Subject: Wildlife Trafficking Announcements by Major U.S. Corporations
From: David Hayes <[email-masked]>
To: Madhuri Kommareddi <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>
Cc: Sarah Henning <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2016 08:44:01 -0800

John, Jake, Madhuri and Sarah:

Because I know how deeply Hillary and Chelsea feel about this issue, I
wanted to be sure that you saw this morning's announcement by 16 U.S.
companies who are committing to help combat the global wildlife trafficking
crisis.  The companies are committing to shut off supply chain
opportunities for traffickers to sell their illegal products in the U.S.,
and to help raise awareness and change the buying behavior of U.S.
consumers who may not know that they are purchasing illegal products.

The announcement was made this morning by the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking
Alliance, and applauded by our government partners.  Here's the Interior
Department's press release, just out this morning:
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-jewell-highlights-progress-obama-administration%E2%80%99s-fight-against-illegal

The commitments are spelled out in detail on the Alliance's web site:
http://uswta.org/ and
http://uswta.org/world-wildlife-day-corporate-commitments/

The U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance is a group that I chair.  It was
created in response to the National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife
Trafficking's recognition that the U.S. is a major market for illegal
wildlife products, and its recommendation that nongovernmental
organizations work cooperatively with companies, and in partnership with
the U.S. government, to reduce demand for illegal wildlife products in the
U.S. and close down the supply chains that traffickers rely on to market
their products. While the commitments focus on the U.S. market for illegal
products, many of the companies announcing their commitments today are
international brands -- like Tiffany's, Google, Berkshire Hathaway, and
Ralph Lauren -- and we expect that these commitments will set a standard
for, and reverberate through, China and other major markets.

You also might be interested in the "Commentary" piece that Fortune
magazine ran this morning on the corporate commitments:
http://fortune.com/2016/03/03/corporate-responsibility/
Additonal press is popping on this by the minute.  See, e.g.:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160303-wildlife-trafficking-internet-businesses/

I hope that you'll forward this to Hillary and Chelsea, and thank them for
all that they do in this area.  It's a labor of love for all of us.  I must
say, however, that founding the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance, herding
the NGO sheep and then procuring these commitments from cautious U.S.
companies, ranks up there as among the hardest things that I have ever
done!  (And that includes my role in managing through the Gulf of Mexico
when I was Deputy Secretary at Interior!)

David

-- 

*David J. Hayes*

*Stanford Law School*
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law

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