Today the
European Commission organised an Expert Conference
on the EU Approach against Wildlife Trafficking. The Agenda together with the speakers’ names may
be found in the link above. It is expected that their presentations will be
uploaded on the same website soon.
The main
messages conveyed by the participants may be sumarised as follows:
1.
Enforcement
needs to be strengthened at EU level through concrete cooperation among Member
States.
2.
EU Member
States must share the data collected on seizures and systematically analise it.
3.
EU needs
to enhance international cooperation, diplomatic links and support concrete
actions.
4.
Funding is
needed for particular purposes, especially to improve enforcement at range
state level.
5.
Awareness
raising at political level is needed to improve the legal framework and
strengthen sanctions.
6.
It is
important to reflect on the use of other instruments addressing financial
crimes.
The
Conference was divided into thematic sessions, each of them devoted to the
analysis of the encountered problems and the current needs to combat wildlife
trafficking. The main messages delivered per section were the following:
Strengthening EU enforcement against wildlife
trafficking
1.
Cooperation
at Member States level is needed to ensure implementation and enforcement all
over EU, no matter where the action was committed. Currently there is a complex
body of legislation at international and EU level that the 28 Member States
implement individually through their different administrative layers. This
amounts to hundreds of Agencies, departments and units not necessarily working
with each other.
2.
Judges and
prosecutors role must be enhanced: “the
enforcement chain is as strong as the weakest part” (Jan Van den Berghe):
prosecutors and judges need to be informed, motivated and trained appropriately.
3.
More
resources are needed to improve enforcement “on the ground”.
Fight against
organised wildlife crime
1. The EU needs a centralized approach towards data collection.
Currently there is no centralized data base of seizures at EU level and no
annual report similar to those drafted for drugs or arms trafficking.
2. Wildlife crime needs to be regarded as a serious crime
by Member States at all levels but also at international level.
3. Wildlife is a business and a commodity for criminals:
EU must apply the financial
tools for the investigations of these crimes and follow the money.
4. EUROPOL’s role in data collection should be enhanced.
EU action at
international level –Development Support and Diplomatic Action
1. More international cooperation actions and active participation
in international initiatives such as the Lusaka Agreement Process or joint
actions like the COBRA operation.
2. Better coordinator of EU Member States at
international level.
3. Financial support to ranger countries to develop
specific measures and to facilitate actions on the ground.
4. Enhance the use of the EEAS and the Member States
embassies to raise awareness at political level such as the Green Diplomacy
Networks.
This Conference closed the procedure of the stakeholders
consultation launched by the European Commission in February through the “Communication
on the EU approach against wildlife trafficking”. As the Environment
Commissioner stated, an analysis of the replies to the consultation and of the
exchanges had during the Conference is likely to lead to the drafting of an EU
Action Plan to combat illegal trafficking.
Tomorrow two parallel Workshops will be held based on
the first and second topic only open for Governmental authorities.
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