MENA FCCG Releases Guide on Illegal Wildlife Trade
In its latest endeavors to enhance financial crime literacy across the region and beyond, the MENA FCCG in collaboration with United for Wildlife has issued a Guide on Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT). The Guide sheds light on IWT risk factors associated with the MENA region generally as well as focuses on the efforts undertaken by the UAE to eradicate the scourge of IWT, a crime increasingly considered a crisis on a global scale, putting both humans and nature in peril.
The Guide, available in Arabic and English language, aims to motivate stakeholders to join the fight against illegal wildlife trade including via clarifying the magnitude of the harm this trade inflicts on endangered species and global biodiversity. It also provides:
- Practical guidance to financial institutions across the MENA region and beyond to establish the necessary financial crime compliance controls and in-turn play a critical part in fighting illegal trade of wildlife and related products,
- Insights on IWT risks across various sectors of the economy including transportation, tourism, food and beverage, fashion, and traditional medicine which will serve to steer financial institutions’ Know Your Customer and transaction monitoring activities accordingly.
- A list of IWT-related red flags at the account opening stage and as part of ongoing monitoring, as well as red flags indicating the need to file a Suspicious Activity Report/ Suspicious Transaction Report (SAR/STR) with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Effectively tackling IWT requires bringing those responsible to justice in large numbers which will serve as a deterrence to perpetrators of this highly profitable crime. This Guide provides practitioners from the public and private sector with practical insights on how to detect and deter this serious global threat to the environment, economy, and public health and safety.
Working together, we are making a difference.
Click to view Guide in Arabic and English, also available on MENA FCCG publications page.
