Interview: Al-Shabaab trying to control illegal trade in new wildlife products: Interpol

The International Police (Interpol) warned on Wednesday that Al-Shabaab was making efforts to control trade in new wildlife products after losing control over the key charcoal trafficking routes in Somalia to the African Union Mission (AMISOM).

In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) underway in Nairobi, Davyth Stewart, Environmental Security Programme Head at Interpol's General Secretariat, said the Al-Shabaab had created links with Nigeria's Boko Haram in order to target an enlarged trade market.

"There is evidence of strong links between the Al-Shabaab and the Boko Haram and their intention is to control the trade routes," Stewart said.

The Interpol official said the Al-Shabaab was making efforts to control the trade in new wildlife products not only in Kenya but across other regions.

"Their control of the charcoal trade in Somalia was weakened in the past when they lost territorial control. But their control of these routes keeps shifting but whenever they lose the ports, they also lose revenue. Our counter-terrorism units are constantly monitoring them," Stewart said.

Interpol uses its red alerts on foreign nationals who leave their countries to go abroad for non-specific engagements as a measure to curb some forms of illegal trade, especially on wildlife products.

In Nairobi, UN officials involved in a project to lower carbon emissions that are linked to destruction of the environment, under the project known as REDD+, decried the growing threat of wildlife trafficking.

Stewart said the Interpol was currently involved in a project to analyze financial records of some companies and individuals who might be involved in hi-tech trafficking of wildlife products.

"We are dealing with people who are taking advantage of the ambiguous laws dealing with the environment. Our biggest challenge is the lack of clarity on these issues which is favouring those involved in trafficking of products like timber," Stewart told Xinhua.

UN officials say efforts to crack down on the trafficking of wildlife products are gaining momentum.

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner, said virtually everywhere in the world, the environment was changing with different impacts on women because the world was unable to act together to stop the destruction of the natural environment.

"We are working on technologies and the traceability of these wildlife products like using genetic technology to identify the traffickers and using the evidence to seek convictions against these criminals," said Jaime Alexandra Webbe, a Programme Management Officer at UNEP.

She said fighting illegal wildlife trade like illegal logging required people to engage in sustainable management of the forestry resources. Endit