UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council has targeted illegal wildlife traffickers for sanctions in a pair of resolutions against African armed groups, a step conservationists called unprecedented and a major shift on a problem that has morphed from an environmental issue into a security threat.
The move follows years of warnings from UN officials and others that wildlife trafficking, particularly elephant ivory, has increasingly become a source of financing for militants and others.
A resolution that renewed an arms embargo, travel bans and asset freezes against armed groups in Congo included individuals who support those groups “through illicit trade of natural resources, including gold or wildlife as well as wildlife products.” The Security Council approved the resolution last week after including similar language in a sanctions regime imposed on armed groups in the Central African Republic.
“It’s a huge step forward,” said Wendy Elliott, World Wildlife Fund species program manager. Wildlife traffickers “are funding the armed groups that are causing the human rights violations, but it is still treated as an environmental issue and that is just not going to work out.”
Britain, which will host a summit on illicit wildlife trafficking next month, also applauded the Security Council for approving a “sanctions regime which includes targeting those who fuel instability by illegally exploiting wildlife.”
“This provides us with another avenue to protect vulnerable species and cut off support to criminal and armed groups,” said Iona Thomas, a British government spokeswoman.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said, “In recent years wildlife trafficking has become a lucrative business and a source for conflict, so it’s a sign of progress that the Security Council recognizes the link between stopping poaching and advancing peace.”
In a report last year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there were signs that the illegal trade in elephant ivory constitutes an important source of funding for armed groups including the Lord’s Resistance Army — which originated in Uganda and has waged one of Africa’s most brutal rebellions. LRA fighters moved into Congo, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic after Ugandan troops flushed them out of their country.
Ban said some African governments are using the army as well as police and paramilitary forces to hunt down poachers. He said poachers are using more sophisticated and powerful weapons, including some that may have originated from the fallout of the uprising in Libya that ousted Moammar Gadhafi.
Conservationists say a thriving ivory trade market in Asia is helping fuel the worst poaching epidemic of African elephants in decades. According to the WWF, more than 20,000 elephants are killed each year for their ivory tusks, many of them in Central African conflict zones.