Additional information, gathered separately, will supplement the information on seizures and will enable greater in-depth monitoring and analysis of illicit trade. Also attached is an Incident Report Form on Illegal Hunting of Elephants . Parties should use this form to submit information to the Secretariat on individual cases of illegal hunting. This is primarily an operational form, designed to prompt the gathering of information that may aid in co-ordinating efforts against illegal hunting. It is acknowledged that some parts of the form seek information that may be regarded as sensitive and confidential.
Parties are of course free to choose how fully they complete each subject field.
On receipt of completed forms, the Secretariat s Enforcement Assistance Unit will seek to collate the information received and to provide it to appropriate bodies, such as ICPO-Interpol and the World Customs Organization, with a view to aiding Parties in their actions to combat illegal hunting. As with ETIS, separate in-depth gathering of further data and statistics will take place with the aim of meeting the monitoring requirements of Resolution Conf. The Secretariat has agreed to assist in verifying reports of illegal hunting, since some examples of inaccurate information that have appeared in the media are tending to hamper objective monitoring of this important issue. The Secretariat will only record in its databases incidents that can be confirmed by official or other competent contacts. To this end, the assistance of relevant Parties will be sought in obtaining confirmation or corroboration of reports received from non-official sources.