Wildlife and forest crimes affect balance of ecosystem, disrupt local community, impact national economies and regional security, top officials said a high-level event on the sidelines of the 13th the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

President of the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kutesa opened the event.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Yury Fedotov, and CITES Secretary-General John E. Scanlon co-chaired the event.

Fedotov spoke on the destructive nature of wildlife crime.

"Wildlife and forest crime is profoundly destructive, with far-reaching consequences. It undermines development and stability, threatens biodiversity and endangers species, and contributes to climate change." He bemoaned the inadequate legislations and the degree of punishment given to offenders is not commensurate with the nature of crime.

"Well organized and well-resourced transnational organized crime groups are driving industrial scale illegal trade in wildlife," said Scanlon.

"Combating these groups requires wildlife crime to be recognized as a serious crime across source, transit, and destination States." He urged States to deploy the same enforcement tools, techniques, and penalties to fight illegal trade in wildlife as those used to combat other domestic and transnational organized crimes.

Wildlife crime is on the Congress agenda for the first time and we warmly welcome the adoption of the Doha Declaration, he added.

Representatives of five Member States, and five agencies comprising International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) - the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, UNODC, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization (WCO) participated in the event, alongside a number of other organizations.

The event raised awareness on the scale and nature of wildlife and forest crime, which has escalated to unprecedented levels in recent years.