{{Poaching among other types of illegal trade in wildlife are set to top the agenda at the first ever United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) to be held in Nairobi in June.}}<\/p>\n
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said they are planning to table a report on the growing trade and the threat it poses at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a small thing. The threat it poses is not to be underestimated,\u201d he reiterated, \u201cbecause we are confronted with a battle that we\u2019re not winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while Steiner admitted that there remains an absence of empirical evidence directly linking poaching to terrorism, he maintained that it did not negate the very real possibility that one fed the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have is anecdotal evidence that poaching has in some instances financed armed conflict which could be extended to terrorism and that is what we will be presenting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kenya\u2019s Permanent Representative to UNEP Martin Kimani said Kenya was pleased that poaching would top the agenda at the assembly as it hits close to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cElephant and rhino poaching are something the government is fighting day and night to eradicate so we\u2019re happy to put our heads together with the rest of the world and host this very important conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steiner said while UNEP was already actively involved in the fight against poaching, the Assembly would not only allow for the world to speak and act with a united voice against it, it would inject some much needed impetus into the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to address the consumer end because there will be no point to poaching if there is no market for the trophies. And with China being one of the biggest consumers of ivory we\u2019re already holding exhibitions there, in train stations and elsewhere, to sensitise the public on the high price there is to pay for that trophy, that mythical cure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Awareness Steiner and his team plan on raising at the highest levels with over 100 government representatives expected at the UNEA between June 23 and 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone other than UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon will be leading this conversation with Ministers, Chief Justices and Chief Executives, about 1,200 delegates in total,\u201d Steiner enumerated.<\/p>\n
Also top on the agenda is sustainable development; an area in which, both Steiner and Kimani agreed, Kenya was again invested in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Poaching among other types of illegal trade in wildlife are set to top the agenda at the first ever United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) to be held in Nairobi in June.}} United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said they are planning to table a report on the growing trade and the threat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000052440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-14701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000052440,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14701.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14701.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14701.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14701.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14701.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14701.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000052440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14701"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=14701"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=14701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}