How Trade Facilitation Measures Impact Current Law and Policy on the Wildlife and Timber Trade: Case study of the Greater Mekong Subregion

The document examines the tension between infrastructure and trade facilitation improvements in the Greater Mekong Subregion and the resulting increased risk of illegal wildlife and timber trafficking. It argues that while these measures ease the movement of goods, they also provide illegal traders with easier access to transport routes, potentially depleting biodiversity. The study recommends that policymakers assess risks, coordinate with customs, and negotiate stricter protocols for the Cross Border Transport Agreement to mitigate these adverse effects.

• Infrastructure and telecommunications improvements in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) facilitate the movement of legal goods but also provide illegal wildlife and timber traders with easier access to transport facilities, potentially worsening biodiversity loss.
• The GMS and ASEAN states are implementing conservation and trade regulation measures to comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), alongside ASEAN's own policy guidelines for sustainable biodiversity use.
• To mitigate the risks of trade facilitation, GMS states should evaluate the effectiveness of biodiversity and forest law enforcement, assess the impact of the WTO trade facilitation agreement from the Doha Development Round, and coordinate with customs to identify vulnerabilities in the Cross Border Transport Agreement.
• The study suggests negotiating a new protocol for the Cross Border Transport Agreement to impose stricter requirements on the transit and entry of wildlife and timber, while leveraging international initiatives like the EU's FLEGT Action Plan and the ITTO-CITES Program.

APA

Barcenas, (2010). How Trade Facilitation Measures Impact Current Law and Policy on the Wildlife and Timber Trade: Case study of the Greater Mekong Subregion. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/how-trade-facilitation-measures-impact-current-law-and-policy-wildlife-and

Chicago

Barcenas,. How Trade Facilitation Measures Impact Current Law and Policy on the Wildlife and Timber Trade: Case study of the Greater Mekong Subregion. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2010. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/how-trade-facilitation-measures-impact-current-law-and-policy-wildlife-and.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Barcenas, |title=How Trade Facilitation Measures Impact Current Law and Policy on the Wildlife and Timber Trade: Case study of the Greater Mekong Subregion |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=25 June 2010 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/how-trade-facilitation-measures-impact-current-law-and-policy-wildlife-and |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barcenas2010how, author = {Barcenas,}, title = {{How Trade Facilitation Measures Impact Current Law and Policy on the Wildlife and Timber Trade: Case study of the Greater Mekong Subregion}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2010}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/how-trade-facilitation-measures-impact-current-law-and-policy-wildlife-and}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }