President Obama launched a new initiative today that seeks to combat poaching of rhinos and elephants and stem the illegal wildlife trade by establishing a Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking charged with developing a National Strategy. In response, Allan Thornton, president of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), issued the following statement:
“The poaching epidemic across Africa threatens to wipe out rhinoceros and elephant populations and we applaud President Obama’s decision to combat the unsustainable killing and trade of elephants, rhinos and other threatened species. The high-level attention by the United States will help raise the global profile of wildlife trafficking, a serious transnational crime that is worth an estimated $10 billion annually.