Arabic speakers are needed in the war against the online sale of exotic animals in the Middle East, the global president of the International Federation of Animal Welfare has said.

Azzedine Downes, IFAW’s chief executive, said one of the greatest challenges of the illegal wildlife trade is the sale of animals via social media and that Arabic speakers were needed to join monitoring programmes.

“We are discussing internally ways and mechanisms to implement our Disrupt Wildlife Cybercrime programme in the Mena region,” said Mr Downes during a visit to Abu Dhabi.

“We have started with Morocco, where our team of Arabic and French speakers are currently monitoring and reporting the wildlife trafficked online.”

Mr Downes said he has seen a huge change in the approach towards exotic pets in the UAE.

“Just walking around markets here I have seen falcons, but no tigers or other big cats openly for sale.

“One of the big things we are looking at now is cybercrime and what is happening online.

“We want to bring the countries in the Gulf together to have a united approach to wildlife trafficking.”

Global dealers selling illegal wildlife are constantly changing the names of ivory, to blood bone for example, or pangolin and animal parts to make it harder to detect when searching social media, Mr Downes said.

“When this translates to Arabic, it becomes even harder to track so we need Arabic speakers in the region to help report these items when they are seen for sale.”

Conservationists in the region have said smuggling cheetahs from the Horn of Africa into the Gulf is on the rise.

Charities such as the Cheetah Conservation Fund have been developing working relationships with government authorities in East Africa to shut down suspected routes.

One of those routes is from Somaliland into the Middle East, but also via war-torn Yemen where border controls can be difficult to monitor.

Mr Downes said the war in Yemen is creating a vacuum in which dealers operate freely across borders.

The IFAW implemented the Horn of Africa Wildlife Enforcement Network in an attempt to stop the illegal movement of animals through the region.

A cheetah trafficking workshop has united law enforcement in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland to work together in anti-poaching methods.

Mr Downes hopes a similar network could work in the Gulf.

It is now focusing on Ethiopia as a source of animals being moved into south west Saudi Arabia.

Since 2011, the CCF has assisted with the confiscation, care and placement of 49 cheetahs in East Africa.

And in August last year, two smugglers were charged with wildlife trafficking offences in Somaliland and sentenced to three years in prison.

Mr Downes, who leads one of the largest non-profit global organisations, hopes to engage poverty stricken communities in the region with IFAW education programmes highlighting the importance of wildlife conservation.

“We know live animals are being trafficked through Djibouti and into Yemen, where they are then moved to Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” he said.

“There is very little we can do in Yemen, and we are seeing more animals being taken from the wild for this market from Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia – including areas where we have not seen this kind of activity before.

“It makes monitoring wildlife trafficking very difficult as some areas are too dangerous to monitor effectively.”

A 2018 review on smuggling via air transport networks revealed the UAE had the third-highest number of trafficking cases worldwide between 2009 and 2017.

Seizures at Dubai airports included endangered animals and animal products, or at further points along the trafficking supply chain heading for Asia.

Fewer than 7,000 cheetahs are believed to exist in the wild.

Since 2016, an investigation by The National found 34 cheetahs had been offered for sale in the UAE via Instagram.

“Social media raises interest in these animals, and also encourages support for sanctuaries, that is not always the best approach,” said Mr Downes, who was in the UAE last week handing out awards for the ‘Roots and Shoots’ conservation programme in schools.

“Most people don’t realise those sanctuaries can become breeding farms that then feed the industry.

“One of the biggest projects IWAF is involved in is educating people at the source of trafficking routes about the long term impact of this behaviour.”