Urgent wildlife campaign receives heartfelt royal endorsement

	Tigers, elephants and rhinos are among the most endangered species being targeted by the trade.

The growing urgency of campaigning work against the international trade in illegally killed endangered species gained an important boost yesterday. Both Prince Charles and Prince William spoke out forcefully against this trafficking at a specially convened conference they were jointly hosting in St James' Palace, London attended by conservationists and representatives of international law enforcement agencies.

Their heartfelt opposition to what Prince William called "the ugliness of the illegal trade that destroys (magnificent creatures) through greed or ignorance" builds on years of conservation work by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who established the secular environmental charity ARC (Alliance of Religions and Conservation) in 1986. In September 2012 ARC and WWF launched an international campaign against the illegal wildlife trade with the support of 50 religious leaders from African countries.

Here is a video clip of Prince William addressing the conference.

See this press release for more details of the St James' Palace conference and the work already being done to stop this illegal threat to some of the world's most iconic species.