On March 20, 2014, staff from JPH & Associates, Inc. (Sheila Gottsleben and John Hazelroth) traveled to Washington, DC to attend the inaugural Partner’s Symposium hosted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The symposium sought to educate participants on the current work of WWF and strengthen existing partnerships. One area of interest was the work being done to reduce the sale of illegal wildlife parts – particularly tusks from elephants/rhinos, in addition to tiger parts.

Based on information collected at this symposium and additional research conducted, JPH & Associates were astonished to find a strong link between illegal wildlife trade and national security. So much so, that we produced a brief position paper entitled “Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Threat to Our National Security”. The paper defines the scope of world-wide illegal wildlife trade (estimated at $7 to $10 billion annually) and how these funds are finding their way to transnational crime syndicates, some with terrorist links. The paper goes onto to articulate how Florida is specifically being impacted and concludes with concrete steps needed from our US Congress. We encourage your review of this important information.

Here is a link to the report:

Position Paper-Illegal Wildlife Trade