/ 17 March 1999

TASK FORCE FIGHTS WILDLIFE CRIME

SIX countries — Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia — on Wednesday formally empowered an international Task Force to fight wildlife crime in Africa. Referred to by many as “African Interpol” for wildlife and the first of its kind in the world, the Task Force will have its headquarters at the Kenya Wildlife Service in Nairobi, the United Nations Environment Agency said in a statement. It said the Task Force will function under the Lusaka Agreement on Co-operative Enforcement Operations directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora, signed in Lusaka in 1994.