Airline Industry in South Africa and Vietnam Increase Efforts to Stop Wildlife Trafficking

The two trainings took place at O. R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 29th and Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on September 30th. These two airports are inextricably linked by the smuggling of rhino horn from the major source to the major consumer nation.  During the trainings, 176 airport and airline personnel were given an introduction to the global wildlife trade and the potential risks to transport and logistics providers, introduced to techniques used by traffickers for smuggling wildlife through aviation transport, and informed on how best to respond and report trafficked wildlife upon detection. The training focused on key species threatened by illegal trade, such as elephants, rhinos, and pangolins.

The South Africa training was organized by the country’s national carrier, South African Airways, signaling their commitment to raise awareness among their staff on the illegal wildlife trade and to support law enforcement efforts to combat wildlife trafficking that is driving species such as rhinos toward extinction.

The Vietnamese training was organized by three partners, the Central Committee for Propaganda and Education (the advisory body of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party), the Block Party Secretary and the Central Party Business Sector, demonstrating the Government’s support for tackling wildlife trafficking in the country.

Feedback from these sessions will be incorporated into training modules that will be available to other transport sector partners through the ROUTES Partnership. These trainings, conducted by TRAFFIC and Freeland with support from the International Air Transport Association under the ROUTES Partnership, highlight the growing commitment by the transport sector to take action on illegal wildlife trafficking, and were well-timed as global conservationists meet to strategize on how best to intervene against a significant global threat to endangered species; illegal wildlife trade.

ROUTES strategically targeted these two airports as South Africa is the global epicenter of rhino poaching and smuggling, where last year 1,175 were killed for their horn, with most horns being smuggled to Vietnam for trade as tonics and medicines. Criminals are exploiting legal transportation supply chains to move illegally harvested wildlife, a crisis that port authorities, transport and logistics companies now recognize as a major challenge they can help tackle.