The Rise of Environmental Crime: A Growing Threat to Natural Resources, Peace, Development and Security

and accountability mechanisms, coordination of roles, and treating environmental crimes as serious crimes. 50

It also reaffirmed UN General Assembly A/RES/68/193’s emphasis on the centrality of coordinated action to eliminate corruption and disrupt illicit networks. 43 UNEA welcomed the creation of ICCWC 44 and promoted further cross-agency cooperation, regional and international cooperation. The Assembly specifically called upon countries to actively engage in on-the ground activities, such as under the auspices of ICCWC and urged further analysis of environmental impacts from the illegal trade in wildlife products. 45 In April 2016 the first IUCN World Environmental Law Congress convened in Rio de Janeiro. The event is part of a series designed to strengthen the work of judiciaries in imple- menting the rule of law. The participants in Rio offered a defi- nition of ‘environmental rule of law’ as “the application of the rule of law at local, national, regional and international levels in the environmental context.” 46 They further declared that: • Strengthening the rule of law in the environmental arena is critical to the achievement of environmental sustainability and sustainable development. • Without the rule of law and enforcement of legal rights and obligations, environmental governance, conservation and protection may be arbitrary, subjective and unpredictable. 47 The Chief Justices, Heads of Jurisdictions, Attorneys Generals, Auditors General, Chief Prosecutors and other high-ranking representatives gathered in Rio agreed on a list of seven core principles to strengthen the environmental rule of law. Implementation and enforcement Despite the arrival of the environmental rule of law paradigm, implementation and compliance remain critical. Hundreds of treaties and nonbinding legal instruments and documents containing international goals and objectives exist. UNEP notes that among the 90 most important environmental goals and objectives, only four have had significant progress. 48 In the follow up to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) resolution 1/3 on illegal wildlife, UNEP is working on a regional project under GEF-6 to combat illegal wildlife trade in Asia with local stakeholders and Interpol. Another initiative is UNEP’s collaboration with 25 countries under the Regional Enforcement Network to build capacity in enforce- ment, including customs officials. 49 In order to advance the rule of law in Africa, for example, implementation of the development priorities and strate- gies in the region rely on vehicles such as Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, the UNEP Bali Guidelines Imple- mentation Guide and the Rio Principle 10 provide guidance for cooperation in implementation at the regional and sub regional levels. Key ingredients include information disclo- sure, implementable and enforceable laws, implementation

Similar language came out of the World Environmental Law Congress in Rio in April 2016, where participants made specific recommendations for implementation mechanisms. They included, but were not limited to, monitoring and reporting systems; anti-corruption measures; environmental assessments; coordination mechanisms such as regional enforcement networks, intelligence sharing and judicial coop- eration; linking environmental crimes to other crimes such as money laundering, and strengthening courts’ capacity as guarantors of the environmental rule of law. 51 Progress is being made. Courts the world over now address environmental issues, with more than 50 states having estab- lished specialized environmental courts and tribunals. 52 CITES (see especially decisions and resolutions following COP 16), 53 WCO, INTERPOL 54 and UNODC (such as on capacity building and judiciary training and support), 55 are the mandated institutions to address the Illegal Trade in Wildlife, but represent only a part of the wider environmental crimes. UNODC has with the help of other partners in ICCWC produced a Wildlife and Forest Crime Toolkit, which provides enforcement indicators. 56 Other institutions with relevant tools and mandates are the UN Security Council, including Subsidiary Organs Branch and the Sanctions committees, World Bank, UNFCCC, UNDP, FAO, DPKO, UNESCO, CCPJC, UNOCC, DSS, OCHA and OECD. On customs, the 2004 established UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP) has been successful in targeting sea and dry port container shipments in an increasing number of countries. The cornerstone of the Programme is the creation of inter-agency Port Control Units (PCUs) in which capability is developed and maintained to carry out risk assessments and targeted control and examinations of containers. The CCP is essentially a long-term capacity building programme that develops effective and sustain- able port controls through the establishment of Port Control Units. These provide a coordinated approach to container and air freight profiling, targeting and examination, are located in secure environments (usually inside ports and airports) and are staffed by front line officers who are provided with struc- tured training to ensure effective targeting and examination of containers. The WCO web-based ContainerCOMM information exchange system, developed and continuously enhanced by the WCO, represents the core of the encrypted multi-language (in Dari, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Urdu and soon in Vietnamese) information

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