Network to enhance conservation of wildlife

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 35

Network to enhance conservation of wildlife

By OLIVER RIDDELL in Wellington New Zealand has now been brought within the ambit of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. — Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce. This is an international network of offices that have the objective of trying to enhance the conservation of wildlife by monitoring and reporting on trade in wild animals and plants, and products derived from them. It was set up in Britain in 1976 and gained an Australian office in 1984. * Its office in Sydney was * given responsibility for New Zealand in July this year.

The network was formed as the trade specialist group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ Species Survival Commission. It quickly developed a close working relationship with the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (C.1.T.E.5.). As well as New Zealand, the Australian office has been given responsibility for American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru? New Caledonia, Nuie, Papua New Guinea, Solomon

Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and Western Samoa.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is a nongovernmental organisation and each office is administered and funded independently. All offices receive at least partial financial support from the World Wildlife Fund. Its main function is to collect, analyse and publish data on trade in wildlife.

It publishes a quarterly bulletin available free to Government agencies, conservation organisations, and other institutions involved in the conservation of threatened species.