural environment, I tried to move away from my military career because I wanted to move away from the military. Unfortunately, I'm now back into it almost with where we are today in wildlife. But the question I'd like to ask is what is wildlife management and conservation? Well, in my view, it's not managing wildlife because if it wasn't for humans, we wouldn't need to manage wildlife. It's managing ourselves, it's managing the human race, the most detrimental but dominant species on the planet. So the stabilization through conservation philosophy is based on that premise. The conversation that we had two and a half years ago when we started this, I reflected on the issues, the human issues that I'd been involved with countering terrorism things on four continents and how that was very similar to what we were dealing with today. And Governor Dato came with his input. And, of course, Governor Dato was also the Kenyan ambassador to Namibia, who are amongst the world leaders in conservancies. So we were basically looking at what were the successes in conservation? What were the successes in managing human threat? And again, stabilization through conservation was what we came up with. I'll go through what basically the structure is as we move along, but we believe it's a very positive approach. It's an approach built on engagement. It's an approach built on identifying threats, mitigating threats. And it's an approach that we are piloting on the ground today as we speak and also through academic stress testing, through relationships with academic institutions such as the Strategic Security Institute in the UK. Can I have the second slide, please? The basis of what we're philosophizing and what we're delivering on the ground is to create areas that are conducive to both humans and natural resources. I don't think we have a choice in this when we see the threats that many of our natural areas and wildlife habitat is now facing. The biggest threat, of course, is human demographic expansion, particularly in Africa. Our wildlife, our natural resources are being squeezed. Countries like Kenya are developing at a tremendously fast rate, which is needed, infrastructure is needed, and it's being delivered by national government, local governments in a tremendously quick way from foreign investment. But with all that positiveness, there come challenges. Human industrialization, Kenya's becoming an industrialized country. We have to balance that off with the value of what our natural resources and natural values are. In conjunction, we have a series of threats and challenges that are no longer regional. Kenya shares some of the same threats that the United States does, as Bali did, as Madrid did in Spain. So we have to address these threats in much the same way. So again, with all of these challenges and all these threats, human-based threats, we have to balance against what we would like to achieve to conserve our natural environment, our wildlife, our natural resources, on which we all ultimately require to survive and to prosper. Next slide, please. Governor Dada will now explain a little more about the intricacies of what we're doing in Tana River and the Malkalaka Conservancy within this philosophy. Thank you, Ian, for that elaborate introduction. Well, we looked at sustainable use of natural ecosystem. How can we sustain what we have? What were the reasons that are behind the depletion? What value can you add to the inhabitants to create, I mean, for them to feel comfortable and look after our wildlife? In these areas, like the Malkalaka area, you have communities that rely on pastoralism. And mostly poachers don't come from within these communities. They cross them to go and do poaching. And for them to have a sense of belonging and to look after these animals, what can we do to sustain? So we came up with sustainable ways, like if this particular conservancy, we're also going to look at what is the area of the economic state? This is pastoralism. How can we improve on their livestock? How are we going to employ rangers from within them to look after to be the buffers on between? There would be poachers who would even include poachers from Somalia, like who might end up using these funds for territorial activities like the al-Shabaab. Then it will also deny access to these parks. At the same time, there are these youth who could easily be recruited into some of these violent groups. But if we give them a sustainable way by employing the rangers from around there, it will also deny there would be recruiters. We will also be developing a stable society. And how are we going to do this? It's not just the, let's say, the Kenya wildlife. When we are talking of sustaining, we have to look at each and every aspect of the society, be it religious-based institutions, non-state actors. We will look at, of course, the security systems. By the way, Kenya government has done a lot in this area. They have, over the years, not only banned trade in ivory, but even went ahead. I'm glad even the U.S. followed our example by banning the ivory in public, showing that we are not party to any of these activities. Agricultural cooperatives, if they can be enhanced for people to value what they have. The biodiversity in some of these areas are such that we have some of the animals that are almost becoming extinct, like the red colobus monkey only found in a small area called the Turner Private Reserve. We are trying to protect and bring up some of these areas to show that they are used. The national security organs, they have been very helpful on this area. So what are we trying to say is we are trying to come up with a homegrown solution for an area that will help sustain this area for posterity. If, for instance, we look at wildlife in isolation, people will start thinking why are wildlife being treated more important than us? As a governor, I have to provide basic needs like water, security, infrastructure. All this is tied in for us to have these animals for posterity. We have agreed with Ian that we'll be complimenting each other. I'll let him take over the rest and then please other strategists. Go ahead. I think we have the next slide. The Governor and I and through engagement with many interested parties in Turner River decided after much deliberation was that the best model for us in that area, or the best model for the community, would be the community conservancy model. And the community conservancy model is one of the tools that StableCon uses to develop infrastructure and organization in areas that previously were devoid of it. And I think the Governor will agree with me that Koneasa area, which is now known as Markalakul, was, even though he's the Governor, it was described as an ungoverned space. And so through his governorship, we've turned that around. It is now a governed space. And because of that, we've introduced a whole range of new concepts to, I won't say communities. I'd like to say the electorate. Because some people talk about communities, everyone feels benevolent. But when you say the electorate, politicians sit up and listen. So when the electorate goes to see, now I have to be very careful with it, when the electorate goes to see some of its elected representatives and may not be conducting themselves in a conducive manner, normally the average man on the street will be rebuffed. Because of the organization and the conservancy, the average man in the street now has the power to face his elected representatives and insist that certain actions are taken in their own interests. The conservancy has created accountability and it's created a sense of democratic reasoning in areas where it previously wasn't. It has done this because we've used conservation and natural-based resources as a catalyst for peace and stability. Normally what happens is we've seen various conservation practices in the past that focus on wildlife in areas that don't have a social structure. Garambar is a good example and Garambar is a war zone and it's almost impossible to conserve wildlife and natural resources in a war zone. So what Stablecon is about is about developing the environment first. So it's creating that conducive environment for humans and wildlife, creating peace, creating stability, but using natural resources to do it. So it's almost like a natural cycle and that's the benefits we're seeing now because of that in Tana River. Just to bring up a point, I know I could waffle on for ages, but some certain results that we've had and we've talked about terrorism, Tana River County is at risk from various violent entities. We have al-Shabaab knocking on the door. We have ISIS emerging in Mombasa. ISIS and al-Shabaab are in direct competition. They're competing for manpower and most footmen and terrorist organizations are purely there for employment. And this has been the same within the Provisional IRA, the Bass Terrorist Group, ETA, the Taliban, al-Shabaab or ISIS. You have fanatics, but the general employment is as a job. Malkalabra Conservancy is new in the employment market. We're taking people out of those organizations and giving them new jobs. We have employed rangers that have gone through training camps and are now back with their families and being trained to work for their own community and conservation. It's about ownership, engagement and it's about relationships. Malkalabra Conservancy works directly now with Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Wildlife Conservancy's organization and is a respected, structured, accountable organization owned by the community who have a huge respect for wildlife and working with the livestock to create the rural economy that they need to survive. That is what we're doing in Malkalabra. It's the first time we've spoken openly about it because of the political sensitivities but it's a good model. It's a model that can be replicated around the world, we hope, and it's a role model that we'll be pushing forward in the next five to ten years. Thank you. Hi, Governor Dotto. Ian, thank you very much. Absolutely fascinating and I know many of us will be watching as this experiment rolls forward. Now I'd like to turn over to Jean-Marc Framont to talk a bit about his work with African Parks Network. Thank you very much to give us the opportunity to talk today. I will try to be short, we have 15 minutes so I will try to go quick. My message will be very simple, just two points. The first is Africa is facing a complex conservation crisis for long and the second message, a message of hope, I believe can be part of the solution. But before starting developing these two points, I want to give two examples that we are doing. Majete National Park was a small park in Malawi, completely forgotten and completely depopulated from wildlife and a lot of human pressure on the park when we take over ten years ago. Now it's a completely repopulated park with lions, rhinos, elephants, all species and the park infrastructure has been rebuilt and we have a community program around the park really starting supporting the action and benefit from the park but at the same time we managed to build three lodges and we 7,000 people come and visit the park every year generate 400,000 US dollars. It's quite amazing in ten years time to change that. The second example is Zakuma National Park and I think you have heard about Zakuma before and the region of Seahad Shad. It's a small park, it's a park of 3,000 km2 located not far from Darfur and South African Republic country where security issue is still a major concern. Zakuma have between 2004 and 2010 have lost a lot of elephants. We go from 4,500 elephants to 550 elephants in five years and the reason of that was the genocide organized by the rebellion based in Darfur based in Darfur but after the insecurity period that followed this period in 2008-2009. African parks take the management of the park in end of 2010 and after taking the whole management we take the responsibility of the management with the support of the government. We have a very strong support of the government. We managed to address the main problem, security. And after two years, after restructuring a bit the guards developing the relation with the army and establish a network of intelligence network around the park we managed to basically stop the poaching and bring the security in the region. For the local community, the fact that we have established the security was a new open period for them in terms of social development and economic development and that was a very strong thing. I hope to give you with these two extreme examples of demography pressure and security pressure that is still possible to do something and what is the key element in that is good management. Good management in the area can react to the different threats that you are facing and bring what we have now. It's a result and both Malawi and Chad are very proud with what they have done in a very short period of time. So the conservation crisis is deep and we have heard a bit about all that conservation crisis but for me there is two major regions. The first region is the demand related to the global market but the second is maybe more complex with the demand related to the population growth inside the continent. That's the main target problem. If we look to the elephant population for example we will have an idea of the dimension of the international demand impact of the international demand on wildlife. In the 50 there is more than 2 million elephants in the continent. In 2000 we are around 600,000 and now we are losing something like 35,000 elephants a year. Central African Republic by themselves, countries, have lost 66% of the elephant, forest elephant in 10 years. The only reason of that is the increase of price and demand but also the failures of the civil service. And I think we need to understand these two dimensions. There are two questions. Who is benefiting from all this market? For me I have worked a lot in Central African countries and certainly the armed groups have taken some profit from that but it's not only the armed group. The community, the authority, the army, the traders, international and local are part of all that network. And it is clear that they are all linked in different networks and the price and all the ivory go to Asia most of the time. So certainly the armed group, the rebel and the terrorist benefit from this particular market to dispose weapons in munitions. I know very well the Janjawit, like Richard, we work a lot in CER and they have completely wrapped up all the elephant population from Syria, Congo, southern Sudan and part of Chad just for ivory but they have also bring the insecurity in the region and distribute in all that region weapon ammunition. And the only reason why they do that is because they have a link with the northern Sudan army. It's clear that the northern Sudan army has played a major role in spreading armed ammunition and buying ivory. It's maybe the official army but people inside the army who have done that. So it is, we have heard about Lord Resistant Army I will not come back on that but it is the same problem in that region with Lord Resistant Army. But this rebel or armed group are not the only people that we must point at. The army by themselves or people in the army for the different countries in that region are part of the problems. And when we see the numbers of weapons that we were spread in that region it's clear that they must have a huge stock of guns and ammunition. And basically it is the former army who have this. The second example I can give is last year I was managing Garam National Park and I have seen from my eyes some military helicopters coming over the park shooting elephants and in 2010 also the same helicopter are coming from we think it can be Uganda shooting elephants inside the RC. And the Uganda's army are striking the LRA but some free time give you the possibility to shoot some elephant to make a bit more money. That's what I believe. So the problem that we are facing is a problem of corruption failure of the public sector. And the main question is to see how we can address that. And I think we can go better in terms of photo. So I can maybe give you the previous photo of the elephant growth. Here you have representation of the Jan Jawit and the low-resistant army. So the second major demand is the demand related to the demographic problems. And I want to give an idea about the growth of the human population. In the 50 we, Africa have around 250 million people and in 2001 billion people and in the next 50 years we will be 2.5 billion inhabitants. It's a major growth and that will change completely Africa. It is essential that the international community understand that the demand of the product of high value must be avoided at any cost and as soon as possible but we must not forget the pressure that we will face on the environment due to the human growth. It is urgent that we act and we need to find a simple and pragmatic solution to be implemented on the ground. I think we can go. And so natural resource, protected area and not the only sector suffering from this problem with the public service. There are other sectors who are finding a solution like housing and communication education by working more with actors of the civil society with private company with NGO. And it's quite important to understand that in a lot of countries the responsibility of the management of the natural resource protected area and one eyes remain in the prerogative of the states. And if we underline that's the problem it is we need to find a solution to solve that. And I believe that private public partnership can be a solution for that. African parks have been one of the pioneers in that area by just for management of protected area. And for us the central concept of the private public partnership is the separation of responsibility between governments and African parks. The state is remain the owners of the land. It keeps all the aspect of legislation, the strategy, the policy remain in the hands of the governments. But for African parks the responsibility is the execution management or the function, the real execution management of the function. And we are accountable for the state to be performed. The separation of this function is essential for accountability for both partners. It's something that in the conservation cycle we are not use of that. But African parks is really not responsible for the result of the management and we need to give responsibility to the government. And we make long term agreement with government. It's 25 years agreement taking the responsibility for managing the area and bringing the funding. But when we have a very strong support for government and when we have the power to manage we have very, very good result. And for example, I can show you a few photos a bit further. That's the human footprint a bit further. So we take the whole responsibility of the SCALT and the law enforcement and it's quite easy to bring them at the level to address the different traits. Here you see the guards of Zakuma National Park who is starting to be a good military base and they really have the capacity to treat the security issue. We can go on the other one. It's the same the SCALT in Zakuma who is starting patrolling. The next one. It's more in Garamba where we are facing the Lord Resistant Army. We have reacted straight away to the problem of the security, the LRA and we have managed to get the helicopters and start pushing the guard and addressing, fighting the LRA. So it's this concept of management and the responsibility of management is very important because we can really react quick and act. That's the main thing. We can go on down. In some areas like Majeti, there's no animal remaining so we bring the animals. It's easy. We can go to the other one. And after a few years they just rebuild. Here we pick all the infrastructure and it's going very... It's not simple. It's not difficult in fact. When you have the power and you can take decisions to react to a problem, it's easy. We address the problem of the community. So we have really good support in all the parts where we are working from the community around the parks. In Zakuma we have established now this principle of elephant school all around the park with bringing a very, very strong support. Can we go further? And also because the security issue was the main problem for the village, we tried to get them on board. So what we do, we give them the possibility... We give them radio all around the park and when they have a problem, they call us and we react. And that's the fact that we address their problems with the same problem than us making this very strong link that we have. So that's a bit the model of African parks and we have very, very strong results. I explained about Zakuma and Majeti in the introduction but when you are looking about, for example, Rewind zombie, in 10 years' time the wind-based population and migration increased for 300,000. And the second one, it's in Rwanda. We're taking a Kagera National Park four years ago and the income of the park now that we have give the possibility to manage the park. We don't basically need much more money to support the park. So I want to give you these two last photos because I think it's important to see that simple to have a strong power for management who are able to react to the problem give you the possibility to act. And we must think that a conservation solution for Africa is the fact of governance, safety and security, economic development and property evaluation solution. You cannot make conservation if you don't address all these problems. That's a key element. That means if you are in a remote area you need to be able to address that and to be the center of this sphere of influence that you will play in the region for 25 years. So we are not a project coming. We are part of the region and we have neighbors with who we are working. Thank you very much. I know that everybody in this room who's involved in African conservation joins me in congratulating you, Jean-Marc, and the entire African parks team on your extraordinary accomplishments. Finally, we have Major General Johann Juste who, as I mentioned, is in charge of anti-poaching in one of the poaching epicenters in Africa right now, Kruger National Park, following a somewhat more traditional model of state responsibility for these efforts. Major General. Thank you, chair, friends. Thanks for the invitation and the hospitality afforded me by this institute. Knowledge that is not shared is not knowledge. And an institute like this makes sure that we share knowledge. And I'm delighted to see so many young people here. That to me is a good sign. If you get used to here this afternoon, let me reiterate the complexity. I spent 35 years in our army. It was an amazing race. I worked for an American company for seven years and I'm at this for three years now. And I've never seen complexity and intensity like this. Not in my 40-plus years of productive life. This is serious and it has only begun. And we're under the risk of becoming used to it because this is the way it is and the graphs go one way and the money go the other way. Mine will be a bit more Kruger National Park focused and a bit more Rhino. You've got to choose your fights. You've got to rescue the world. And right now in South Africa, it's the soul of the iconic Kruger and it's Rhino. There are other animals in other parks but that is what it is now. And also another golden rule in life is not to go to a gunfight with a knife. And we're trying to do that and I'll explain myself on that. I'm not an expert but I'm from the eye of the storm to share with you a few ideas. Bottom line up front, I had a good friend who said when you start talking, give me the bottom line up front. I heard a lot today with due respect about going like this now. Some two hundreds of years ago said, don't do this, we cannot rescue the whole world. Let's rescue the wildlife for now. Corruption will be there. We've got to save the wildlife in this imperfect world. And on corruption, if I may dare say, two months ago, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stanley Morgan, Barclays and three other were fined billions of dollars manipulating the exchange rate. So it's everywhere. It's not an African phenomenon. It's maybe worse in terms of money and the harm it does to mankind elsewhere. I was worried for a minute this morning that I couldn't make out whether we were afraid or concerned. And somebody sat here and he said, what happened to doing things right? And I think the congressman also said that we're a civilized people and species will go extinct. A lot of things will still happen in our time. Unfortunately, they're also stacked against us. But there are things that we can do and I'm here to explain about that I know. We started off and we termed the phrase environmental asset management. The darn poachers and the syndicates has made wildlife a commodity. And we just see that unless we handle it as a commodity, manage it as such, one will miss things. One has got to look wide enough. One has got to look at real causes. I honestly think that too often we doctor the symptoms. If I have a headache this morning, I can take a disparan, but maybe tonight two glasses less of red wine and I won't have a headache tomorrow morning. And there are so many unintended consequences. In what we're doing in Africa now, hanging in for dear life to our environmental assets has unintended consequences of money, of people, of cost, of the dereliction and neglect of real conservation. And it's got to be done. It's happening on our beat as long as we're mindful and sharp enough to go with what is necessary and to make sure that we always look ahead. South Africa has 22 parks. We have rhino in seven of them. That accounts for more than half of the rhino in the world. And in the southern tip of Kruger National Park, there's an area, 5,000 square kilometres, with a quarter of the rhino of the planet's grazes. And let me be blasé enough to say the world has a rhino because South Africa saw to it that we had a rhino. So it's our rhino. It's not our rhino. It's our rhino. And I hope we can all agree to that, that we're not doing Africa a favour or somebody a favour. We're here with a cause. We really have a cause and it's a strong cause. And it can be won. But it'll take a lot more than what we do now because somebody spoke about the window of 10 years for the rhino three to five years. If we cannot arrest it this year, the congressman mentioned break-even, we're almost there, unfortunately. Three to five years and we'll just, you'll just see sparks and smell the rubber and the steel on the steel. Also, let me explain the rhino fever. For us in Africa, it's not just a normal animal. I know species and some species go extinct every now and again. And this thing of rhino fever, how important it is symbolically to us, unleashes positive and negative energy, unfortunately more negative. So you as a leader now is to face the facts and manage the fallout, manage the politics and the petty politics and the nuances and all of the agendas around it. And that's also not going to change. If I look in my country now and I see the rift in the conservation community between trade, pro-trade and not trade, it's tearing us apart. It's not a good thing. Only the poachers can score. And by the way, we talk poachers. Any syndicate leader today could be in the top 500 in the fortune top 500. He has all the resources, all the intelligence, all the acumen. The only difference is he has no rules, no law, no values, nothing. The cost of ownership that we have learned to do this paramilitary thing and by the way, I've suggested that the guy that will succeed me must not be military. The military spice must be in there. We mustn't over militarize. That is not the answer. It's force on force. We took out in the two and a half years close to 500 poachers with our allies. Guess what? There's 5,000 waiting. There's a poacher community of 6,000 directly involved living around Kruger. That's not the answer. That's doctoring the symptom and not the cause. This paramilitary thing costs money. It's serious money that is taken out of the conservation community. We've got to look at the technology. When Mr Buffett on 20 December 2013 promised me 25 million US, I thought, now we've arrived, you start looking technology. That's nothing. That's nothing and we'll have to go technology. We don't have the manpower. You just don't spread manpower. You don't have to have force multipliers. There's the cost to conservation and allow me just a few remarks about the human cost. I've made presentations and speeches only on the human cost of poaching. The poachers, we don't like them. They're criminals. They give us problems. But all little villages in Africa are criminalized. They know only the poacher bosses' law. They will never know a normal life. Every cent they have comes from the proceeds of illegal wildlife trade. That's not fair. We need a liberation struggle in Africa. We must liberate our communities from illegal wildlife proceeds. The ranger community, people has referred to that. That thin green line. I have a graph that keeps me sane where I show poacher activity to poachers' successes and we measure the metrics. It's not fair. The rules of engagement say I must arrest you. If I defend myself, it's a crime scene right there. I have a full-time advocate in my service. I have psychologists. These are the rural people, many of the rangers. Now you've got to take this sort of stress and illogic to them. I've done my work. I've worked so hard to track down this poacher and I've taken him. He picked up the 375 often at night and I killed him. I go back into community, I'm scorned. It's far worse than what we think for the rangers. Our communities, and ladies and gentlemen, their communities is the key. I was surprised. I'm not trying to be clever yet about this. Today, the little emphasis, there was emphasis. There are only two long-term options. It's the month reduction and community ownership. Unfortunately, both of those will be too late for the rhino of Krugerin of Africa. In the communities, you now have intelligence networks. Sons and fathers take their chances because they're in options and they just go for it. That's not fair. And if we wanted to write, we've got to do something about it. We have a simple philosophy and it's not MBA mumbo jumbo. We say, think big, start small act now. We've got to be big thinkers about it. Not a satellite view, but a chopper view, where you can go down and up and sometimes stall, sometimes get up. This is big. It's bigger than all of us together and with all the intellectual horsepower that we have here, fortunately behind us, we can't think this out as intelligent. In the think big lies the month reduction and lies the community. How do you make a live rhino worth more than a dead rhino? Think big. Start small. We cannot now go in analysis by analysis. It will be too late. Don't wait for the perfect solution, the perfect project before you sign off the money. Will the technology work and we customize and we do this in a little bit of that? In the start small lies the much spoken about today, we've got to disrupt the crime networks. We've got to disrupt the crime networks. This is organized crime. If they blow up an ATM, they don't fire the Minister of Finance, now they want to fire the Minister of Conservation because they're stealing our wildlife. In the start small, we've got to do the crime networks and we've got to do technology. We've worked out a lovely technology roadmap. We think we know what to utilize in environmental asset protection and we have a full-time project office where our council for scientific and industrial research to reach every one of you, everybody in Africa can have access. Mr Buffett put to me one condition. He first of all said to me, I know you'll make mistakes. And he said secondly, you share your lessons with Africa for free and seamless and that will stand. Then there's the act now. We're in trouble. The rhinos are dying. I've shown you the app here. It's not nice. We're fighting for dear life not to lose more than two a day and effort and we throw money and we throw Rangers at about it. So we've got to act now. There's got to be some paramilitary here otherwise Rangers will die and I'm not being dramatic about it. We've got to make sure that in terms of equipment techniques, your mobility, your night capability we'll just move at night. You've got to remain one step ahead of them and you've got to be a lot more intelligent and we mustn't go up ahead like this. They're good at night. They're good in the field. They have good resources. Like we said yesterday, syndicates sit in smoke filled rooms and plan the demise and plan their next proceeds from the lowest risk highest yield crime on the planet. The fundamental of this if we look at it as a strategy it's like the peels of an onion. You've got to do the amount reduction. You're going to your consumer countries with due respect for our South East Asian friends and I understand that the main driver is lifestyle not medicine or tradition from what I've, then it can be changed. It can be changed in a year or two or three. You move, you do international collaboration, you do crime networks, all sorts. Like Doug was spoken here and we saw him pulling jacks and he must help us sort them out. Then you move into your neighbors, your neighboring countries, your neighboring reserves your communities, your perimeter and your asset. The asset you protect and you manage your asset. You relocate some of them maybe you must deal on some of them maybe you must contaminate the on. There are so many plans to be made as long as we don't stop thinking and that's a fundamental part, one leg of our strategy is the asset management. How do we go? How do we make sure that we have breeding herds all through Africa? The Botswana herd is there, the Namibia herd is there and five other African countries and private reserves also. Under having this to a close we all said there is no silver bullet, what is different? However in most plans in life if you miss a component or two the thinking still roughly work, not this time. You leave out the law enforcement, the protection, the community, the crime networks, you will pay. It's a savage thing we're involved here for which no doctrine has been written and we all learn as we go and this is University of Life stuff fortunately we have people like in this room that can help us. I'd like to close down with the W's and just a few they call it out of the box I'd not like that. People ask me the W's, is this a war? I think so but we mustn't call it a war it alienates us from the community. Can it be one? French TV journalist a month ago said to me, good heavens you certainly have choices, why did you involve yourself in this unwinnable war? This war can be one. When will we win it? The only thing in the short to medium term that will make a market result is to collapse the crime networks and I'm not saying syndicates we all know to do a crime syndicate is five, six years of detective work or more. Interpol, everybody involved all the agencies but networks level three we we can definitely do and then the win is one day when the communities have ownership they own the park with us, they care for it with us like us and it's not seen in Africa borders become fault lines and boundaries become irrelevant very easily because we've drawn them there without consulting the people and we're paying for that now. We must do it, we must do it with what? I think the resources I referred to the cost of ownership I think we're underestimating it and it's up to us as leaders to convey that message for somebody to say so many million so what? and if you don't want to do that let's be honest then let's say to our leadership what will happen what the consequences will be we clear the park from the outside I'm just thinking and I'm really closing this down why don't we use social media must more effective why don't we employ a hundred social media ambassadors to become an ambassador you must have a following of ten million or more it's only sports purple and beautiful people but you get them and you open an office and they ride this I think we can drive demand down discredit the syndicates and get the resources mobilized I believe in the world there must be technology there must be technologies that we've not thought of I cannot think that there are not technology that can help us why don't we wait in economic war economic war through the ages economic war has worked you can collapse any market is it unthinkable that we can collapse this market and give the syndicates some of their own medicine and fight like this not like this and be more intelligent about it can you farm with rhinos and now I'm on the sensitive subject of legalizing trade on now but is that an option make a life rhino with more than a dead rhino and then I'd like to end of leaders are merchants of hope the hope lies in the communities the key to the future of parks in the emerging world in Africa lies in the communities I just cannot see it any other way in the meantime you'll have technology and you'll roll out the red carpet and you'll have MOUs and memorandums and we'll cooperate which we must it lies in the communities if we can collapse the crime networks in the next year or two at least some of them if we can work on the demand reduction and work on the community but that we've seen today mostly is awareness and it's good and well this is 2015 if the community don't see something who of us wants to do it some of you do because you're noble and good this is a global problem with a severe regional impact and a catastrophic local impact and I bring you warm African greetings and thanks for the friends we have in this town I was here last year twice and to meet friends I feel that we want to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do yes all the other reasons as well thank you Jim thank you so much Major General we don't have much time for questions but we will have a few minutes for questions literally a few minutes I would just like to ask the first two sets of speakers to respond and I will give you a moment to add in your thoughts Governor but I'd like to ask the first two sets of speakers to respond to the Major General's statement that over the long term the only solutions are demand reduction I don't respond to that because that's a separate topic but the other solution is community ownership in Kenya of course all wildlife are owned by the central government in Namibia where you did it before it was quite different on the other hand African parks of course has pioneered the delegation of significant authority from government and from communities to an independent NGO partner so could each of you just very briefly respond what you think of the Major General's point that in the long term the solution has to be community ownership thank you very much to put it in a nutshell poaching thrives in an insecure environment in Tanariva there was a lot of conflict around 2012 and we lost a lot of wildlife from the time we took over for two years we brought the communities together and brought peace for 11 months we have not lost a single elephant in that area for 11 months so I agree with Major General that enabling communities around the wildlife areas is the solution is the future to conserving these animals even foreigners cannot pretend to kill those animals if the communities are secure and they have ownership of those animals thank you Tom Maher yeah I mean I just reiterate what the governor said we've had success over 11 months we're still holding our breath but we're still pushing hard we've had that success because we've changed the value to the electorate of wildlife of which they coexist and the value has not been through tourism because we don't have a tourism environment in that area but the value has been a more secure environment for the people living that area and we've heard a lot about arresting poachers what we focus on is not arresting poachers we focus on stopping people becoming poachers which is it's slightly different but it's less expensive and it's a lot better to have those people on side working for you rather than against you so that's the basis of how we work I will go a bit in the same direction the fact that you are managing the main problems of the area you have the community with you and we are sharing the same problem we are sharing a problem of security we are sharing a problem of development so the ownership comes straight away and they come really protecting and sharing taking the power for them it's coming straight thank you it's great to see a consensus from three such different parts of Africa we have exactly two minutes for two questions so the first two questions go up, one there and one here in the pink over here and then Roger I think yours was the next hand that went up very quickly Hi, Claire London from the Roosevelt group I know that all this talk has been about ground models and what we can do from the ground but I was just wondering if there's a possibility of approach from the sky would it be worth it to find aircraft with intelligence capabilities to help track these poachers and would it be useful? it all depends what the operational requirement is you can't say generally that's the case if you have poachers in a highly wooded area with thick canopy then you're only going to be relying on smoke and fire so it depends what the operational requirement the train on the ground and what the threat levels is the aggressive elements will operate so yes in some scenarios but not in all it's not a blanket solution in some areas even the dressing code of the poachers and the people around are the same so you might end up killing the innocent if you're not careful Major General please big park, big coverage if you have a big area you've got to get in the air you cannot do it on the ground and technology must do it this country is well advanced with foliage penetrating radar let's give them money and fast like that you can put a suite of sensors that will be acoustic that can be forward looking infrared without getting technical that can be ground radar so we see as an integral part your air mobility and then air observation either by person or with a pack of sensors it can mean a UAV it can mean a airship like you have on the Mexican border and it can mean a manned aircraft like Botswana operates so well Sean Mark you want to add something? Yes for us aviation is a key element we for the load resistant army the ultra light and the plane have a key element all the time and we have received quite a lot of information coming from Africa who is using a termic image and get quite a good solution Thank you Roger and thank you for the role that you played in helping to put together and find funding for this session I'm Roger Slick and I'm an advisor to the subject of African wildlife conservation funding and in my experience I've been fortunate to have some familiarity with the Savo Trust with APN and Garamba and Zakuma and other places with WCS and Nwablidoki and the ASA and other locations you all have a problem in common I've discovered and John Mark kind of got at this when he commented that a key issue is fighting between the public-private between the NGO and the public-private partnership and the government what the authority is for each similarly with community conservancies across Kenya not just in Savo Trust but in Northern Rangelands Trust the subject of this conference is to look at both conservation and security and we've had a lot of discussion about how this is essentially our out there it begins with providing some stability to the park to the community which means the development of a security force of some kind the common problem I've seen is that it's very hard working with the government to get the authority to get the firearms to get the ammunition Brian Christie referred to the experience he had in Garamba seeing the rangers go out with a small of bullets sometimes they go out without any firearms at all I know in the case of Garamba that you desperately need new firearms I've been trying to help you get those but I can't without the government agreeing in the case of WCS in Niasa it's the same thing your rangers badly need firearms and you can't get permission from the government to buy them the Savo Trust part of the security element if you're going to provide stabilization is to provide security and the secret was supposed to be that they would become members of the Kenya Police Reserve be trained and be armed as representatives of law enforcement and you're struggling considerably to get to that point with the governments help to do that so the question is if these are going to be viable alternatives how do you get past that it's the issue ultimately of divided authority but if you're going to have somebody providing security and it's part of the community or part of the NGO community and it's a law enforcement function how do you get to the point where they can actually provide that security by the way just as a little anecdote it's not entirely an issue of the NGOs or the community conservancies I spent some time with Immanuel de Morada recently and most people know him from the documentary Varunga that was nominated for Academy Award when he was almost assassinated a year ago his own AK-47 jammed on him four times as he was trying to defend himself and he was shot twice in the chest and I'm trying to help him get new firearms and he's been working for at least six months to get an end user certificate from the government of the DRC to be able to get the permission to buy those firearms so our clock is ticking how do you get better guns to your forces one sentence from each group and the authority to use them under the legal system of the country you probably don't face this issue mage general so maybe you want to skip the question Sean Mark the first is to have the authority the legal authority and in Garamba National Park for example when you are dealing with National Park we have the legal authority because the government delegates, scouts and people from the government who are obliged to make the law enforcement the main question now is to get guns and munitions when you have this legal right the question now is a lot of countries like CR Congo and South Sudan are on embargo or very strict control of guns and munitions and other the international community don't recognize for example the park like a law enforcement institution and they are hesitating giving that to the park so it's not only the national authority who need to give the right it is also the international community who need to recognize that parks are part of the security and bring the security thank you Jean-Marc Governor Orian do you want to comment on this briefly yeah it is it's a major challenge for us and for other community conservancies is to get the legal mandate to use firearms not to buy them because there is a process in place in Kenya where the Kenya Police Reserve status can be given and then you take on police weapons so you don't buy your own the government supply of the weapons unfortunately the internal security systems within the country has been in a little bit of flux within the last few years and with the threats that Kenya has faced I mean we've gone from a country that has we had a large terrorist attack in 97 and then all of a sudden there's been an eruption and so everybody is very nervous about doing that everybody wants it to happen okay Kenya Wildlife Service wants us to do that the police wants us to do that the ministry wants it to be there every time we've got close usually what we've had a problem is ahead of the the ministers usually have been changed or there's a new Inspector General of Police and things like that there's been various issues but I know that there is a whole lot of new internal security regulations Governor Dado works at the national level on this to face the terrorist threat and of late last month there's been a lot of noises from parliament and from the state house that there needs to be more forced mobilization across the country and the areas of threat so it's something we just really need to keep hammering on at and our cabinet secretary is there it took over 20 years to get our new wildlife act now we have it it's robust, it's dynamic and within that act there is also provision so everybody wants it it's just the case of getting all the boxes ticked and getting the internal security people comfortable with it I think so yes it's taken time but we keep pushing on thank you Ian we have one more important no more questions I'm afraid we have one more important intervention but before we go to that I'd just like to thank this panel they have incredibly vital work to do on the ground in Africa and it's incredibly generous for them to have taken time away from that to share their wisdom with all of us and I think we're very grateful we're actually the panel is welcome to stay seated and it will make a good photo opportunity as well but we're going to bring up our final keynote speaker and if you want to step down you're welcome too but you're welcome to stay seated as well finally our final speaker today and thanks for such an excellent panel and I think the last question on kind of coordination with other security forces and the authorities between them is a very interesting one our final keynote speaker is professor Judy Wakungu who is first cabinet secretary for the environment water and natural resources in Kenya we're delighted to welcome here today she is a biologist by training she was associate professor of science technology and society with a focus on energy policy science and technology and gender all of these very much related to development and I think she's brought that background and that focus on development to now bringing on conservation issues and environmental stewardship and development she's been a real spokesperson and mover within the Kenyan government and Kenyan community to elevating the priority and highlighting this within Kenya as an important priority and working I know very closely with the governors and with the trust for example so professor Wakungu welcome and we're just delighted to have you here good afternoon everyone I feel honored today to join you for this conference on wildlife trafficking and to share our perspectives on both the environmental and security implications of poaching on behalf of the government and the people of the Republic of Kenya I wish to sincerely thank you for this invitation and recognition of our effort in saving the great wildlife species and our heritage the illegal wildlife trafficking in wild animals plants and their parts and derivatives is a global phenomenon that has serious implications for biodiversity serious implications for ecosystems and also serious implications for national economies illegal trade is a primary threat for the survival of plants and animal species across Africa range states ladies and gentlemen studies show that much of this illegal trade is from developing countries which contain most of the world's biodiversity to developed ones which provide the demand it is believed that illegal trade is fueled by unchecked demand for exotic pets rare foods trophies and traditional medicines in the market countries illegal wildlife trade is conducted discreetly and involves wild plants species of birds animals and its products which are of special and high monetary value most hit species on commercial scale are elephants rhinos plain game for bush meat and plant species such as the East African sandalwood and indigenous tree species for timber the economic value of the species lost through this illicit trade has not been established but has serious implications for international economies in Kenya wildlife based tourism provides foreign exchange incomes and employment and markets for other economic sectors there are also many indirect economic benefits from wildlife conservation such as protection of water catchments and biodiversity tourism in Kenya is the second largest sector in our economy after agriculture and accounts for 21% of total foreign exchange earnings and 12% of GDP in recognition of the role wildlife based tourism plays in the economy Kenya's transformation blueprint vision 2030 has identified tourism as one of the six key sectors to deliver the 10% economic growth rate per annum as envisioned under the economic pillar ladies and gentlemen as you're probably aware during the ministerial dialogue of the United Nations Environment Assembly on illegal trade in wildlife held at the United Nations Environment headquarters in Nairobi discussions underscore the multi-dimensional nature of the illegal wildlife trade including links to security development and the fight against international organized crime the side dialogue on combating wildlife trafficking signature event during the recent U.S. Africa leaders summit has been instrumental in fast tracking the support from the people and the government of the United States of America I want to register the government and the people of the Republic of Kenya's appreciation of this support from the United States the dialogue acknowledged that the issue of illegal wildlife trade can only be effectively tackled through unified efforts of the international community and responses must involve a range of legal measures enforcement actions legislation regulation environmental management and consumer and reduction strategies including promotion of alternative livelihood opportunities for communities it is now widely recognized that less the global community takes resolute action to protect rhinos and elephants in Africa they will soon be lost from many parts of their range the magnitude of the problem requires a concerted and cooperative global response from enforcement related bodies and personnel complimented by increased international diplomatic efforts by all nations concerned and global outreach campaigns to raise awareness and bring the problem under control this will require enormous resources in terms of personnel and equipment at the local regional and international level ladies and gentlemen the government and the people of the Republic of Kenya acknowledge that poaching and the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife projects is one of the major threats to the survival of plants and animal species in our country and indeed across the world furthermore that illegal wildlife trade is a major transnational crime and presents the regional governments communities and development partners and other stakeholders a commonality of interest around which strategies should be designed to tackle the problem Kenyan elephants and rhinos like in other African elephant range states are under severe and escalating levels of poaching threats wildlife poaching and trafficking has become more organized, more lucrative and more widespread than ever before these challenges are undermining the highly effective anti-poaching and wildlife trafficking interventions by Kenya and the international community over the last 25 years available evidence indicates that in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 witnessed the highest levels of poaching since the poaching crisis of the 1980s for example Kenya lost 47 elephants and five rhinos to poaching in the year 2007 as compared to 384 elephants and 30 rhinos in the year 2012 and 302 elephants and 59 rhinos in the year 2013 respectively but we are glad that we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and efforts by many stakeholders including many of you here today last year only 164 elephants and 35 rhinos were poached representing 47% and 40.7% drop respectively this represents this represents a significant decrease from previous years while these figures are indicative of the success of our concerted efforts they still represent damage to our wildlife capital in Kenya we have lost wildlife rangers and other law enforcement agents in the fight against poaching poaching is not only claiming the lives of our wildlife it is also claiming human lives ladies and gentlemen proliferation of small arms in East Africa region and in the illegal hands of citizens in areas hosting wildlife is a big threat to the security of wildlife as these weapons are used in poaching in addition to committing other crimes poachers are now using poison arrows to kill elephants which is a silent and dangerous method of killing elephants as it is not easy to detect in Kenya the situation is made worse by the presence of unstable countries in the horn of Africa such as Somalia which have become the source of bandits small arms and ammunition trafficking of wildlife could be linked to other serious crimes such as drug trafficking arms trafficking human smuggling it is often cited as a means to finance the more violent and destructive activities of criminal and terrorist organizations because of the major financial benefits derived from relatively minimal time investment lower risks of detection and lack of serious punishment the huge profits made from illicit wildlife trade acts as an incentive to organize crime networks the illegal wildlife trade is often linked to organized crime and involves many of the same culprits and smuggling routes as trafficking in arms, drugs and persons ladies and gentlemen to enhance wildlife security strengthen law enforcement and address wildlife crime both overt and covert operations have been launched leading to arrests of suspects and recovery of ivory Kenya's wildlife agency is actively collaborating with the local communities and neighboring the national parks and reserves and has also actively been working closely with other law enforcement agencies both within Kenya regionally along our common borders and also internationally to ensure that poaching and illegal trafficking of wildlife species and their products has been curbed the recovery of ivory reflects the magnitude of the illegal wildlife trade locally regionally and globally to prevent and combat trafficking in wildlife species and their products the government and the people of the Republic of Kenya has established a strengthened specialized wildlife security units which are deployed throughout the country and in the entry and exit points these include the K9 unit that helps to sniff wildlife products tracking wildlife offenders and an intelligence unit at the seaport of Mombasa as Kenya still remains an important link to the international destinations for illicit consignments of wildlife and their products the strengthening of these units and more collaboration with customs and other government agencies are some of the strategies of winning the war against illegal wildlife trafficking besides we have received support from non-state actors especially non-governmental organizations that have raised the plight of wildlife conservation in the country and beyond some of the areas where Kenya collaborates with local, regional and international stakeholders in the wildlife law enforcement include taking an active role at the regional level in environmental protection as an active member of the environmental crime project by the Institute of Security Studies cooperation between Interpol and Kenya's wildlife agency through the National Central Bureau where a member and host of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force Interpol and Lusaka Agreement Task Force are instrumental in facilitating, coordinating and offering support where required cross-border wildlife security collaborations with Tanzania participation in regional and international law enforcement operations geared towards fighting wildlife crime such as operation cobra and operation worthy and training of law enforcement personnel at local, regional and international institutions the prevention and combating of this crime should therefore be primary concern of the global community as it undermines security across nations as a global community we need to enhance local, regional and international cooperation in order to guarantee the security of our wildlife Ladies and gentlemen while we put in place policies, mechanisms and structures to deal with the menace of poaching and the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products our efforts will not succeed unless we also eliminate the demand in the destination countries we owe ourselves a duty to ensure that anything that threatens our well-being as productive and low-abiding citizens of this world is confronted and defeated our governments cannot on their own win this war rather our collective effort is the surest way to deal with this menace if we let our wildlife be to be disseminated to extinction Africa will lose all the future economic potential of wildlife tourism which stands today at over 1.3 billion US dollars in Kenya alone it is therefore imperative that we step up measures to protect and develop our wildlife resources and more importantly that we eliminate illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products for us to succeed we must therefore develop and implement global strategies to address both the demand and supply sides of the illegal trade in wildlife specifically we are seeking support on the following areas one sustained total ban on international ivory and rhino horn trade two demand reduction in consumer states in southeast Asia and China for ivory and Vietnam for rhino horn respectively three sustained awareness campaigns targeting the consumers of ivory and rhino horns on the risks of elephant and rhino extension as a result of their consumerism four create an information sharing and operations network within the region and other source transit and consumer countries five enhanced resource allocations to combat wildlife crime these include technical and financial support six establishment of a forensic laboratory the government of Kenya has completed the construction of one such laboratory at the Kenya Wildlife Service the next stage is to equip the laboratory to the acceptable standards for accreditation and gazettement that would single the commencement of its operations the purchase of equipment requires enormous financial resources the government of Kenya has embarked on a rigorous process of enlisting the support of partners and stakeholders in conservation to harness the resources for purchasing equipment the laboratory shall carry out analysis from all over the region leading to concerted regional law enforcement equipping the wildlife agencies with capacity to investigate and prosecute wildlife criminals develop collaborative measures to maintain cross border wildlife corridors and habitats develop collaborative and participatory land use plans compatible with wildlife conservation other sectoral programs and human population dynamics develop and adopt best practices in formulating effective partnerships with communities and to complement security for wildlife pursue joint positions on proposals related to mayors cites CMC and Ramsar finally I would like to assure you that Kenya is up to the task of protecting its wildlife we are appealing to all citizens of the world to cooperate with us in ensuring that our wildlife is secure ultimately we all have a duty to save the last great species and places on earth for humanity and for prosperity thank you very much thank you very much professor for those really appropriate words to end the session let me pass over to my colleague perhaps to thank the audience for being so patient I just want to say thank you professor really for a great presentation and laying out the priorities and the asks as well what you would like from the international community that's extremely helpful I want to thank our audience I want to thank our panelists just five words perhaps on things that I've kind of taken away as themes throughout this one is the role of leadership we saw it with our senators here today in each of our panelists kind of leading in their particular sphere of work how important that is to this work the dedication and leadership they've shown data data that raises awareness and data that informs policy choices coordination both of strategy and intelligence I think that was a big one throughout this networks both analyzing mapping and analyzing networks both working in trafficking but also creating kind of positive networks regional, international across disciplines and I think we started to try to do this here and then finally a sense of urgency when General Giusta picked up his phone this morning and kind of took the report from Kruger Park three rhinos dead since he's been at the conference it's kind of a punch in the gut and we have to do all of this quickly and on the fly and so I think I'll end perhaps just with his words for all of us is think big start small and start now so I want to thank you all for joining I hope this will be one of more where we can get more to the demand side some of the issues that didn't get addressed kind of coordination amongst our security forces again big thanks to Andrew Curry and to the Wood Tiger fund to Derek Schlickheisen and Ben Huebner for this to you all and to our panelists so thanks very much