The US state department has listed Bangladesh as one of the 26 countries considering those as a major source, transit point or consumer of smuggled wildlife products and their derivatives.
A report titled ‘End Wildlife Trafficking’ was submitted to the US Congress on Thursday. The US Department of State, in consultation with the Departments of the Interior and Commerce as well as other agencies of the Task Force, determined the countries should be listed as focus countries pursuant to Section 201(a) of the Act.
In other words, each country listed is a “major source of wildlife trafficking products or their derivatives, a major transit point of wildlife trafficking products or their derivatives, or a major consumer of wildlife trafficking products.” This determination is based on their analysis of the statutory criteria and does not reflect a positive or negative judgment of the listed countries or indicate that these countries are not working diligently to combat wildlife trafficking.
Indeed, the United States has longstanding and deep partnerships with many of these countries with respect to combating wildlife trafficking and recognizes the strong political will that already exists in many of these countries to tackle this problem. The Department of State and other Task Force agencies look forward to continuing close and constructive relationships with these countries as we work collaboratively to combat wildlife trafficking.
The other listed focus countries in 2017 are Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Philippines, Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, according to the US Department of State.
