TRAFFIC (www.traffic.org), the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that wildlife trade is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of IUCN—the International Union for Conservation of Nature and WWF, the global conservation organization. TRAFFIC’s vision is a world in which this trade is managed sustainably – conserving biodiversity while continuing to make a significant contribution to human needs.

Following TRAFFIC’s successful establishment in 1991 in East/Southern Africa, TRAFFIC established a new presence in Central Africa in May 2008. Based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the new TRAFFIC Central Africa Programme office is the result consultations with intergovernmental and governmental institutions and with international and national NGOs, all of whom have expressed their support of a TRAFFIC programme in the region.

Objectives of TRAFFIC in Central Africa are in keeping with the general pattern of constructive and efficient collaboration with the CITES Secretariat, governments and institutions, and other stakeholders (private sector, professional organizations, civil society representatives and other partners, including the Species Survival Commission and NGOs).

Hosted by IUCN, the new TRAFFIC Central Africa programme will focus on the trade in wild meat, on good timber trade governance, and on closing down illegal domestic ivory markets and ivory smuggling routes.

TRAFFIC will initially focus its efforts in eight of the 10 COMIFAC (Central African Forest Commission) countries in the region, namely the Republic of Cameroon, Republic of Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Republic of Saõ Tomé & Príncipe where TRAFFIC will assist with the implementation of COMIFAC’s “Plan de Convergence”.