The meeting “Community Voices” is about local perspectives on international responses to illegal wildlife trade. The results will be presented to the High level inter-governmental meeting of Thursday and Friday on Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) attended by several heads of state.
The CIC is represented formally by the CIC Director General Tamas Marghescu, the CIC Adviser Willem Wijnstekers, former Secretary General of the CITES Convention, but is attended by several CIC members and partners. “Considering the dark clouds of the CITES Standing Committee meeting in Sochi, Russia last week in relation to discussions on community participation in decision-making in CITES matters, it will be interesting to see whether a modus operandi can be found in the process of meetings and action on illegal wildlife trade to have the voices of communities heard”, said Khalil Karimov, Head of the CIC Delegation of Tadzhikistan, who attends the meeting on behalf of his local communities back home.