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The Wildlife Trafficking Response Assessment, and Priority Setting (Wildlife-TRAPS) project, supported by USAID and implemented by TRAFFIC and IUCN, organized a Collaborative Action Planning (CAP) workshop in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 18th and 19th November 2015. The workshop, with active engagement from the CITES Secretariat, was organized under the theme “subregional action planning workshop to strengthen regional collaboration to support the implementation of National Ivory Action Plans (NIAPs) in Central Africa.” NIAPs are a practical tool being used by CITES in 19 Parties that are implicated in the illegal trade as a source, transit and/or destination country for ivory. The implementation of NIAPs by a number of countries in Central Africa is currently underway in accordance with recommendations adopted by the CITES Standing Committee in March 2013.

Delegates from all the NIAP implementing countries in Central Africa were present at the workshop: Cameroon, Congo, DRC and Gabon. Representatives from other countries of Central Africa were invited as well, including Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) – both also sources of ivory and implicated in regional ivory trafficking. The delegates all worked with their respective wildlife ministries as national Management Authorities responsible for CITES implementation, NIAP Focal Points, or officials of relevant government wildlife departments. Delegates from Nigeria were also invited but were unable to attend the workshop due to difficulties in obtaining visas. However, Nigeria submitted a document to assist with the development of their NIAP.

Over 40 participants were present at the workshop including government representatives, representatives of inter-governmental organizations including CITES, the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the United-Nations Development Programme (UNDP). NGOs present included TRAFFIC as convener and organizer, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that assisted in the workshop planning and facilitation, Juristrale that participated and also provided logistical support, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Environment Fond Vert. Donors from the United States and Germany were represented by USAID and GIZ, respectively. IUCN/SSC (Species Survival Commission) African Elephant Specialist Group sent its apologies as visa issues prevented the attendance of a representative.

The overall objective of the workshop was to improve the management and conservation of African Elephants through the reduction of poaching and illegal ivory trade through the effective implementation of the NIAPs at the country level, and through strengthened inter-country collaboration.

The approach adopted for the workshop consisted of presentations on various subject areas by invited representatives of the CITES Secretariat and other invited experts, as well as NIAP progress summaries presented by government representatives. Question and answer sessions allowed sharing of information and experience, along with group work on identifying shared technical assistance and funding needs, regional co-operation activities and opportunities for alignment of NIAP implementation through a regional approach, and best practices and successes to exchange with other Parties present.

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