ARREST Progress October through December 2012

The months October through December built further momentum against transnational wildlife crime. The ARREST Program and its partners are reducing demand for wildlife in Vietnam through multi-media public engagement, in Cambodia with the debut of wildlife awareness signage in its airports and on the streets, and online in China with public sector engagement. PROTECT’s counter-poaching manuals are being developed further in a number of languages for standard curricula in the Philippines and in Indonesia where it is being replicated by the Indonesian Government. Border-specific training is strengthening regional cooperation and enforcement in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and legal support continues for Indian and in Malaysian judicial officials. Wildlife Conservation Day was marked in both China and Thailand, highlighting ARREST and formalizing cooperation with AIPA. ARREST and its partners continue to serve as a model for regional cooperation in ASEAN and beyond. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton counted ARREST as a key part of a new US-led drive to combat wildlife trafficking and the second Asian Ministerial Conference on tiger conservation entrenched ASEAN-WEN among platforms to strengthening protection of tigers. The program facilitated a number of bilateral initiatives between authorities in Thailand, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Indonesia.