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BRUSSELS —oneworld and all 15 of its member airlines have committed to the Buckingham Palace Declaration against illegal wildlife trafficking, creating an alliance-wide platform for stronger training, reporting, and cooperation with law enforcement. The alliance says it is the first to secure unanimous member support for the declaration, extending the commitment across a network serving nearly 1,000 destinations.
The announcement is significant for aviation and tourism. Airlines connect visitors with wildlife destinations, but those same international networks can be exploited to move protected animals, plants, and wildlife products.
The challenge now is turning a collective signature into consistent action at check-in counters, cargo terminals, and connecting airports.
Royal Jordanian completes the commitment
Royal Jordanian President and CEO Samer Majali signed the declaration at IATA’s Wings of Change Europe in Brussels, completing participation across oneworld’s membership.
The commitment covers a geographically diverse group, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Japan Airlines, Qantas, and carriers connecting markets across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific.
For oneworld CEO Ole Orvér, universal participation strengthens the alliance’s ability to identify and disrupt trafficking. The promised measures include zero-tolerance policies, frontline training, stronger screening and reporting procedures, and cooperation with customs authorities and conservation organizations.
These measures could make wildlife protection a more consistent operational responsibility across the alliance, provided individual airlines translate them into funded procedures.
A decade-old framework with practical objectives
The Buckingham Palace Declaration was launched in March 2016 through United for Wildlife, a Royal Foundation initiative. Its original signatories endorsed 11 commitments developed with transport, conservation, legal, and customs experts.
Central objectives include giving transport companies credible intelligence about trafficking risks, creating secure channels for reporting suspicious shipments, and notifying authorities when illegal wildlife cargo is suspected. Where possible, companies are also expected to refuse such shipments.
The framework addresses a basic weakness in global enforcement: information can become fragmented as a shipment passes between businesses and jurisdictions.
An airline employee may notice something suspicious but lack a clear reporting route. A cargo operator may need intelligence held by customs. A connecting carrier may receive insufficient information about a shipment’s origin.
Cooperation matters because traffickers can exploit these gaps.
Other airlines have already taken similar steps.
oneworld’s distinction concerns unanimous alliance participation. Individual airlines outside the alliance have supported the same declaration for years.
China Airlines, a SkyTeam member, signed the declaration in June 2017 as well. These examples show that wildlife protection has developed across competing airline networks rather than within one alliance alone.
An individual member’s signature, however, does not establish that its entire alliance has adopted an equivalent collective commitment.
SkyTeam offers another relevant comparison. In June 2025, it announced a joint Anti-Human Trafficking Declaration with its member airlines. Human trafficking is a separate crime requiring different expertise, but the initiative illustrates how alliances can coordinate action against criminal exploitation of aviation networks.
IATA and airports provide the operational bridge
The broader airline industry already has a foundation for cooperation.
IATA says its members unanimously endorsed a resolution against illegal wildlife trade in 2016, and more than 70 airlines have signed the Buckingham Palace Declaration. It has also developed a wildlife module within its environmental assessment certification program, providing a route from public commitment toward assessed management practices.
Airports are another essential link. Airports Council International offers a Wildlife Trafficking Prevention Virtual APEX Assessment Program to help airports improve their practices and align with the declaration’s objectives.
The practical implication is clear: airline policies work best when airport operators, handlers, freight businesses, and enforcement agencies can support them.
A well-trained airline team still needs reliable contacts, clear responsibilities, and an effective response when it raises an alert.
Tourism has its own parallel declaration
The World Travel & Tourism Council launched its Travel & Tourism Declaration on Illegal Wildlife Trade in April 2018, attracting commitments from more than 100 members.
Known as the Buenos Aires Declaration, it extended the issue into the wider tourism economy. WTTC subsequently partnered with WWF and developed guidance encouraging businesses to adopt zero-tolerance policies
This broader approach matters because tourism companies influence what travelers buy, which experiences they book, and how wildlife encounters are marketed.
Airlines can help interrupt transportation. Hotels, tour operators, guides, and travel sellers can help discourage demand and direct visitors toward responsible choices.
The commercial interest is substantial
There is a straightforward business argument behind conservation.
Wildlife helps sell destinations. Safari operators, nature lodges, guides, hotels, and airlines all benefit when visitors travel to experience healthy ecosystems. Protecting those ecosystems helps preserve the attractions supporting future tourism revenue.
For airlines, participation can also strengthen confidence among passengers, corporate customers, governments, and cargo partners.
From a commercial perspective, better procedures may reduce exposure to reputational damage, shipment disruption, and compliance problems when criminals attempt to exploit legitimate transport services. These are potential business benefits, rather than financial results demonstrated by oneworld’s announcement.
Implementation also costs money. Training requires staff time. Reporting systems need maintenance. Cargo checks and partner oversight require resources.
The meaningful test is whether airlines sustain that investment after the publicity surrounding the signing fades.
Success needs evidence beyond signatures
The scale of the challenge warrants scrutiny. UNODC’s 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report identified trafficking involving approximately 4,000 animal and plant species across 162 countries and territories during 2015–2021. The problem extends far beyond elephants and rhinoceroses to reptiles, birds, corals, and plants.
For oneworld, useful future reporting would show training coverage, adoption of procedures, independent assessments, and examples of cooperation with authorities.
Seizure totals alone would offer an incomplete picture: increased interceptions could reflect better detection, while fewer interceptions would not automatically prove reduced trafficking.
The announcement does not provide alliance-wide performance targets or demonstrate a reduction in trafficking attributable to the collective commitment.
Nevertheless, securing every member’s participation establishes a valuable common starting point.
For an industry that earns revenue by connecting people with the natural world, protecting wildlife is a practical investment in its own future. oneworld has brought its members together. Its next opportunity is to show what that unity achieves.
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