EU Environment Ministers today endorsed an ambitious EU Action Plan to boost the region’s collective efforts to end wildlife trafficking, but the absence of some key commitments could weaken its overall impact and effectiveness.

The Action Plan was developed to strengthen the EU’s response to the global poaching and illegal wildlife trade crisis and was adopted by the European Commission in February. WWF warmly welcomed the plan but hoped that ministers would support it by endorsing additional concrete commitments on financial resources, national legislative amendments, and reporting – all of which are missing from the final conclusions.

“EU Environment Ministers have demonstrated their desire to crack down on wildlife crime by signing up to this wide-ranging action plan, but they should have been even bolder,” said Sally Nicholson, Head of Development Policy & Finance at WWF European Policy Office. “Ministers failed to pledge the necessary financial and human resources to back up their words and prove they are really serious about fighting wildlife trafficking.”

The EU Action Plan as well as other international commitments requires Member States to legally recognise wildlife trafficking as a “serious crime” and to review relevant national legislation on money laundering. However, not all Member States have taken these steps, so they must do so urgently to ensure that organised wildlife trafficking is punishable by a minimum sentence of at least four years imprisonment…. Read more

Environment Ministers endorse ambitious EU Action Plan to address wildlife trafficking

Brussels, Belgium, 21st June 2016—European Union (EU) Environment Ministers yesterday endorsed the EU Action Plan against wildlife trafficking, part of the region’s contribution towards the international efforts to curb wildlife crime. 

“While TRAFFIC warmly welcomes yesterday’s firm political commitment by EU Member States to implement the comprehensive Action Plan, we are concerned about a lack of clarity on what level of new resources will be made available to help with its implementation,” said Katalin Kecse-Nagy, TRAFFIC’s Acting Regional Director for Europe.

The Action Plan sets out a comprehensive list of 32 actions to ensure a co-ordinated response to address wildlife crime within the EU and strengthen the region’s role in the global fight against illegal wildlife trade.

It was drawn up following extensive public consultations in 2014 (PDF, 1 MB) and2015 (PDF, 1 MB), to which TRAFFIC and many others contributed, and acknowledges the EU’s role as a transit point and end use market for trafficked wildlife products and also as a source region for species such as European Eels and Danube sturgeons. 

Important topics covered in the Action Plan include recognition for the sustainable use of wildlife resources by local communities and the vital role they have to play in conservation, and the need for the Council to receive regular feedback on how the Action Plan is being implemented… Read more

The Action Plan sets out a comprehensive list of 32 actions to ensure a co-ordinated response to address wildlife crime within the EU and strengthen the region’s role in the global fight against illegal wildlife trade.

It was drawn up following extensive public consultations in 2014 (PDF, 1 MB) and 2015 (PDF, 1 MB), to which TRAFFIC and many others contributed, and acknowledges the EU’s role as a transit point and end use market for trafficked wildlife products and also as a source region for species such as European Eels and Danube sturgeons.

Important topics covered in the Action Plan include recognition for the sustainable use of wildlife resources by local communities and the vital role they have to play in conservation, and the need for the Council to receive regular feedback on how the Action Plan is being implemented.

The need for information sharing within the EU is also highlighted, with specific reference to the TRAFFIC-manged European Union Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange (EU-TWIX) platform. EU-TWIX, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary of operation, comprises a communications platform and a seizures database for European enforcement officials. TRAFFIC’s regular analyses of EU-TWIX data (PDF, 2 MB) help inform the work of EU enforcement agencies.

However, although EU Member States played an important role in the adoption in 2015 of the UN General Assembly Resolution on “Tackling illicit trafficking in wildlife”, which “calls upon Member States to make illicit trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora involving organized criminal groups a serious crime”, the Council Conclusions adopted yesterday make no explicit commitment in this regard.

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