Wildlife trafficking is often seen as a low-risk and highly profitable activity, which makes it highly attractive to transnational organised crime networks, especially those with smuggling capabilities. A key reason for this is that many law enforcement agencies still treat wildlife trafficking and other forms of wildlife crime as a low priority and it carries relatively weak penalties.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy, which includes commitments to update the current EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking and explore revising the Environmental Crime Directive, is an opportunity to rectify this situation. This Strategy is important part of the European Green Deal, which is currently being discussed by the European Parliament.

This timely online conference will feed into this important debate by exploring how better cooperation between Member States is needed with regard to transnational crimes, and where environmental crimes, specifically wildlife trafficking, converge with other forms of organised crime (e.g. money-laundering, narcotics and terrorism). It will bring together a variety of stakeholders to consider the issue of whether wildlife crime should be recognised as a serious criminal activity that should be heavily penalised, especially in the context of (transnational) organised crime.

The question is how people can be dissuaded from engaging in illegal activities that are highly damaging to biodiversity and the survival of species, but which are presently viewed as being relatively low-risk and high income generating due primarily to the lack of severe penalties and low chances of being apprehended or prosecuted. It will consider how and why criminal sanctions differ between Member States and may not be sufficiently high or dissuasive to ensure compliance with environmental laws.

Programme

Welcome

Introductory remarks

Hilde Vautmans MEP

Presentations

Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol

Jorge Rios, Chief of the UNODC Wildlife and Forest Crime Programme

Moderated Panel Discussion

Dr Wouter van Ballegooij, Legal and policy officer on criminal law, DG JUST, European Commission

Francesca Carlsson, Legal Officer, European Environmental Bureau (EEB)

Dr. Daan van Uhm, Criminologist, Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Utrecht University

Mário Kern & Ondrej Koporec, Department for Detection of Hazardous Substances and Environmental Crime, Criminal Police Bureau, Slovakia

José Antonio Alfaro Moreno, Team Leader, ESOCC, EU Organised Crime Unit, Europol

Moderator - Dr Joanna Swabe, Humane Society International/Europe

Closing remarks

Martin Hojsik MEP