EU calls for a global partnership to combat illegal wildlife trafficking

The European Union (EU) is looking straight ahead at the challenges of combatting one of the crudest environmental crimes and called for a global partnership to deliver the recently adopted EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.

This is the main conclusion of the workshop on “Delivering and enforcing the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking”, which took place on 8 September 2016, in Brussels.

This event, organised  by the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, brought together experts from UN Environment, the European Commission, Europol, Traffic, UK Border Force, and the University of Northumbria.

Participants debated on the implementation challenges of the EU Action Plan. This strategy was adopted in February 2016 and jointly presented by the EU Foreign Affairs, as well as three different Directorate-General: Environment, Development and Home Affairs.

All experts agreed on the importance of the Action Plan to put illegal wildlife trade higher on the political agenda but it will come down to how well it is implemented. The Plan –supported by three pillars: prevention, enforcement and a global partnership– also aims at turning high-level commitments into concrete deliverables with a timeline and monitoring mechanisms.

Wildlife crime is a serious criminal activity, and on the rise. It is globally third only behind narcotics and illegal arms trade. Training of experts, raising awareness, and systematic reporting are important tools to combat it, but lack of human and financial resources remain a problem. All panellists stressed the importance of harmonising wildlife crime legislation and sanctions.

Thierry Lucas, UN Environment’s Ecosystem Management coordinator for Europe, highlighted the opportunities of a global coalition to provide a coherent global response to build on the existing expertise and experiences worldwide and to strengthen the design and implementation of legislation against illegal traffickers and traders.

Experts also agreed on the importance of increasing private sector engagement in the fight against environmental crimes. Also, they asked the EU to lead by example in implementing strategies for combatting wildlife-related corruption and financial crime, and to provide support to countries for capacity building, tools and guidance on implementation.

For more information please contact: thierry.lucas@unep.org