Turkish Airlines on board with UFW in fight against illegal wildlife trade
Turkish Airlines has signed the “United for Wildlife Buckingham Palace Declaration (UFW)” pledging zero-tolerance regarding the illegal wildlife trade.
The “United for Wildlife Buckingham Palace Declaration (UFW),” which was on the agenda of the 73rd IATA Annual General Meeting held in Cancun, Mexico last June, has been signed by 41 airline companies so far.
The declaration, also signed by institutions such as ACI, AFRAA, AASA and London Heathrow Airport, is aiming to stop the illegal wildlife trade of tusk, rhino horn, tortoise shell, etc. as well as increasing passenger, customer, client, and staff awareness about the nature, scale, and consequences of the illegal wildlife trade.
The declaration was approved by Turkish Airlines at a signing ceremony held on Tuesday at the Turkish Airlines Istanbul headquarters, attended by Bilal Eksi, Turkish Airlines deputy chairman and CEO, and IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac.
“With this declaration, we at Turkish Airlines are not only underlining one of the most important environmental issues of our times, trafficking of wildlife, but we are also setting an example of responsibility. Today with this signature we hope that we are contributing to the level of awareness on the issue and smoothing the path for legal enforcement procedures against the traffickers,” said Eksi, during the signing ceremony.
De Juniac said: “The illegal wildlife trade threatens to extinguish many of the world’s most iconic and special creatures. The global connectivity built by the aviation industry is being exploited by traffickers, but through coordinated action with our industry partners, and assisting the proper authorities, we can help to end this dreadful trade. We welcome Turkish Airlines’ commitment to join this fight, symbolized in its signature to the Buckingham Palace declaration.”
Some of the key points in the agreement include:
Adopt or encourage the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy regarding illegal wildlife trade.
Increase passenger, customer, client, and staff awareness about the nature, scale, and consequences of illegal wildlife trade.
Promote the declaration and its commitments across the entire transport sector and encourage all in the sector to sign up to the declaration.
Develop mechanisms to enable the transport sector to receive timely information about the transport of suspected illegal wildlife and their products, including methods of transportation, key routes, ports and other locations.
OOOO