Richard Maša of the EU Delegation to Serbia presented the State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Stana Bozovic with keys to seven vehicles designed specially for animal transportation and rescuing of smuggled animals.
The Ministry received Opel and Nissan’s vehicles designed for and adapted to animal transportation.
The global profit generated by wildlife trafficking amounts to 15-20 billion US dollars annually which ranks it fifth among illegal trades, said Pavle Jovanovic Head of the group in charge of implementation of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Jovanovic said that in order to stop trafficking and smuggling it was necessary to establish interdepartmental cooperation and educate supervisory and judicial authorities in this area.
According to him, the most smuggled animal species in Serbia are exotic birds, reptiles and amphibians as well as certain species of primates.
Serbia signed the CITES Convention in 2001 and began with its implementation a year later.
