William to make keynote speech at conference on illegal wildlife trade

The Duke of Cambridge is to give the keynote speech at an international conference on tackling illegal wildlife trade.

The Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference is being hosted by the UK Government in London next week to try and find ways to address the criminal trade, which is worth billions of pounds a year.

Illegal trade in animals, body parts, plants and timber is the fourth most lucrative transnational crime after drugs, weapons and human trafficking.

It endangers important wildlife, from elephants killed for their tusks to rare trees illegally cut down for their valuable timber, and damages the security and prosperity of countries, preventing them from developing sustainably, it is warned.

The conference, attended by heads of states and officials, wildlife charities, academics and businesses, is focusing on building coalitions, tackling the trade as an organised crime and shutting down markets for illegal products.

It is the fourth international meeting on the issue, after events in London in 2014, Kasane, in Botswana, in 2015 and Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2016.

William will also join an evening reception with his brother the Duke of Sussex, at St James’ Palace to officially open the conference.

He will hold meetings with political leaders and attend a meeting of the Elephant Protection Initiative, which is the response by African governments to the elephant poaching crisis.

He has recently completed a seven-day visit to Namibia, Tanzania and Kenya to visit projects and highlight issues around illegal wildlife trade.