Protecting People and the Planet: Innovative approaches in Addressing Crimes that Affect the Environment

Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, dear colleagues, it's an honor to welcome you to this side event on Protecting people and the planet innovative approaches in addressing crimes that affect the environment.
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Excellency, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues.
It's an honor to welcome you to this side event, protecting people and the planet innovative approaches in addressing crimes that affect the environment.
I am Xia Hou Li, representative of the New York State Office of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, also referred to as UNODC.
I will serve as moderator for today's event.
At the outside, allow me to express our deepest gratitude to the permanent missions of Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Germany, Kenya, and Peru to the UN for joining forces with UODC for this very important initiative.
Excellencies, it's my great pleasure to welcome the Executive Director of UNODC and Director General of U office in Vienna, miss Monique German during her very first mission to the UN headquarters.
We are also very pleased to have with us His Excellency, Mr.
Ludigborn chair of the 35th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and permanent representative of Germany to the UN in Vienna.
Crimes that affect the environment are increasingly recognized as a serious threat to global security and sustainable development.
Adré these crimes requires strengthened international cooperation and coordinated action among relevant stakeholders.
This side event aims to contribute to this effort by bringing together member states and key stakeholders to share experience, highlight effective and practical approaches, and advance more coordinated and innovative responses involving technology and partnership.
So without further ado, let me pass the floor to miss Monica man, Executive Director of UNODC and Director General of your office in Vienna to deliver keynote remarks.
Miss man, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, Xia Hou.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
It's a delight to join you for this discussion.
Earlier today, we reflected on the scale of the threat, its transnational characteristics and the normative instruments at our disposal to confront it.
This side event gives us an opportunity to move from the normative to the practical by focusing on how innovation can strengthen our capacity to respond to crimes that affect the environment.
Today, we are witnessing an exponential advancement in technology that is rapidly reshaping this landscape.
In many ways, we are witnessing a race between those who exploit technology to illicitly profit from the environment and those who must harness technology to protect our planet.
And the criminal networks are extremely savvy at staying ahead in this race.
They are quick to adapt new tools and platforms using social media, digital payment systems, and online marketplaces to trade in traffic to wildlife and other illicit environmental commodities.
But technology is not solely on the side of those who exploit nature.
It is also giving us new ways to hear what the environment has long been telling us, and it is a loud witness.
Forests, oceans, rivers, wildlife populations, and landscape all contain evidence.
The question is whether we have the tools and capabilities to read that evidence and crucially to act upon it.
The good news is that we increasingly do.
Satellite imagery and remote sensors allow us to detect illegal deforestation, track illegal fishing activity, and monitor mining and waste dumping with a level of precision that was unimaginable a decade ago.
Geographic information systems help us identify and map patterns.
DNA analysis and digital evidence are becoming important tools in securing prosecutions and a official intelligence and data analytics enable us to predict new hotspots, to anticipate emerging trends, and to trace the money behind these crimes.
The purpose is not surveillance for its own sake, but to protect people and our ecosystems.
At UNODC, we have experience with how these tools can help enforce laws and strengthen operations.
In partnership with Allen Institute for AI, we have developed an online platform code named Skylight that integrates real time intelligence and satellite data to support maritime officers in detecting and deterring illegal activities at sea.
Through UNODC support, countries have been able to strengthen fisheries monitoring capabilities using technology.
In Fiji, for example, Navy reported a ten fold increase in vessels identified for interdiction during patrols, significantly enhancing the detection of suspected illegal activities.
Similarly, after many years of supporting wildlife forensics through DNA extraction and analysis, last month, we launched a new Timber forensics laboratory in Uganda, which is already being used to support live operations.
These examples demonstrate that technology delivers results when it is combined with skilled personnel, effective institutions, and strong legal frameworks.
That means we need to invest in the people who use these tools by training law enforcement officers, investigators, prosecutors, and forensic experts so that they keep up with the rapid pace of technological change.
It means building new partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and tech companies who have access to the latest designs and innovative ideas that can help us scale up our reach and impact.
And it means strengthening the legal foundations of this work to ensure that the evidence it generates is accessible and admissible in court.
The United Nations Convention Against cybercrime can help strengthen our responses to the digital dimension of these crimes by facilitating access to electronic evidence and enabling cooperation in the digital sphere.
I therefore take these opportunities to urge member states to sign and ratify this instrument so that we can fully leverage its potential.
Technology is a powerful tool, but its impact depends entirely on how it is used and whether it is anchored in real operational needs on the ground.
Well used, it can act as a force multiplier, helping us to see more, know more, and act more effectively.
Used poorly, its potential is left underutilized and wasted.
Worse still, when used with malicious intent, it can become an enabler and multiplier of crimes that generate insecurity and harm.
UNODC is therefore committed to helping member states embrace innovation in the service of justice and accountability.
Ladies and gentlemen, The real promise of innovation lies not only in helping us respond to these crimes more quickly, but in helping us to anticipate them, to prevent them, and to reduce the harm that they cause.
This would make the world safer, people better protected, and open opportunities for prosperity and dignified human development.
I look forward to our discussion and to turning innovation into justice that protects people and the planet alike.
I thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, miss man, for the insightful perspectives covering the role of new technology in the responses to this type of crime.
So now it's my pleasure to give the floor to His Excellency, Mr.
Ludigborn chair of the 35th session of the Commission on Crime Prevision and Criminal Justice and permanent representative of Germany to the UN in Vienna to deliver the keynote remarks.
Ambassador, you have the floor.
Thank you.
Misses Duma, Excellency, disting guests.
It is an honor to address this high level side event on behalf of the Commission on crime prevention and criminal justice.
What is the role of the Commission when it comes to crimes that affect the environment? As the principal policymaking body of the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, the Commission plays a central role in advancing the international response to crimes that affect the environment.
The Commission acts moreover as the governing body for all crime related work of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
This includes UNODC technical assistance work on crimes that affect the environment, which will be presented in further details during the event today.
Crimes that affect the environment are not happening in isolation.
They are closely linked to corruption, money laundering, illicit financial flows, and organized criminal networks.
They weaken institutions, undermine sustainable development, and demand coordinated cross border action.
Member States having recently recognized the scale and complexity of the threat.
This is reflected in the commission's work most recently in 2025 with the negotiation of a comprehensive resolution, later adopted by the General Assembly as resolution 80 slash 227, which covers illicit trafficking in wild fauna and flora, including timber and timber products, the illegal mining of and illicit trafficking in minerals and precious metals, the illicit trafficking in waste and other crimes that affect the environment.
The Commission has consistently been calling towards establishing various crimes against the environment as serious crimes defined in the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, hence triggering the applicability of the provisions of the Convention.
The Commission has further been promoting enhanced law enforcement cooperation, more effective investigations and prosecutions, including on the financial aspects of crimes that affect the environment, as well as increased international cooperation and provision of technical assistance.
The responsible use of new technology can thereby offer new opportunities.
So how does this relate to the upcoming United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice? The Queen Queen United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, for which the Commission acts as the preparatory and its main follow up body is the world's largest and most diverse gathering of policymakers, practitioners, academia, intergovernmental organizations and civil society in the field of crime prevention, criminal justice and sets the international policy framework for years to come.
These crime congresses have helped elevate crimes against the environment on the international agenda as the congresses provide a platform to identify emerging threats, exchange operational experience, and strengthen coordinated responses.
Preparations for the 15th crime Congress scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi in September reflect the contemporary relevance of our topic with the discussions focusing on protecting people and the planet.
Member States are addressing the topic in their ongoing negotiations on the outcome document, the Abu Dhabi Declaration, which is expected to be adopted on the opening day.
As mentioned during the high level debate this morning, at the Congress member states will have the opportunity to make concrete and implementation focused commitments during the pledge fraud Justice Initiative and the high level segment.
The topic of crimes that affect the environment will feature prominently in one of the high level segment thematic meetings and the workshops dedicated to strengthening data collection and analysis, as well as in a considerable number of ancillary meetings and exhibitions.
In the lead up to the Abu Dhabi Congress, today's discussion is an opportunity to deepen cooperation, align priorities, and accelerate action.
I look forward to our exchange.
Thank you.
Mm hmm.
Thank you, Ambassador Bone, for sharing the work of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and also the Crime Congress in this regard.
Thank you very much.
Moving now to the panel discussion of this event.
I'm delighted to give the floor to His Excellency, Mr.
Andrés Monta Sosa, the permanent representative of Ecuador to the UN in New York.
Your Excellency, you have the floor.
Thank you very much.
I feel privileged to be here, Director General um, Ambassador Boe, dear and distinguished colleagues.
This meeting is an opportunity to reflect on how we collectively confront one of the most lucrative forms of transnational organized crime and whether the global response is adequate to address them.
The evidence is clear.
Illegal mining, wildlife trafficking, illicit exploitation of natural resources, and other environmental crimes are frequently linked to the same criminal networks involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and illicit financial flows.
Ecuador, a mega diverse country affected by crimes such as drug trafficking and illegal mining faces a particular vulnerability to the activities of transnational organized crime.
In response to this threat, Ecuador recognized the existence of a non international conflict and is acting against these criminal structures.
However, the transnational, complex and multifaceted nature of this phenomenon requires a coordinated and effective international response.
Non state can face a challenge of this magnitude on its own.
Collective action is required based on cooperation, shared responsibility, and the strengthening of multilateral mechanisms.
For Ecuador, It is necessary to adopt political decisions to articulate and strengthen a global response for which I will mention two concrete and interconnected actions.
First, it must be acknowledged that crimes affecting the environment are no longer an exclusively environmental concern, but have become an increasingly sophisticated manifestation of transnational organized crime.
Although there is growing awareness of the seriousness of the problem as evidenced during the sessions of NTC on crimes affecting the environment, the international response is still does not fully reflect the magnitude of the challenge.
National and regional initiatives are essential, but they are insufficient in the face of criminal networks that exploit legal and jurisdictional gaps.
Second, it is urgent therefore to explore the feasibility of adopting international legal instruments that can close those gaps and strengthen the capacity of states to act in a coordinated manner.
Of course, I recognize what Director Duma mentioned that it's important to move from normative to practical actions, but we need to explore if the current legislation is enough in that regard.
The development of a binding framework within the scope of the United Nations Convention Against Tnational Organized Crime significantly contribute to improving international legal and police cooperation.
The challenge before us is no longer to demonstrate that crimes affecting the environment constitute a serious form of transnational organized crime.
The evidence is already clear.
Rather, It is to ensure that our collective response matches the scale, sophistication, and transnational nature of these criminal networks.
This requires stronger international cooperation among states, international organizations, and other stakeholders and Ecuador stands ready to contribute constructively to these efforts.
I thank you.
Thank you very much, Ambassador, for sharing this strategic vision, including emphasizing the importance of international cooperation, including international legal framework in the responses to this type of organized crime.
So now allow me to give the floor to His Excellency, Mr.
Jass Obama, permanent representative of Gabon to the UN.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for giving me once again the opportunity to be part of this conversation.
It's always difficult when you have to speak after such a great expert, Madam Director and the ambassador, but I will try to do my best to share with you a few words on behalf of my country, Gabon.
Let me start by thanking you and Odisse once again and all partners here.
For your dedication to this important work, your efforts are making a real difference.
Madam Director, Madame Join, let me once again congratulate you for your appointment, and as I said before, Gabon looks forward to working closely with you and you and Odis as usual.
Dabo is pleased that the side event is taking place today alongside the United Nations General Assembly High level debate on preventing and combating illicit trafficking.
This is not a coincidence.
It shows that the world is paying attention and it is ready to act.
It is in that spirit that we are meeting today and became the topic of this discussion is very important for my country and we are pleased to share with you some experience, but we are mostly here to learn for you, for everyone.
Here around the table.
As mentioned by the ambassador and as mentioned this money by a lot of delegate during the high legal debate, the environmental crimes are illegal, highly profitable activities run by organized criminal networks that damage our planet.
We must find the best way, the best and most effective answers to stop them.
The environment crime includes many different illegal activities, and in my In my speech, I just wanted to emphasize a few of them, actually, to emphasize the idea and the reality that concerning Gabon, we are advancing, we are working, we are pushing mainly on wildlife trafficking and illegal animal trade.
However, I want also to emphasize that at the same time are fighting against the forest crimes, the illegal logging and deforestation.
My dear friends, Gabona has gone beyond simple protection to build a practical innovation driving approach in different areas such as justice and the law.
I used to remind when I had a chance to discuss to remind that we have set up in Gabon specialized environmental court in Lierville.
Our judges receive special training in protest and wildlife laws.
Non governmental groups like the Conservation Justice and Brand Forest are working alongside with us on this matter.
My government also three months ago has decided to give a special status to the staff members of the Ministerial for W and Forest paramilitary status.
Why? Just because you have to give to those dedicated members and experts and workers.
We have to give them better legal power and more tools to fight poaching and animal trafficking.
Speaking on technology, we rely in Dubon we rely today on satellite monitoring to detect illegal logging and mining, and I'm pleased to note the presence of the Allen Institute here.
We use AIs to stop illegal fishing, environmental DNA to monitor our rivers and lakes, and a transparent national system to manage our ivory stocks.
But last not least, the community action.
Local communities are not just observers.
They're all partners.
For the community managed protect areas, the people who live alongside our forests and rivers are directly involved in protecting them.
As you said before, Madam Director and the ambassador and my de colleague over here, none of this is enough.
None of this is enough on a.
As we know, the environment of Crimea has no borders.
It's organized, well founded and growing.
To stop it, our response, our strong response, our real response must be more cooperation, more work together.
That's why once again and giving me the opportunity here, once again, I would like to call on all partners to bring together our laws, our technologies, our political commitment to fight this continuous crime against environment.
This event today for my country is not a simple discussion.
It's a perfect place to build a common response that we are waiting for, but we are expecting against this crime.
Thank you, Madam Director, for being part of this conversation and also thank you for the work you're about to do for the benefit of everyone here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, ambassador for sharing the national experience and your invaluable insight.
I would also like to take this opportunity to commend Dublon and Germany for their outstanding commitment and leadership as co sponsors of the GA Bnual resolution tackling illicit trafficking wildlife and also the co chairs of the group of friends on poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking in New York.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
It's now my great pleasure to give the floor to His Excellency, Mr.
Noberto Mornti, the Deputy permanent representative, ambassador of Brazil to UN.
Ambassador, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Before reading my statement, I'd like to thank UNODC for having printed the nameplate for my country because despite repeated requests to the Secretariat, the name was not shown in the electronic plate.
I'm not sure whether the technician has been unwilling or unable, but we will request explanations from DJCM.
Thank you very much.
Madam Executive Director, it's a pleasure to welcome you to New York.
Dear colleagues, panel members, participants, the mission of Brazil is proud to co sponsor this event.
Illicit trafficking in wildlife, illegal mining, and trafficking in waste have emerged as one of the most pressing challenges at the intersection of environmental protection and transnational organized crime.
They are not isolated phenomena as those crimes are increasingly committed by sophisticated criminal networks, generating enormous illicit profits while causing devastating damage to biodiversity, local and indigenous communities, and often national economies.
Transnational organized crime by definition requires coordinated responses.
While I assure you, Brazil is sparing no effort at national and regional level, the international community still lacks a comprehensive and coherent global legal framework to address these crimes in an integrated and effective manner.
Without such a framework, our capacity to promote effective international cooperation, strengthen national law enforcement, and disrupt criminal financial flows will remain limited despite all domestic actions.
The United Nations, in particular, under the Palermo Convention, has a central role to play.
It is urgent to start the preparation of an additional protocol to UTC dedicated to the main forms of environmental crimes I mentioned before, illicit trafficking in wild fawn and flora, illegal mining and trafficking in waste.
The 13th Conference of the Parties to UTC to be held in October, offers a unique opportunity for the international community to take a decisive step in this direction.
Brazil together with partners in the Coalition for Multilateral action against crimes that affect the environment.
I recognize Gabon and Ecuador as members.
Has elaborated a draft resolution aimed at launching formal negotiations on such a protocol.
There's growing momentum in favor of the initiative, as we had the opportunity to see at the Crime Commission in Vienna last week.
Practitioners from all corners of the world are asking that the international community take action.
More states are joining the coalition, indicating the expectation to do so or expressing support for the initiative.
One powerful reason for the traction the initiative is getting is that there is an increased level of awareness of the gravity of the problems caused by environmental crimes.
Their social, economic, and environmental costs are simply too high to ignore and hesitation to act is more and more difficult to explain, in particular to those who suffer with them directly.
The coming months will be critical to maintain such momentum.
We count on the active engagement and support of states and civil society organizations in the lead up to the Ut Op.
I thank you.
Thank you very much, Ambassador, for sharing your insightful perspectives including the initiatives.
We are now very fortunate to be joined by His Excellency, Mr.
Thomas Peter son, ambassador and Deputy Permanent representative of Germany to the UN.
Ambassador, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, excellent colleagues.
My colleague from Gabon just sent me a message this year, we don't have the same speech, more or less, we have the same, so I have to improvise a little bit.
But some things are worth repeating.
First of all, many thanks to you and DC for organizing this side event and of course, we also would like to take the opportunity of welcoming you, Madam Executive Director.
In the job, we wish you all the best.
I think my country has developed a very close cooperation with you and DDC over the past decades and we were very much looking forward to our close cooperation to be continued under your leadership.
Thirdly, I want to thank the previous colleagues who have already spoken and those who will speak up to me because they have covered most of what I want to say.
But I think what the statements all had in common, I think, is that they demonstrate a broad spectrum of international commitment and engagement to prevent and fight crimes that affect the environment.
I think what comes across also in the debate today is if we work together, we can deliver tangible results, achieve meaningful impact, and make a real difference.
Over the past decades, my country has supported a wide range of projects and initiatives that try to prevent or combat environmental crimes.
But here I want to echo what you said, Executive Director, in your speech.
I think we have to rethink the partnerships if we want to be truly successful.
I want to just mention one initiative that we have started, which is called Gaia.
We believe it's innovative and pioneering and it is in practice, a strategic alliance between Germany and here the Ministry of Environment, Interpol, and the World Wildlife Fund.
The idea is really bringing together multilateral law enforcement or government environment expertise through the WWF, and civil society, which makes a real difference, which is on the ground experience.
We want to achieve two objectives.
First, strengthen transboundary cooperation between law enforcement agencies to tackle the transnational dimension of this crime.
Second, I think this is what I want to talk about is better protection of civil society actors.
We know that civil society actors and environmental defenders in particular play an indispensable role in prosecuting environmental crimes, and they are often at the forefront of identifying and documenting illicit activities.
At the same time by contributing this crucial evidence, they carry a very high risk of being attacked, arrested, or even killed.
And we believe it is our joint responsibility to provide safe and an enabling environment for civil society, an environment that allows them to operate free of threats, intimidation and violence.
This is where Gai is trying to make concrete solutions on the ground.
We've started that in Peru and I think in Gabon, and This is, I think what Madam Execretary you said.
What we need is new partnerships, I think that include governments, international organizations, civil society, and you also mentioned private sector for effective transnational and interagency collaboration.
This being said, I just want to reiterate we are deeply convinced that the only effective way to tackle these complex transnational crimes and to achieve real impact on the ground remains strengthened international cooperation.
So yes, only together we can really make a difference and we wish you a good hand in that.
Thank you.
Thank.
Thank you, ambassador, for sharing German's support to the international cooperation through the project or initiative of Gaya.
I hope my pronunciation Gaya project.
Thank you very much.
Now it's my pleasure to give the floor to His Excellency, Mr.
Yabsh On Mori, Ambassador Deputy permanent representative of Kenya to the UN.
Ambassador, you have the floor.
Thank you, moderator.
Executive Director.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
Kenya is delighted to join UNODC, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Beeru and Gabon for these in time of discussion.
I take this opportunity to congratulate Ambassador Monica Duma on assuming this new role as the executive director of the UN ODC, as recognized by the General Assembly, environmental crimes including wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, illegal and unreported and unregulated fishing, illicit mining and waste crimes, greatly continue to undermine biodiversity, weaken economies, and far corruption and organized crime.
For Kenya, environmental protection is not merely a conservation issue.
It is a national development economic and security priority.
Tourism contributes approximately 10% of Kenya's GDP, supports over 1.5 million jobs directly and indirectly and relies heavily on the country's rich biodiversity and natural heritage.
Kenya is home to over 25,000 animal species, 7,000 plant species, and some of the Africa's most iconic ecosystems, including the Masai Mara and Bori, Sappho, Mount Kenya, and the coastal and the marine ecosystem of the Western Indian Ocean.
Kenya has demonstrated that strong political commitment and coordinated action can deliver results.
Through sustained and poaching efforts, elephant poaching has declined dramatically over the last decade.
Kenya's elephant population has increased from approximately 16,000 in the 1980s to more than 42,000 today.
While the black rhino population has grown from fewer than 400 individuals in the 1980s to over 1,000 today.
These gains reflect investment in enforcement, community conservation, and international cooperation.
Innovation remains central to our approach.
The Kenya Wildlife Service employs advanced surveillance technologies including trones, GPS enabled range of patrol system, satellite imagery, camera traps, and real time Wildlife monitoring platforms.
These tools have enhanced strengthen awareness, improved response times, and strengthened the prosecution of environmental crimes.
Kenya is also increasingly applying financial intelligence to combat environmental crime.
Wildlife trafficking and other environmental crime generate billions of US dollars globally each year, making them among the world's most lucrative forms of transnational organized crime.
We are strengthening cooperation between conservation agencies, law enforcement authorities, customs officials and financial intelligence units to identify illicit financial frauds and dismantle the crime network behind these crimes.
Community participation remains the cornerstone Kenya's conservation model.
Today's community conservancies cover over 11 million acres across the country and support biodiversity conservation, and sustainable livelihood.
These conservancies protect critical wildlife corridors while generating income through tourism, sustained agriculture, and conservation enterprises.
By ensuring that communities benefit from conservation, we reduce incentives for poaching and other environmentally harmful activities.
Kenya also recognizes the strong nexus between environmental protection and climate action.
More than 90% of Kenya's electricity generation come from renewable energy resources, primarily o thermal, hydro, wind and solar.
Through the initiatives such as the 15 million Tree growing Program, Kenya aims to increase national tree cover from approximately 12.8% to 30% by 2032, enhancing carbon isolation, restoring integrated landscapes, and strengthening resilience among climate change.
At the regional level, Kenya actively supports cooperation through the East African community, the African Union, and AAB led initiative to combat wildlife trafficking and other environmental crimes.
Criminal networks operate across borders.
Therefore, intelligence sharing, joint investigation, and mutual legal assistance are indispensable.
As we move from police commitment to operational action, Kenya supports strong implementation of recent General Assembly solution addressing crimes that affect the environment and call for increased capacity building, technology transfer, resource mobilization, and international cooperation to support developing countries.
In conclusion, Kenya's experience demonstrate that environmental crime can be effectively addressed through a combination of innovation, strong institutions, financial intelligence, community engagement, and international partnerships.
Protecting nature is not only about safeguarding willife and ecosystem, it is about protecting livelihood, advancing sustainable development, strengthening climate resilience, and securing a better future for generations to come.
I thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much and best for sharing national experience on the multi sectoral responses and also different types and kinds of cooperation.
Thank you very much.
Now I'm delighted to introduce my colleague, Mr.
Givan Blues, A coordinator in ODC global program on crimes that affect the environment to make a presentation.
He will provide an overview of what in ODC is actually doing operationally on the ground with a field perspective.
Givan, you have the floor.
Thank you.
Sung.
Can you hear me? Yes.
I think that the speakers before me have already eloquently explained how we are not really talking about the minor environmental offenses that may be perpetrated by villagers of a countryside, but we're really talking about the organized criminal, commercial, industrial activities perpetrated in what, according to the legal framework is considered as a serious crime with the maximum punishment of at least four years of imprisonment.
Again, against these, uh, Background, I would like to show how UNODC identify five different types of crimes that affect the environment.
The one that probably all of you are more familiar with related to wildlife crime, meaning the killing, the poaching, processing, and illegal trades of endangered species.
From various parts of the world that are moved across continents.
Then forest crimes like the clearing of forest beyond the limits allowed by the concession and the permits that some companies may have, as well as the fishery sector where there are again, operators that not only are taking fish illegally, but they are also perpetrating a number of different offenses from slavery, forced labor and moving actually other contraband with fishing vessels.
But we are also talking about minerals crimes, something that became particularly relevant in these days when we are talking about critical energy transition minerals and the barrier represented by corruption and illegal exploration and exploitation of minerals.
Generate even more impediments for foreign investments to access these important minerals.
Then waste crimes, whereby the industrial world decides to find cheap ways to dispose of their waste by moving it, smuggling it to other parts of the world where there are no facility to dispose of it legally and sustainably.
So with that context, we try to understand what are the real implications.
Again, it's not only an environmental issue, is an issue that affects all sectors that determine the growth and the prosperity of the country.
They have impact on the economic of a country, generating loss of tourism, revenues, market distortion, trade distortions.
It has impact on the security.
Most of you speakers before me, have eloquently spoken about the corruption, the weak institutions, transnational organized crime networks that exist and in some cases, even the financing of armed groups and insurgence groups.
The social impact and in particular in many countries we see human wildlife conflict, but also would like to focus on the fact that when we see enforcement, very often enforcement is focused on the lowest echelons of the organized criminal groups, sending to jail poachers, the artisanal fishermen, the artisanal miners and not the masterminds behind these criminal groups.
Of course, the public health impacts, some of you have already mentioned, the risk of zonotic diseases, but also the toxic exposure, the heavy metal poisoning, all the diseases that can be linked to these type of crimes.
How it is evolving these type of crime.
Well, first of all, one pattern that we see is that we're talking about $1 billion crime with complex supply chain that are capable of entering the legitimate and global markets through white collar crimes effectively, and Nowadays, the high price of gold and the high demand of critical minerals pushes even more law enforcement to try to defend these sectors against multinational structures that have an enormous incentive to continue to perpetrate these illegal activities.
We see linkages to conflict and armed groups, as I said, and even when during COVID, we all thought that wildlife crime will go away.
We are a few years after COVID and wildlife crime is still there.
The challenges is that it's still perceived as a mere administrative and environmental offense, not as a criminal issue, the security element is very often overlooked and therefore is not considered a priority in terms of how to investigate and prosecute these type of offenses.
The approach that we use at UNODC is first of all, to generate a body of knowledge that help us to understand a little bit better the trends.
Through research and we have a multitude of reports that we have published in the past few years.
That represents the basis to help governments to develop more coherent legal framework, not only on wildlife crime or not only on waste crime, but looking at the environment more comprehensively.
Based on this legal framework, then we build capacity to investigate, prosecute, adjudicate using as some of you said, to advance investigative techniques, financial investigation, looking into money laundering, anti corruption, looking into digital evidence, et cetera That is the basis to then build international cooperation and the work that you are all doing at the General Assembly and some of the countries, Brazil, Germany, Gabon, pushing these resolutions through the different intergovernmental bodies really creates the political momentum that allow us to advance work in this area.
We have different approaches.
Today, we talk more about innovation and the speakers after me actually would be probably in a better position to explain really how they managed to bring innovation in the way in which crimes that affect environment is fought.
But we have tried to explain crime by crime in the five different forms of crime that we address, how really to achieve that.
In 2025, our program is called global Program crimes that Affect Environment.
I would like you to look at it not as an environmental program, but as a criminal justice program that tries to protect the environment.
We have performed across over 130 countries.
We have pushed operations that led to a number of investigations, seizures, arrests, prosecution.
We have produced a number of models, a number of tools that governments are currently used.
Doctor Juma mentioned before, for instance, a lab that we just launched in Uganda two weeks ago and already last week he was collecting the first evidence for a criminal investigation.
There are some success stories that fortunately we can bring.
Some of you may have heard two years ago.
Of an important case in which also the Wildlife Justice Commission was involved in which lemurs and tortoises, thousands of them were found from Madagascar in Thailand alive after being smuggled across the ocean.
Luckily, there was an investigation that started, the prosecution, UNODC with many partners, managed to repatriate these animals alive and bring them back to their habitat.
As we are speaking today, the authorities in Thailand and Madagascar are advancing a mutual legal assistance to make sure that the criminal network behind this operation is secure to justice.
We operate, as I said, all over the world, but I think that I run out of time, so thank you very much for the attention.
Thank you very much, Giovanni, for this very overall overview.
I think if any participants are interested in it, so could contact us after the meeting.
So just now we listened speakers they repeatedly mentioned the importance of the partnership with civil society with private sector.
So it's our honor to have with us today all three members from the civil society and the private sector who will bring additional perspectives on their experience in the fight against this type of crime.
So now it's my pleasure to give the floor to miss Olivia Vk Goldman, Executive Director Wildlife Justice Commission.
So, Olivia, you have the floor.
Thank you so much.
Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for including the Wildlife Justice Commission in this event and for hosting this event as we've worked in the past with Germany and Gbum to try and bring these issues of wildlife crime, the trafficking of endangered species to New York.
It's really wonderful for you and ODC and the co hosts to bring it to New York and recognize that this is indeed a crime issue as well as a conservation issue.
The Wildlife Justice Commission is an international NGO based in the Hague, offices in Thailand and here in the US, and we work with governments to help disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks that traffic in endangered species, whether they be on land or at sea or in our forests.
I love the idea that today we're talking about practice.
How do we actually implement, how do we make an impact? Because that's what we all want.
We want to be protecting these species and we have ideas about how to do it from other crime types and how we address it.
We just haven't been really successful in applying those tools and techniques to the trafficking of endangered species until recently.
I think we're really making progress and thanks and welcome to the UNDC's work on that.
So what we've really seen in our work is that these crimes do not happen in isolation.
They are intrinsically linked with corruption, with money laundering, with fraud, and we need to be addressing it in this global approach.
We call this crime convergence, and we put out two reports on this.
I remember I was speaking to somebody in U endo DC years ago.
It people talk about this link, but I haven't seen it, so I don't think it really exists.
For me, that was a red flag.
I said, Okay, guys, let's put out a report.
Let's document it so then we can work on it instead of it being only theory.
What does prime convergence look like in practice? I'm going to give three examples brief from all over the world because it is a global problem and I think that's something we need to keep in mind as well.
One of the case studies in our 2023 report came from Latin America and nearly 900 kilograms of cocaine were concealed inside nearly 100 shark carcasses.
Investigators later found that the seafood businesses were also being used to store drug filled sharks and facilitate money laundering and tax evasion.
It shows how legitimate commercial interests are being abused and misused to move illicit goods and wash criminal proceeds.
Secondly, in a recent public case in Southeast Asia, authorities seized more than 240 kilograms of ivory and pangolin scales, along with 70,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes.
Again, something you wouldn't necessarily put together, but these are the way the networks are seizing opportunities to make money and to go where the risk is low.
Finally, just last week, I'm incredibly proud of this because the Wildlife Justice Commission was directly involved in a cross border operation that led to the arrest of two suspects in Mojabique for the murder of two South African nationals in Kruger National Park.
The suspects had crossed into Mozambique believing the border would shield them from accountability, and it did not.
Through coordinated cross border operations involving Mojabique and South African enforcement and park rangers supported by the Wildlife Justice Commission, they were tracked down and arrested.
I think this is a really great case because it shows the importance of intelligence gathered through previous investigations and how you can build on that.
This proved instrumental in tracking and locating the suspects in the murder investigation and enabled us to draw an established understanding of how criminal networks operate in buffer zones surrounding the park.
If we want to be protecting the species in the park, we can't only be looking at the park, we need to be looking at the areas around them.
That shows why intelligence led investigations are so important.
So where's the gap in the current response? Now, these cases demonstrate an important reality.
Criminal networks don't operate themselves according to government mandates, but law enforcement often does.
Environmental, anti narcotic, anti corruption financial authorities too often work in silos, and regulatory or environmental officers may not have the mandate, the tools, or the incentives to pursue money laundering or other converging crimes.
Once referrals are made, these parallel offenses can fall away in competing enforcement priorities.
As a result, convergingt crimes remain unaddressed, high level offenders, facilitators, and financial beneficiaries remain untouched, and criminal networks continue operating largely intact.
That's why crime convergence matters.
It creates opportunities for law enforcement when the response is organized around the network rather than the commodity.
What should be done differently? States should make crime convergence part of routine practice through joint investigations of task forces, organized crime group mapping, parallel financial and corruption investigations, and greater use of special investigative techniques to expose the wider criminal ecosystem.
Investigators and prosecutors should be encouraged to go beyond the initial environmental offense to investigate and prosecute convergent crimes and use alternative legislation where it can deliver stronger penalties.
And how can the international legal framework help? The international legal framework is critical.
More consistent implementation of the UTC and the UCC environmental cases would allow states to use all those tools these conventions already provide to address these crimes and link to other organized crimes.
Current discussions under the UTAC are a major opportunity to strengthen the global response to crimes that affect the environment.
Today, whether these crimes trigger organized crime tools often depends on how they are classified nationally and whether they meet the UTC serious crime threshold.
Where they don't, criminal networks exploit that gap.
We therefore encourage states to seize this opportunity at the next UTC cop to support ambitious commitments, including progress towards an additional protocol on crimes that affect the environment.
This will help to harmonize criminalization frameworks, strengthen international cooperation, and enable more systemic use of the UTAC tools to these crimes.
At the UCC level, resolution 11 slash nine adopted by consensus last year is a major step forward because it includes commitments by 192 state parties to address the links between corruption and environmental crime.
It calls for stronger prevention, financial transparency, investigations, prosecutions, asset recovery, which is critically important.
The criminals need to feel the pain of getting things taken away and interagency and cross border cooperation.
The priority now is implementation.
States should report progress and share lessons through the 2027 UNCOC working group on the prevention of corruption.
Why does this matter beyond conservation? Environmental crimes, as we've heard, are too often treated as niche conservation issues or low priority regulatory offenses when in fact, they are embedded in transnational organized crime economies.
The gateway offenses, revenue streams, and logistical platforms for organized crime.
If we want to dismantle the networks, we have to treat environmental crime in a way that it's not in isolation.
Ultimately, this isn't only about ecosystems.
It's about criminal economies that threaten governance, security, the rule of law, and communities.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much, Olivia, for this invaluable contribution because we are a little bit behind the time, allow me to directly pass on the floor to our next speaker, Mr.
Nicholas Schuman, Head of Financial Crime Strategy and Framework, HSBC in USA.
Thank you.
You have the Good afternoon.
Thank you, distinguished guests.
It's an honor to be here speaking to you today on behalf of the United for Wildlife Task Force of which HSBC has been a member for several years.
United for Wildlife was created in 2013 by Prince William and the Royal Foundation to bring together governments, NGOs, local communities, and the private sector, including financial institutions to help protect wildlife and the people and ecosystems that depend upon it.
As we have heard throughout today, the challenge we face is clear.
Crimes that affect the environment are highly lucrative, often linked to corruption and financial crime, and the ultimate beneficiaries are rarely brought to justice.
So what do we need to do differently or better? I'll spotlight three things.
First, collaborate across sectors by design, not by exception.
Criminal networks exploit the gaps between conservation, law enforcement, and finance.
No single organization sees the full picture.
Together, however, we can.
Second, treat environmental crime as everyone's responsibility.
This responsibility can't sit only with conservation groups or law enforcement.
If we want to reduce harm, we have to deny criminals the routes, the payments, and ultimately the profit.
Third, and I actually think this is the most important point, keep evolving our tools as fast as criminals evolve their methods.
We need a response that's as networked and adaptive as they are, a network to defeat a network.
This includes both public private sharing information sharing, as well as private to private information sharing underpinned by technology.
We do this well, the results are impactful.
One recent example is the development of the Environmental crimes financial toolkit developed by WWF and DMS with philanthropic support from HSBC.
The toolkit helps financial institutions identify where environmental and financial crimes converge and strengthens core bank controls like sector wide risk assessments.
Environmental crime is spotted earlier and handled more consistently.
The toolkit helps banks better understand environmental crime risks.
That means better prevention, better reporting to law enforcement agencies, leading to better and more timely casework.
It's a virtuous cycle.
Call to action is simple.
Public private sector collaboration has never been more important.
We must partner better across sectors, share information proactively, and adopt tools and frameworks that make environmental crime harder to finance and all of this must be underpinned by technology.
Technology like AI, which we're about to hear probably a little bit more, can help us see connections that the naked eye can't see.
Partnerships that lead to enhanced information sharing help us see a more complete picture.
Technology and partnerships really do go hand in hand.
One last thing.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak here today and as the proud father of an aspiring conservationist aged ten, Max, thank you for all the work that you're doing here today to work together and create solutions.
Thank you.
Thank you, miss Schumann, also for strengthening among others the importance of public private partnership.
Thank you.
Last but not least, we would like to hear views and insights on the role of technology in this course from our panelists, Mr.
Jordan Stat, senior program manager at the An Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
You have the floor, sir.
So much and it's really a privilege to be supporting UNODC mission.
I want to start out with something direct.
The technology is here to deliver on the promises of our global goals.
30 by 30 to the High Seas Treaty, we can now monitor places until very recently, we're simply too vast and too remote to reach.
For most of history, keeping watch over the high seas or MPA far offshore was effectively impossible.
But just in the last few years, AI is now able to turn free and publicly available satellite imagery into insights people can act on in the time that it matters.
These models can pinpoint a ten meter vessel trying to evade detection in 150,000 square kilometer area in minutes.
A boat that once would have vanished into the open ocean can now be found.
Let me show you that makes possible.
In January off the coast of Argentina, a vessel slowed to under 4 knots inside Argentina's EEZ.
That speed mattered because holding that slow for that long is a known signature of active fishing.
The vessel was signaling that it was fishing in a place that it was not allowed to.
Remote monitoring caught it and our analytics confirmed it.
Here's the part that matters.
The tech already made the violation obvious.
What unlocked it was a small change to Argentina's evidentiary rules made shortly before that lets that remote evidence carry weight in an enforcement action.
So for the first time, Argentina imposed a sanction for illegal fishing without ever stopping the vessel at sea.
The tech was already there, the policy just had to catch up.
This is not only a story about the ocean.
Last May, the movements of a track vulture went still on its own, that is one data point.
But Earth Ranger, the platform carrying the data clustered those signals, recognized the pattern, and flagged it as suspicious.
The alert went across the eye in the sky network, a network of more than two dozen organizations from Southern to East Africa who share what they track with one another.
By first flight, a ranger was in the air and what he found was a mass poisoning, an elephant carcass laced with pesticide to kill vultures who circling would have given poachers away.
What followed was the largest coordinated vulture rescue in the region's history.
That network took years to build.
That morning though, it took hours to act.
That's the lesson.
The tech surfaced the signal, but it was trusted data sharing between organizations and people ready to move that turned a signal into a rescue.
I'm happy to share that since that I in the Network sky has been created, 2,500 endangered vultures have been saved and because dozens of groups across the continent agreed to coordinate, detection means nothing without the institutions and the trust between them to act.
This is the kind of work a nonprofit institute building in the open with partners can help make possible.
AI two was founded by the late Microsoft co founder Paul Allen on a simple idea.
Let computers do what they do best, organize that information so that people can do what they do best, which is those leaps of intuition that lead to breakthroughs.
That is exactly what you heard.
AI cut through the noise, people made the call to investigate the vessel, to fly out to that bird.
As we build more capability, we were dedicated to keep human judgment at the center Skylight and Earth Range refuse disparate data and surface patterns never seen before.
These technologies are free and open sourced for anyone to use and build upon them.
So here's my ask of you all.
Look at the platforms, the data, the frameworks you already have and ask what small changes could turn what the tech already shows into action you can take.
Argentina did not wait for some new innovation.
It used what existed and made one targeted change.
That path is open to every country in this room, and that's what self sufficiency looks like, the ability to defend your own waters and your own protected places on your terms.
We're here and ready to partner with all of you.
Today, our platforms are already used by government agencies and conservation across more than 90 countries, many of you here today.
That vulture network shows what coordination makes possible, organizations agreeing to share what they track securely in a form everyone can act.
Now imagine that across the whole community, common baseline, so a signal in one country means the same in the next.
In that moves across borders and agencies instead of stalling them.
We know how to build state of the art technology and AI in the open, but the data, the standards, the judgment about what matters, that has to come from you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Star, for these very concrete examples and its implications.
Thank you.
With this, we now conclude our panel discussion.
Now, I would like to open the floor for interventions from participants.
We would be truly grateful firstly to our panelists just now for sharing the insight from those perspectives.
Now we would also like to listen to the interventions from participants.
So we would be very grateful if you could kindly keep your interventions very briefly.
Now, I saw Mr.
Ralph Sans, the deputy permanent representative for Columbia to have already pressed the button.
The follow is yours Thank you, my friend and congratulations for this event.
Izuma welcome to New York and congratulations for your appointment.
Just three quick reactions about today's discussions.
One, we stand side by side with Brazil in the initiatives and mentioned that it was made this morning about creating the new protocol.
Two, it is very true.
The crime is already in step in and we are lagging behind a lot in terms of technology, in terms of illicit passages that are used by drug trafficking, they are used by all environment crimes.
But third and most important, UNODC role in this.
To champion the private sector to commit not to use informal channels that can benefit environmental crimes, to have a statement, a commitment at the most political level to the private sector, you can say, so they can be engaged.
Because when you talk about wildlife and then you change environmental crimes, you're using that interchangeably and sometimes it's not the same thing as you mentioned.
It's very important the new protocol so we can have a true definition of what is environmental crime? What is the things that we can champion to the private sector, but we need a commitment, a strong commitment from the private sectors.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Any other interventions? I think we have 2 minutes left.
Okay.
It seems no participants asking the flow.
So in this case, please let me allow me to thank all of the panelists and also our keynote speakers very much for their insights, their ideas, and also inspiring efforts to address crimes that affect the environment also through examples and also through perspectives.
Including the use of new technologies and also strengthening partnerships, et cetera.
So this exchange alongside the booing debate at the General Assembly reflects a growing global determination to scale up actions both politically and through strengthened cooperation among all multi stakeholders and also at the international, national and regional levels.
So thank you very much for your passion and dedication to make effort to protect people and the planet.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.