• Representatives from over 10 countries will have their meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Buenos Aires, October 29th, 2008 - Today the 1st Latin American Meeting on Wildlife Trade begins and will last until Friday, October 31th. Representatives of NGOs from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay attend this meeting.
The meeting is organized by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Fundación Cethus. Its main objective is the creation and consolidation of a network of local key players working against the illegal wildlife trade in Latin America.

"This meeting is a unique opportunity for those who work against the problem of wildlife trade, to know each other and share experiences, as well as to develop joint strategies to find solutions that benefit both animals and people," said Aimee Leslie, IFAW campaigns official.

During this meeting, presentations on the current status of wildlife trade within each country will be carried out. At the same time working groups will be conducted in order to identify the needs to consolidate the work in critical areas of the region and, thus, manage to define efficient strategies to attack the problem at regional level.

"The response to the invitation to the meeting has been so great and has had so much repercussion, that we are very happy to participate in this event and to have the support of IFAW to collaborate on its organization. We are very eager for the results of the meeting, and we hope that this working group will grow over time to manage to reduce the impacts that wildlife trade generates, particularly in our region", said Cecilia Gasparrou, from Fundación Cethus.


Background

• Illegal trade of wildlife has become a massive industry globally, comparable only to drug and weapons trade.
• The value of this industry is estimated to be above U$S 20 thousand million. Approximately one third of this amount comes from the illegal trade.
• Researchers claim that wildlife trade is the second cause of worldwide species extinction, after habitat loss.
• 90% of the animals die during capture or transport. Out of the survivors, 40% (1.5 million animals) are exported.
• Latin America is considered the geographical area with the greatest biodiversity in the world, with 98 land eco-regions identified and a total of 10,000 vertebrate species. Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela are some of the countries considered as mega diverse. Central America is home to 7% of existing species in the world.

To know more about IFAW and Cethus

www.ifaw.org
www.cethus.org