Southeast Asia Plans Wildlife Crime-Busting Units

Special wildlife crime-busting units will form the core of Southeast Asia's first coordinated effort against the multi-billion-dollar illegal trade in animals and plants, officials said on Thursday.

The task forces are part of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, launched in December, which aims to target traffickers and criminal syndicates in a region that accounts for a quarter of the global illegal wildlife trade.

"We're hoping that this will snowball. We want to go to the other countries and ask them what they need," - Steve Galster, director of WildAid Thailand