What is United for Wildlife, you ask? It is working to end the illegal wildlife trade. United for Wildlife was created by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2014 to protect endangered species from the illegal wildlife trade. Our mission is to foster cross-sector collaboration to make it impossible for traffickers to transport, finance, or profit from illegal wildlife products.

How is Delta Air Lines helping? They are the newest members of the Transport Taskforce. The Transport Taskforce convenes airlines, ports, shipping companies, freight organizations and logistics firms, to prevent illegal wildlife products from being successfully trafficked across borders. Criminal gangs that facilitate wildlife trafficking will typically use commercial transport infrastructures to move products from source to destination countries.

To tackle this, United Wildlife has united companies across the transport sector to raise awareness of criminal activity, identify the sector's exposure, and find solutions to stop the illegal wildlife trade.

The United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce brings together global transport and freight industry experts including airports, shipping companies, and airlines with law enforcement and other agencies to identify and facilitate action led by the private sector.

Its founding members came together in 2016 to sign a set of commitments, which became known as the Buckingham Palace Declaration. The Declaration lays out 11 commitments, including taking a zero-tolerance pledge to the illegal wildlife trade, enhancing data systems and innovation, and improving information sharing across the transport sector.

The Taskforce membership is constantly growing, which is testament to the power of United for Wildlife's unique partnership approach.

Our partners have helped Microsoft explore pioneering new scanning technology, which has the potential to greatly increase detections of wildlife products in cargo.

They have also worked with WWF and TRAFFIC to create new guidelines, adopted by the International Maritime Organization and endorsed by the UN, for the 'Prevention and Suppression of the Smuggling of Wildlife on Ships Engaged in International Maritime Traffic.'