On Tuesday 21st January, Fred Osborn, Non-Executive Director of XPand Logistics Ltd attended a United for Wildlife Taskforce meeting as BIFA’s representative. The meeting was hosted by The Duke of Cambridge, President of United for Wildlife, at St. James’ Palace, London.
United for Wildlife is a programme run by The Royal Foundation, working to combat illegal trade in wildlife products around the world by bringing together conservation organisations, law enforcement bodies, governments and global corporations.
The Transport Taskforce was formed in 2014 to engage the transport sector in identifying and developing relevant and targeted solutions to wildlife trafficking, including increasing awareness, reporting and enforcement. Then, in 2018, the financial sector was brought together to form the Financial Taskforce which is committed to sharing resources and intelligence in a bid to disrupt the illegal income generated by trafficking.
Since the formation of the Taskforces, membership has grown to over 150 private sector companies, representing large proportions of the global shipping, airline, and financial industries. The Taskforces have supported over 70 law investigations, contributed to 18 trafficker arrests and played a key role in disrupting a major international ivory, rhino horn and heroin syndicate in East Africa.
Chaired by Lord William Hague, the meeting provided an opportunity to lay the foundations for the next phase of action. The Taskforces will now enter a new period of focused activity with the intent of making it impossible to use private sector infrastructure to facilitate the transportation and financing of IWT products with impunity. This three-year shared goal is to embed IWT into members’ business-as-usual operations.
The Duke was joined by President Kenyatta of Kenya, who gave the closing address.
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