Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report Project Number: 50159-001 June 2021 Regional: Protecting and Investing in Natural Capital in Asia and the Pacific (Co-financed by the Climate Change Fund and the Global Environment Facility) Prepared by: Cecilia Fischer For the Asian Development Bank and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources- Biodiversity Management Bureau This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents. iii Citation Fischer, C. (2021). Illegal Wildlife Trade at the Philippine-Southeast Asian Nexus: An Assessment of Projects combating Illegal Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia informing the Philippines and guiding Donor Coordination. Manila, Philippines. Asian Development Bank. Project Title TA 9461: Protecting and Investing in Natural Capital in Asia and the Pacific Project Component Combating Environmental Organized Crime in the Philippines Funding Agency Global Environment Facility, GEF ID: 9658 Key words Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), Philippines, Southeast Asia, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Project Stocktaking, Counter-IWT Status This is the final report as delivered to ADB in June 2021. Note In this report, "$" refers to US dollars. Table of Contents Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. x Executive Summary ................................................................................................................xii 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 2. Southeast Asia and IWT: A Regional Approach ............................................................. 3 2.1. The Southeast Asian IWT Context ............................................................................... 3 2.2. The ASEAN Community............................................................................................... 8 2.2.1. ASEAN Political-Security Community ................................................................... 8 2.2.2. ASEAN Economic Community .............................................................................10 2.2.3. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community ......................................................................11 2.3. CITES and the ICCWC in Southeast Asia ...................................................................13 2.4. Regional and International Cooperation Mechanisms in Southeast Asia .....................15 3. The Philippines and IWT: A National Commitment........................................................20 3.1. The Philippine IWT Context ........................................................................................20 3.2. Identified Challenges and Efforts in combating IWT in the Philippines ........................23 3.3. Regional Agreements .................................................................................................31 4. The Philippine-Southeast Asian Nexus: Legal and Illegal Wildlife Trade ....................35 4.1. Legal Wildlife Trade between the Philippines and selected ASEAN Member States ...36 4.2. Legal Wildlife Trade between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China ......42 4.3. IWT between the Philippines and selected AMS .........................................................48 5. Stocktaking of Projects combating IWT in selected AMS I: An Assessment of counter-IWT Projects ..............................................................................................................54 5.1. Objective .....................................................................................................................54 5.2. Methodology ...............................................................................................................54 5.3. Analysis of Projects at the National Level ...................................................................58 5.3.1. Selected ASEAN Member States .........................................................................58 5.3.2. Non-ASEAN Member States ................................................................................79 5.4. Listing of Projects at the Regional Level .....................................................................86 5.5. Recommendations for the Philippines .........................................................................90 6. Stocktaking of Projects combating IWT in selected AMS II: The IWT Project Map and Database for Donor Coordination ........................................................................................ 102 6.1. Objective ................................................................................................................... 102 iv 6.2. Methodology ............................................................................................................. 102 6.3. Results ...................................................................................................................... 107 7. Looking forward: The Path ahead ................................................................................. 112 References ............................................................................................................................ 114 Annexes ................................................................................................................................. 128 v List of Tables Table 1. Number of counter-IWT projects implemented in selected AMS completed from 2015 onwards .................................................................................................................................................................................. 108 Table 2. Number of unique national-level counter-IWT projects per selected taxonomic group .... 109 Table 3. Funding of counter-IWT projects in selected AMS completed from 2015 onwards ............. 109 Table 4. Project Partners recorded in the assessment per category ............................................................. 110 List of Figures Figure 1. SOMTC Working Group on Illicit Trafficking of Wildlife and Timber within the ASEAN Political-Security Community Council .......................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 2. ASEAN Working Group on CITES and Wildlife Enforcement within the ASEAN Economic Community Council .............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 3. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council ............................................................................................. 12 Figure 4. Corruption Perceptions Index in selected Southeast Asian countries and in the PRC (excluding Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, China), 2020 (0 =highly corrupt, 100 = very clean) ........ 17 Figure 5. A Comparison of IUCN Red List Categories and Philippine Red List Categories used to classify species ........................................................................................................................................................................ 21 Figure 6. Directives for determination of a species' conservation status based on its listing under CITES and in the relevant Philippine DAO .................................................................................................................. 21 Figure 7. Wildlife seizures in the Philippines (2010-2019) ................................................................................. 23 Figure 8. Database entries of wildlife legally shipped from the Philippines to selected AMS between 2015-2018 - per country .................................................................................................................................................... 36 Figure 9. Database entries of wildlife legally shipped from the Philippines to selected AMS between 2015-2018 - per taxonomic group ................................................................................................................................. 37 Figure 10. Database entries of wildlife legally shipped from the Philippines to selected AMS between 2015-2018 - per year ........................................................................................................................................ 38 Figure 11. Database entries of wildlife legally shipped from the Philippines to selected AMS between 2015-2018 - per category ............................................................................................................................... 38 Figure 12. Purpose of wildlife legally traded from the Philippines to selected AMS between 2015- 2018 ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 38 Figure 13. Source of wildlife legally traded from the Philippines to selected AMS between 2015- 2018 ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 38 Figure 14. Database