S. Africa committed to fighting illicit trade in wildlife: minister

South Africa's Minister of Environmental Affairs on Monday reaffirmed the country's commitment to combatting illicit trade in wildlife.

She stressed the importance of disrupting and dismantling the transnational, organized criminal syndicates involved.

The minister was speaking as she was leaving for Cairo, Egypt to attend the high-level segment of the 6th Special Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), scheduled for April 18-19.

The special session is being held under the theme: "Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement: from policy to implementation in Africa."

The special session offers an opportunity for governments on the continent to deliberate on what the Paris Agreement means for the region and its people.

Other priority issues and initiatives on the agenda for the AMCEN include the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative and the implementation of the African Strategy on Combating the Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora.

"This issue is of particular importance to South Africa considering that we are hosting the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (COP17)," said Molewa.

"The Africa common strategy facilitates and harnesses the collective action needed for us to combat the illicit trade in wildlife that is decimating species on our continent, by disrupting and dismantling the transnational, organized criminal syndicates involved," Molewa added.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Environment Programme and INTERPOL estimate that wildlife crime, comprising fauna and flora and including logging, poaching and trafficking of a wide range of animals, amounts to between 70 billion and 213 billion U.S. dollars a year. Endit