Stop Stimulating Demand!
A briefing document prepared for CITES CoP16 urging decision-makers to end the confusion of murky policies, contradictory laws, inconsistent law enforcement, demand-stimulation efforts and grey markets which give environmental criminals incentives and opportunities for mingling illegal goods with legal ones.
We caution that conflicting decisions coupled with top-level discussions regarding trades in the products of endangered species such as elephants, tigers and precious woods ultimately drive poaching and theft by criminals to supply rising demand.