A prevention of wildlife trafficking workshop for Dubai customs’ officers

On May 21^st, 2012, Dubai Customs and the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s office in Dubai signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). One of the MoU objectives is to support front-line customs officers in their mission to reduce wildlife trafficking. This week we already started training customs officials to arm them with the necessary tools and knowledge on how to fight wildlife trafficking.

IFAW’s office in Dubai conducted a Prevention of Wildlife Trafficking Training (PWTT) for thirty customs officials in collaboration with Dubai Customs and UAE Ministry of Environment and Water. IFAW developed a customized workshop and training for Dubai Customs officers to fit local and international needs.

Thirty customs officials from different air, sea, and land ports of entry came together in Dubai city, from June 04 to June 06, to attend the workshop. PWTT aimed to help customs officers understand what it CITES, how it works, permits, identify existing administrative procedures and common species in the trade in Arabian Peninsula region as well as around the world.

“It is important to introduce the Convention to customs officers who enforcing wildlife regulations and dealing with CITES specimens,” said Dr. Elsayed Mohamed, IFAW Middle East and North Africa Regional Director. “We cooperate with governmental bodies as we believe that local collaboration is critical to enhance capacity worldwide for preventing trafficking of wild fauna and flora’’.

Each officer received four practical exercises training and exposed to different scenarios and case studies in wildlife trafficking. Practical exercises included checking the validation of CITES permits, identifying CITES species, passenger inspecting and processing training and identifying different animal and birds species

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