PURPOSE: to propose EU action plan against trafficking
in wildlife.
BACKGROUND: wildlife trafficking particularly
in elephants and rhinos, corals, pangolins, tigers and great apes -
has become one of the world's most profitable organised
crimes. As an example, the illicit ivory trade has more than
doubled since 2007, and is over three times greater than it was in
1998. Between 2007 and 2013, rhino poaching increased by 7000% in
South Africa, endangering the very survival of this species.
Sources estimate the profits from such trafficking at between
EUR 8 and EUR 20 billion annually.
The EU has an important role to play in tackling this
traffic, as Europe is currently a destination market and a
hub for trafficking in transit to other regions. It is also a
region from which certain species are sourced for illegal
trade.
Numerous measures to combat wildlife trafficking have
been adopted under the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES), a key international treaty
regulating the international trade in wildlife, to which the EU
became a party in 2015. The EU has already shown leadership
in tackling the illegal trade in natural resources by adopting
ambitious policies on timber and fishery products.
The European Parliament called for an Action Plan in
a
resolution adopted in January 2014. The establishment of an EU
Action Plan has also been supported by many EU Member States,
international organisations, NGOs, and concerned businesses at a
stakeholder consultation on the EU
approach against wildlife trafficking, launched by the
Commission in February 2014.
CONTENT: the EU Action Plan demonstrates that the EU
is ready to live up to international expectations and commitments,
and that it is raising the level of its ambition as regards
action against the illegal trade in wildlife. It is a major
contribution towards the Sustainable Development Goals set under
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development agreed by heads of
state at a UN summit in September 2015.
The EU Action Plan comprises a series of measures
to be taken by EU institutions and/or Member States. It
provides the impetus and framework for making better use of
existing EU resources. The measures are essentially designed to
improve cooperation between all the players concerned, make more
effective use of existing tools and policies, and strengthen
synergies between them, so that wildlife trafficking can be better
tackled across the EU and globally.
The measures, which are designed to address a complex
problem holistically by involving all relevant
organisations, are based on three priorities:
1) Preventing wildlife trafficking and addressing its
root causes:
- reduce the demand for and the supply of illegal
wildlife products, both within the EU
and globally, by supporting specific campaigns and further limiting
ivory trade within and from the EU ;
- ensure that rural communities in source
countries are more engaged in wildlife conservation, and that they
benefit more from it;
- engage more actively with relevant business
sectors, ranging from those active in wildlife trade or using
wildlife products to those that provide services to the
trade;
- take multilateral and bilateral measures to tackle
corruption, a crucial enabling factor for wildlife trafficking
throughout the enforcement chain.
2) Implementing and enforcing existing rules and
combating organised wildlife crime more effectively:
- review shortcomings in implementation for all Member
States, and develop strategies for tackling them, to ensure that
existing rules are enforced more consistently across the
EU;
- strengthen the strategic aspect of checks and
enforcement by setting enforcement priorities jointly and
having Europol and Eurojust provide dedicated support for
cross-border cases;
- boost the capacity of all links in the enforcement
chain and the judiciary to take
effective action against wildlife trafficking in the EU. By
improving inter-agency data flow and by sharing best practice at EU
level;
- ensure targeted awareness-raising amongst
specialists on organised crime, cybercrime and money
laundering;
- ensure that Member States laws on organised
crime cover wildlife trafficking and that appropriate
penalties can be imposed for trafficking ;
- improve international cooperation on
enforcement through participation in international law
enforcement operations, technical assistance and targeted financial
support.
3) Strengthening the global partnership of source,
consumer and transit countries against wildlife
trafficking:
- take measures to step up funding to support
developing countries in their efforts to combat wildlife
trafficking;
- use more efficiently the diplomatic tools of
the EU and its Member States and other tools, notably EU trade
policy, in relations with key source, transit and consumer
countries and relevant regional organisations;
- develop better tools to tackle the links
between wildlife trafficking and security that exist in some
regions;
- use the existing multilateral processes, in
international agreements and fora, to keep the issue on the global
agenda.
Monitoring and evaluation: the Action Plan covers the five years from 2016 to
2020. The Commission services and the EEAS will establish a
scoreboard to monitor implementation. The Commission will report to
the Council and the European Parliament by July 2018 on
implementation of the action plan, Progress made and the success of
the action plan in curbing wildlife trafficking will be
evaluated in 2020. On that basis, the Commission will
consider what further action is needed.
The Action Plan will supersede Commission Recommendation
No 2007/425/EC identifying a set of actions for the enforcement
of Regulation
(EC) No 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and
flora by regulating trade therein.