Taking action to end wildlife crime
After years of our campaigning, Born Free is delighted that the UN Organised Crime Convention has adopted a landmark Resolution on environmental crime.
On 18th October, national delegates at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC) in Vienna adopted by consensus a Resolution on enhancing measures to prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment. This followed a statement by Born Free’s Head of Policy Dr Mark Jones, on behalf of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime. Representing our charity at the UN meeting, Dr Jones called for a global agreement on such criminal activities, including wildlife trafficking.
Dr Mark Jones delivers his speech at the conference in Vienna
A final draft of the Resolution, which was tabled by the governments of Brazil, France and Peru, has been published on the website of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It affirms the importance of the Convention in addressing crimes that affect the environment. It goes on to urge the Convention’s 192 States parties to adopt effective measures to prevent and combat environmental crimes through strengthened legislation, international cooperation, criminal justice responses and law enforcement, while protecting witnesses to and victims of such crimes, recovering criminal proceeds, and addressing associated environmental damage.
The Resolution also mandates the UNODC to convene an intergovernmental expert group to review the implementation of the Convention in relation to environmental crimes, identify any gaps in the international legal framework, and consider how to fill those gaps, including consideration of one or more specific protocols under the Convention.
As a co-founder and steering group member of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, Born Free has been advocating since 2020 for preventing and combating wildlife trafficking to be embedded in the international criminal justice system, with a preference for the development of a protocol under the UNTOC. Our collective efforts led to the adoption of an historic resolution by the UN Crime Commission in 2022. The UNODC subsequently canvassed its member States on the issue, resulting in a report that was presented to a Commission meeting earlier this year. It revealed strong support for further action among member States, and it was followed by the tabling of the UNTOC Resolution.
Born Free and colleagues from the Global Initiative made statements at the UNTOC conference, urging member States to support the Resolution. The Global Initiative also coordinated an important side-event, which was hosted by the government of Brazil with the support of Costa Rica, Peru and Angola, alongside 15 non-government organisations including Born Free, to emphasise the damaging nature of environmental crime and the need for a bold and decisive international response.
Commenting on the positive outcome, Born Free’s Head of Policy Dr Mark Jones said: “Crimes that affect the environment, which include wildlife trafficking, are increasingly organised, transnational, and have disastrous consequences for our biodiversity, climate and ecosystems, as well as for human and animal health and well-being. Wildlife trafficking is widely recognised as one of the world’s most lucrative criminal activities, with a value that runs into billions of dollars annually.
“It is vital that mechanisms to tackle these crimes are firmly embedded in the international criminal justice system. We are therefore pleased to see the UNTOC adopt this important Resolution, which represents the culmination of several years’ work and which we hope will lead to a strengthening of the international legal framework to protect wildlife and the wider environment from these criminal activities. The proposed intergovernmental expert group must begin its work without delay, given the devastating impacts of environmental and wildlife crimes and the urgent need to address them.”
Born Free will continue to work with our partners at the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime to support States in securing the robust implementation of the Resolution, and to increase international focus on tackling crimes against wildlife and the environment.