WCC 2020 Res 047 - Progress Report

Actions listed below cover work starting from 2020. This is the first report submitted and so it seemed important to include background activities that continue to influence current work in 2022 and beyond. The policy influencing/advocacy work has resulted in good dialogue with EU and CITES officials and a building of trust. This increased interactions and opportunities to provide input to developing documents and Action Plans. The final results of these activities are still ongoing.
Education/Communication/ Raising Awareness has been successful in raising the profile of this topic within the EAZA community. Members are supportive of EAZA actions to reduce illegal tiger trade and for their data to be used in support of decision-making and reports.

Education/Communication/Raising awareness
Representatives from Four Paws were invited to the EAZA Directors’ Days in 2021 to present to the ~120 attendees on their joint report with WWF and TRAFFIC. This report was also communicated via EAZA social media.

Field Activities
WPSI provided actionable information to enforcement authorities to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trade of tigers and its prey species.

Policy influencing/advocacy
EAZA continued to cooperate with WWF, TRAFFIC and Four Paws towards getting the EU and its member states to do more to prevent illegal and/or commercial trade of tigers or tiger derivatives. Including contributing to the A TRAFFIC, WWF Tigers Alive Initiative and WWF Germany 2020 publication 'Falling through the system: The role of the European Union captive tiger population in the trade in tigers', and using the recommendations to guide future work. This included joining a Four Paws led panel discussion webinar 'Profit or protection: why Europe needs to end the commercial tiger trade' with members of the European Parliament on the EU’s role in tiger trade.

EAZA joined several other signatories on a 2021 letter to the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment and Directorate-General for Trade identifying EU priority steps to ban all commercial intra-EU and external trade in live tigers and tiger parts and derivatives. The response to this letter is included in the documents uploaded.

EAZA joined several other signatories on a letter to the CITES Secretary-General regarding preparation of an inspection manual for facilities breeding tigers in captivity. EAZA has specific expertise in not only best practices in tiger care and facilities management, but also breeding and small population management as regards indications of legal vs illegal trade.
EAZA was asked to take part in an expert consultation to evaluate the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking. A written response was prepared and based on this, we were selected for a follow-up interview where we had the opportunity to explain in more detail how the EAZA community contributes to combatting wildlife crime. Results of these consultations will feed into the European Commission’s work on the successor of their Wildlife Action Plan, due to be launched late 2022 or in 2023.