(Continued) Preventing and Combating Illicit Trafficking in Wildlife and other Crimes that Affect the Environment - High-level debate, General Assembly, 80th session

Good afternoon.
The meeting is called to order.
We shall now continue with the plenary segment to hear the remaining speakers from the morning.
To allow maximum participation by all members, members are requested to limit their interventions to 5 minutes when speaking on behalf of the group and 3 minutes when speaking in the national capacity.
Time limits will be strictly enforced through an automatic microphone cutoff.
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I thank you for your cooperation.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Mexico.
Or proceed.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Miss Co is grateful for the holding of this high level debate on preventing and combating the illicit trafficking in spec in wildlife and other crimes that affect the environment.
Environmental crimes worsen biodiversity.
They threaten human health and erode local economies while entrenching social inequalities.
Their effects have a disproportionate impact on indigenous peoples as well as on local communities that directly depend on ecosystems for their livelihoods, or their well being or that affect sites related to their cultural identity.
Illicit trafficking in wildlife, illegal logging, illegal fishing, illegal mining, and other related crimes not only destroy natural resources, they also worsen cultural practices or weakened cultural practices give rise to local level violence and can even foster the presence of expansion of criminal networks that profit from the natural heritage of our countries.
And In addressing this challenge, Mexico believes it's essential to place people and communities at the heart of prevention and combating strategies.
Evidence shows that community involvement is vital to building sustainable and effective responses.
The most successful approaches have incorporated community monitoring systems mechanisms, natural resource management systems, capacity building, safe complaints channels and processes for prior free and informed consultation which allow communities to participate meaningfully in decision making.
Therefore, Mexico underscores the importance of address taking ensuring that we have responses that are based on human rights, gender perspective, and multiculturality, guaranteeing access to information, public involvement, and environmental justice.
In this context, the Esco Agreement is a fundamental reference point for strengthening consultation mechanisms and protecting environmental environmental defenders who very often belong to the affected communities and sometimes are also indigenous.
At the same time, it's essential for state responses to clearly distinguish between traditional uses, livelihoods, and legal use of natural resources on the one hand and the criminal organized activities on the other.
Without this, they risk unfairly criminalizing the communities that has historically been the main guardians of biodiversity rather than focusing efforts on the networks that fund transport and illegally trade in natural resources.
In Mexico's case, the Attorney General's Office for the Environment has for more than 26 years been promoting the environmental Watch committees through which communities act as active guardians in the protection of natural resources.
This experience has contributed to strengthening early warning for administrative offenses, as well as forging our international relations at the same time.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished Representative of Mexico.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Sam Rahim, Mr.
President, the Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms its unwavering commitment to international efforts aimed at preventing and combating illicit trafficking and wildlife and other crimes that affect the environment.
Today, however, we must address a reality that is too often ignored in discussions on environmental crime.
The destruction of ecosystems through military aggression creates the very conditions in which environmental crimes exacerbate.
During the recent unprovoked and unlawful military aggression the United States Israeli regime against my country, environmental damage was implicated on an alarming scale.
Attacks on oil storage facilities, petrochemical installations and energy sites triggered massive fires that release enormous quantities of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere.
Dense clouds of hazardous emissions spread across vast areas, contaminating air, soil and water resources and exposing millions of civilians to severe environmental and health risks.
Environmental consequences extended far beyond the immediate targets.
Toxic fallout including black rain affected surrounding ecosystems and natural habitats, pollution inter ecological cycles that sustain both wildlife and human communities.
Such damage does not disappear when the fires are extinguished.
It persists in soil, waterways, and the food chains.
Equally alarming were the threats posed to environmentally sensitive coastal and marine areas in the Persian Gulf oil contamination and conflict related pollution endangered fragile ecosystems, migratory species, breeding grounds, wetlands, and habitats that constitute an irreplaceable part of our shared natural heritage.
The destruction or degradation of these habitats directly increase the vulnerability of wildlife to poaching, illegal exploitation and trafficking.
Large scale environmental destruction and environmental crime are not separate challenges.
They are interconnected phenomena.
Islamic Republic of Iran, therefore, calls for greater recognition of the environmental consequences of the recent unlawful war against its territory, a stronger international accountability for actions causing widespread ecological harm, and enhanced support for countries facing environmental degradation as a result of unprovoked aggressions.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of Iran.
I now invite the distinguished representative of Kenya.
Mr.
President, at the outset, Kenya Tang is the President of the General Assembly and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for convening this important debate.
I also take this opportunity to congratulate Ambassador Monica Chuma on assuming this new role as Executive Director of UN OTC.
As a country endowed with rich biodiversity and globally significant wildlife population, Kenya has first hand experience of both divastating impact of wildlife crime and the benefits of sustained and coordinated action.
Over the past decade, Kenya has demonstrated that strong political commitment, robust law enforcement and community participation can deliver tangible resources.
Through the efforts of Kenya Wildlife Service, enhanced intelligence operations, strengthened penalties under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, and across cooperation with neighboring states, Kenya has reduced elephant poaching by over 90% from it is peak levels in the early 2010.
Kenya has also taken a strong stance against the illegal ivory trade.
In 2016, the government publicly destroyed more than 100 tons of ivory and 1.3 tons of lino horn, the largest ivor barn in history at the time, sending a clear message that wildlife products are value only on living animals and not in illegal markets.
Mr.
President, communities living along site wildlife must be partners and beneficiaries of conservation efforts.
Kenya's community conservance model, particularly in Northern Kenya, has demonstrated how local stewardship can simultaneously support livelihood, strengthen security, and biodiversity.
At the regional level, Kenya works closely with partners through mechanisms such as the East African community, the Ruska Agreement Task Force, Inter operations, and the International Consortium on combating wildlife crime.
Such a cooperation is essential because criminal networks do not respect national borders.
Despite these gains, RIF can challenge remain illegal logging, illegal fishing, illicit mining, and wildlife trafficking continue to generate billions of dollars annually for criminal network worldwide.
Kenya therefore supports strengthening the implementation of existing international instruments, including the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, and the relevant multilateral Environmental Agreements.
In conclusion, Kenya reaffirms its unwavering commitment two, preventing and combating illegal illicit trafficking in wildlife and other crimes that affect environment.
I thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of Kenya.
I now invite the distinguished representative of Armenia.
Mr.
President, Armenia welcomes the convening of the high level debate and thanks all the partners for bringing attention to illicit trafficking in wildlife and other crimes that affect the environment.
These crimes post serious threat to biodiversity, sustainable development, health and well being, as well as livelihoods.
Illicit markets push many species to extinction, destroy habitats, and increase risk of zoonotic diseases.
Growing links of wildlife traffickers with transnational organized crime, corruption and illicit financial flows stress the need for a comprehensive international response.
Armenia recognizes that effective environmental protection requires strong criminal justice system.
Adré these crimes demands robust legislation, effective law enforcement, international cooperation, and engagement of local communities.
As the incoming presidency of Cop 17, Armenia sees the conference as a pivotal moment to strengthen the nexus between biodiversity, conservation, sustainable development, and the rule of law.
As the first global review of progress under the economic Montreal Global biodiversity Framework, Cop 17 will provide an important opportunity to assess achievements, identify gaps, and accelerate implementation.
In this regard, combating wildlife trafficking and environmental crimes is indispensable to achieving global biodiversity objectives.
Armenia is committed to fostering inclusive action oriented discussions that enhance international cooperation, promote whole of government and whole of society approaches, and elevate the role of criminal justice institutions in safeguarding biodiversity and advancing the framework's implementation.
In this context, Armenia has aimed to strengthen dialogue between environmental and criminal justice communities.
To advance this objective, Armenia will convene An ancillary event during 15th UN Crime Congress in Abu Dhabi this September entitled Strengthening Criminal Justice Responses to Environmental Crime in support of the Coming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The event will highlight the contribution of criminal justice institutions to biodiversity conservation.
And the importance of stronger cooperation among law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, environmental authorities, international organizations, and civil society.
As we prepare for Cop 17, Armenia looks forward to working with all partners to elevate the role of criminal justice in biodiversity protection.
I thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of Armenia.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United States.
Mr.
President and distinguished delegates, combating transnational organized crime is a key US priority, including the illicit trafficking in timber, minerals, and wildlife.
These crimes generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually for organized crime groups, threatening US national security, economic, and health security.
We remain committed to preventing and prosecuting this crime.
We will also continue to make clear that the UNODC must stick to its core mandates of combating drug trafficking and other forms of transnational crime.
Additionally, it is the position of the United States that the international framework is already sufficient to facilitate appropriate international cooperation to combat trafficking in natural resources and that countries must be willing to take action domestically as well as take full advantage of the mutual legal assistance and other provisions already available in the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
To be clear, the United States does not support a new protocol on so called crimes that affect the environment and will actively rally supports to oppose it.
Lack of domestic action by proponent countries is not a sufficient reason to initiate a new, expensive, unnecessary, and time consuming negotiation process for a new protocol, and we will not support its funding.
Instead, we believe that UN member states should focus on facilitating the successful disruption of criminal networks through robust criminal justice activity, including investigations, interdictions, prosecutions, and extraditions.
The United States recommends our Laci Act as a model law.
Through it, US prosecutors may pursue criminal charges on an individual or individuals found to have imported or exported flora or fauna, harvested, possessed, transported, or sold in contravention of any country's laws.
The United States will continue to investigate and prosecute those who violate the US Lacey Act and other domestic criminal statutes to protect US national security and businesses and prevent undercutting of lawfully obtained products.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of the United States.
I now invite the distinguished representative of France.
President Thank you, President.
President Excellency, Frans Kamen holding of this high level debate at a crucial juncture, crimes against the environment, wildlife trafficking, illegal deforestation, transplantine pollution are not only attacks on biodiversity and climate, they also fuel corruption, money laundering.
Organized crime that's undermining international peace, security, sustainable development.
France has made combating environmental crime a national priority.
In 2023, we created a Command Center for Environment and Health, which is a unique institute in Europe.
We have instructions with regard to all levels of crime and commercialization of wildlife using technology to dismantle networks.
We work with partners to combat trafficking showing the effectiveness of operational cooperation and the use of Interpol and Europol tools.
However, obstacles remain.
Lack of harmonization of legislation, lack of resources, imitation of international fora are hampering our efforts.
The international legal framework remains fragmented.
Existing instruments such as CIs or the Basel Convention have difficulty with stopping organized crime networks.
That's why we support the fourth additional protocol to the Polar Mode Convention on environmental crime.
Which unless is to harmonize definitions of crime, strengthen police and judicial cooperation, integrating links between environmental crime, money laundering, and corruption organized crime, as well as strengthening the use of modern investigation tools such as financial investigation tools.
President, crimes against the environment destroy the livelihoods of communities and indigenous peoples in Guyana.
We're seeing their soil and rivers poisoned, threatening the populations.
To combat this friends is supporting local communities to establish policies, to protect whistleblowers and environmental activists and setting up partnerships with civil society, NGOs in the private sector.
This is all crucial for identifying emerging threats and for strengthening traceability in the logistical chain.
We also are strengthening our regional partnerships, especially in Africa, through high level conferences like the one held in Gabon, through our partnership for the Congo Basin Forest.
With UNDC, we have a joint action plan for 2020 to 2026 on environmental crime to develop analytical tools, legislative guidance, and capacity building tools.
President, in this context, France calls for collective mobilization of all stakeholders to provide a coordinated, inclusive and data based approach.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of France.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Arab Emirates.
Azaz Excellency, delegates.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor to take part in this high level debate on preventing and combating illicit trafficking in wildlife and other crimes that affect the environment.
These crimes are not environmental crimes only, but a transboundary threat that undermines biodiversity, finances organized crime which weakens livelihoods and security, even the security of those communities that are located away from where the crimes are perpetrated.
We need stronger capacity and international cooperation.
We must also mobilize our collective.
This context, the Ministry of Interior in cooperation with UNODC launched the International Initiative for Law Enforcement for the benefit of climate.
This focuses on three commitments, strengthen cooperation through collective action and raise awareness on the importance of law enforcement and strengthen law enforcement capacities across the world to combat crime that directly affect the environment.
This initiative is a role model to be followed and is a landmark for preventing and combating illicit trafficking.
This has been translated into three practical measures.
One benefit from international fora to promote cooperation among countries.
We launched a platform that brings together more than 50 law enforcement agencies.
In addition, we put law enforcement operations at the international agenda as part of the UN FCC Conference and other fora.
In addition, the International Law Enforcement Initiative carried out several joint multinational operations in the Amazon and Congo.
Different agencies from the UAE, South Africa, and others that joined in this collective effort.
Third, second, promote capacity building.
This initiative 2024-2026, carried out specialized activities to investigate environmental crimes and other crimes in order to hold those perpetrators accountable more than 4,000 participants from several countries benefited from this initiative.
Three, build capacity to innovate through the observatory and through other initiatives.
We launch tools in order to monitor trends.
In conclusion, Mr.
President, through this initiative and through collective will, we can address environmental crimes and we can help ensure a safer and sustainable future for all.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of the UAE.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Nepal.
Mr.
President, at the outset, Nepal welcomes the timely convening of this important high level debate.
For Nepal, Mr.
President, preventing and combating illegal trafficking in wildlife and other crimes is not merely a policy priority.
It is a national responsibility rotating our longstanding commitment to conservations, community stewardships, and the protection of one of the world's richest res of worlds of biodiversity.
Over the years, Nepal has made progress in biodiversity conservation, and wildlife crime prevention through robust legislations, strong political commitment, effective institutional coordinations, and the stewardship of local communities.
As a party to sites and then conventions on biological diversity, Nepal remains firmly committed to combating the illegal trade in endangered species and conserving biodiversity for our shared benefits.
Is the host of Secretariat of the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network.
We continue to advance regional cooperations, intelligence sharing, and coordinated responses to illegal wildlife trade and other transboundary crimes.
Mr.
President, we believe that combating environmental crimes requires a comprehensive approach.
On this, let me highlight a few points.
First, environmental crimes require a whole of government, whole of society, and international response based on political commitment, solidarity, and stronger partnerships.
Second, we must strengthen the law and institutions.
We must close both technology and enforcement gaps, including through coordinated implementations of the Conventions against transnational organized crime and the Conventions against corruptions.
Third, stronger regional and international cooperation, intelligence sharing, joint cooperations, operations and capacity buildings are essential.
Fourth, local communities, particularly women and youth must be empowered as the key custodians of biodiversity and priority must be given to ensuring sustainable livelihoods and community based conservation.
In conclusion, Mr.
President, protecting wildlife and conserving the environment is a shared responsibility.
Let us enhance financial resources, technology transfer, capacity building, and technical assistance to support countries in need.
I thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of Nepal.
I now give the floor to the observer of the International Criminal Police Organization.
Thank you, Mr.
President, Excellency distinguished delegates, wildlife crime poses a serious threat to biodiversity, ecosystem, and global security.
The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to generate up to $20 billion annually, making it one of the world's most lucrative forms of transnational organized crime.
Criminal networks exploit wildlife and forest resources across the entire supply chain from poaching and transportation to processing and sale.
These activities are frequently linked to other serious crimes, including corruption, money laundering, fraud, and documentary forgery.
Beyond the environmental damage, wildlife trafficking undermines the rule of law, threatens livelihoods, and endangers vulnerable communities worldwide.
These crimes transcend national borders, demanding a coordinated international response.
In this context, Interpol plays a central role in facilitating law enforcement cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking as organized by the UN General Assembly Resolution 79 SO 313.
As the global police Organization, Interpol enables the sharing of intelligence and information through its secure communication channels, access to global databases, and it provides analytical support to dismantle transnational criminal networks.
Last year, Interpol coordinated operation under through which law enforcement across 134 countries jointly targeted the illegal trafficking of wild fauna and Flora.
The operation resulted in the seizure of nearly 30,000 live animals, the identification and arrest of more than 100 suspect, and the confiscation of tens of thousands of protected plants and animals, and the confiscation of tons of thousand protected plant animals and more than 30 tons of endangered species protected under the cities.
Support opportunities investigations Interpol also issued around 69 red, blue, and purple notices acting as critical alerts enabling police to identify, locate, and monitor suspects.
Excellencies, Interpol remains fully committed to supporting member states in strengthening law enforcement through international police cooperation by addressing this global threat and protecting our shared natural heritage for future generations.
Thank you.
I thank the observer of the International Criminal Police Organization.
We are now moving to the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Crimes that affect the environment, including illicit trafficking in wildlife, illegal logging, illegal fishing, and the dumping of hazardous waste, demand our collective attention.
These crimes are not merely offenses against nature, they are increasingly recognized as a significant threat to global security and sustainable development.
These illegal activities accelerate climate change, biodiversity, loss, and pollution and waste.
Today, 1 million species are at risk of extinction.
Illegal fishing drains up to 36.4 billion annually from the global economy.
Ilegal logging accounts for 15 to 30% of the global timber trade driving deforestation.
At the same time, tangential criminal activities further facilitate serious harm to the environment, including corruption, organized crime, illicit financial flows, and money laundering, fraud and forgery, tax evasion, and exploitation of weak regulatory and enforcement systems.
These interconnected offenses enable illegal extraction, trade and disposal activities while undermining governance and accountability mechanisms essential for environmental protection.
Crimes that affect the environment rank among the world's largest illicit economies alongside drug trafficking and human trafficking.
We cannot afford to treat these as secondary concerns.
UNEP contributes to the global response through science, environmental law, capacity building, and partnerships.
We provide thought leadership through global studies.
We support countries in about building robust environmental, legal and institutional frameworks under the Monte Vedo Environmental Law Program.
Also support member states to strengthen the compliance and enforcement chain, including through the Green Customs Initiative, and we promote the use of criminal justice tools to prevent and address these offenses.
We do all this in a spirit of UN system wide coherence, fostering synergies through closer cooperation with UNODC, Interpol, and the World Custom Organization Secretariats of the multilateral Environmental Agreements and other partners.
Mr.
President, no single institution or country can address these challenges alone.
States have the central role to play, and we commend those who have made this domestic priority.
We must move beyond commitments and to decisive action, strengthening international legal frameworks and including indigenous people and others who are fully equipped to safeguard our shared future.
UNEP stands ready to support this work.
The time is for action now.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of the United Nations Environment Program.
We are now moving to the stakeholders category, who will deliver their statements from their seats.
The first stakeholder will be the Global Initiative to End wildlife crime.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates and participants.
It's an honor to address you today on behalf of the Global Initiative to End wildlife crime.
In recent years, we've witnessed the adoption of numerous United Nations resolutions aimed at preventing and combating crimes that affect the environment, including illicit trafficking and wildlife.
By the General Assembly, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Conference of Parties to the UN Conventions on Organized Crime and corruption, and other bodies.
We've also witnessed transformative leadership demonstrated by states, by civil society organizations, and initiatives to advance and support the development of an additional protocol to the Organized Crime Convention on crimes that affect the environment, including the establishment by Brazil of the multi stakeholder Coalition for multilateral action against crimes that affect the environment.
This coalition now includes over 20 states, and the Global Initiative to End Wildlife crime is a proud founding member.
A formal intergovernmental expert group convened in Vienna under the UTAC framework to evaluate and strengthen the international legal response to crimes that affect the environment, following the adoption of resolution 12 stroke four of the Organized Crime Convention.
This process brought together state delegates and experts to consider responses to identified gaps in the international legal framework that hinder action to prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment and to consider possible responses to those gaps, including an additional protocol.
Although the intergovernmental expert group concluded without formal consensus on the draft recommendations, the process itself was highly valuable and expertly facilitated.
The robust participation of over 100 member states underscores the growing global significance of the issue.
2026 offers a rear generational window to take decisive and concerted action to tackle transnational organized crimes that affect the environment with the urgency and seriousness they require.
We respectfully support states in the development and adoption of a resolution at the upcoming conference of the parties to the Organized Crime Convention to launch a negotiation process for an additional protocol to the convention.
Through a well crafted protocol, states can strengthen international cooperation, adopt advanced law enforcement tools, deploy a broader range of penalties, and establish a robust legal framework to prevent and combat these highly destructive crimes.
This is a pivotal moment to send a clear signal to the world that the international community is ready to take decisive action to translate political commitments made over 15 years in I thank the representative of the Global Initiative to end wildlife crime.
I now give the floor to stakeholder two, United for Wildlife Initiative.
Distinguished delegates.
It's an honor to be here today speaking on behalf of the United for Wildlife Task Force.
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've all heard throughout the day, the challenge we face is clear.
Crimes that affect the environment are highly lucrative, often linked to corruption and other financial crimes, and the ultimate beneficiaries are rarely brought to justice.
The US Treasury Department has noted that global environmental crimes, including the illegal wildlife trade, generate hundreds of billions in illicit proceeds each year.
After that money is made, criminal networks abuse the global financial system to move and launder it.
What do we need to do differently or better? 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 this is the most important point I'm going to make, 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.
Public to private and private to private information sharing is absolutely crucial to this.
When we do this well, the results are impactful.
One recent example is the environmental crimes financial Toolkit developed by WWF and Themis 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 risk is spotted earlier and handled more consistently.
Our call to action is simple.
Public private sector collaboration has never been more important.
We must partner across sectors, share information proactively and adopt tools and frameworks that make environmental crime harder to finance.
These efforts need to be underpinned by both innovative technology as well as innovative cross sector partnership approaches.
If we do that, we can disrupt the networks profiting from environmental harm and reduce the corruption and financial crime that enable them.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of United for Wildlife Initiative.
I now give the floor to stakeholder three, Wildlife Conservation Society.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Excellency's distinguished delegates, the Wildlife Conservation Society is a global conservation organization that has worked for more than a century to protect wildlife and wild places.
Today, WCS supports conservation efforts across nearly 60 countries.
Through this work, we witnessed the impacts of crimes that affect the environment and the challenges associated with halting and preventing such crimes.
Crimes such as wildlife and waste trafficking, as well as illegal deforestation, fishing, and mining are among the fastest growing forms of transnational organized crime.
They generate billions of dollars in illicit profits each year.
These crimes harm wildlife and biodiversity, of course, however, they also undermine legal economies, public health, sustainable development, and human rights.
These crimes threaten the integrity of ecosystems that are critical to resilience in the face of global change.
In the places where WCS works and across all ecosystem types, we see how environmental crime intersects with broader security challenges.
Criminal networks profit from the illegal exploitation of natural resources and become entrenched in areas where state presence is limited.
These crimes displace communities and contribute to instability and irregular migration.
Through the trafficking of live animals and illegal land use change, they can increase the risk of pathogen spillover and future outbreaks of zoonotic disease.
The world is increasingly converging on an understanding that crimes affecting the environment are not simply an environmental concern.
In 2026, however, member states have a specific opportunity to translate this recognition into action.
For 25 years, the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime or Utk has provided an essential framework for international cooperation on these transnational organized crimes.
Parties have even developed specific protocols to stimulate action on crimes such as human and firearms trafficking.
However, the application of UTalk to crimes that affect the environment remains limited and hindered by significant legal gaps.
At the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to Utk this October, member states have a historic opportunity to formally launch negotiations on a dedicated protocol focusing on crimes that affect the environment.
Such a protocol would strengthen the criminal justice response by enhancing international cooperation, promoting greater harmonization of national legislation, facilitating investigations and prosecutions, and ensuring that environmental crimes are treated with the seriousness they deserve.
WCS would like to express its gratitude to the governments of Brazil, France, Peru for their leadership over the past two years in advancing these discussions and the many member states today and on other occasions who have spoken in support.
We encourage all member states to support the development of an additional protocol to un talk on crimes that affect the environment and to engage constructively in the relevant discussions ahead.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
I thank the representative of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
I now give the floor to stakeholder four Environmental Investigation Agency, US.
Thank you, Mr.
President and good afternoon, distinguished delegates.
It is a pleasure to be addressing you today on behalf of the Environmental Investigation Agency.
EIA is an international environmental organization with offices in Washington, DC, and London.
For more than 40 years, our undercover investigations and campaigning have resulted in the dismantling of ivory trafficking syndicates, the prosecution of companies that have leveled forests to engage in timber trafficking, and the overhaul of environmental legislation in numerous countries.
As has been recognized repeatedly today, wildlife trafficking and other crimes that affect the environment have sweeping repercussions that not only damage our shared natural heritage, but also undermine the rule of law, exacerbate corruption, destroy livelihoods, and pollute the clean air and water we need to survive.
Indigenous peoples frequently bear the brunt of these negative impacts.
Too often, when these environmental defenders stand up against those who seek to destroy their homes and the environment that sustains them, they end up paying with their lives.
Wildlife trafficking and many other crimes that affect the environment are perpetrated by organized criminal networks that exploit weak governance, corruption, and vulnerable communities to profit off the illegal trade of threatened fauna and flora.
These entities are well resourced, exceptionally adaptable and operate across international borders.
An organized and sustained global response is essential to disrupting and dismantling these networks.
Intelligence led investigations, including financial investigations, have proven to be one of the most impactful tactics to combat organized wildlife trafficking.
Effective investigations require sufficient resourcing and multilateral cooperation facilitated by interagency and intergovernmental relationships built on trust.
Unfortunately, this continues to be the exception rather than standard practice.
Lack of political will, corruption and insufficient resourcing continue to handicap the global response to wildlife trafficking and other environmental crimes.
If the global community is serious about addressing these problems, then it must ramp up its collective effort.
There may be an opportunity to do just that in October of this year at the 13th Conference of the Parties, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
EIA is one of hundreds of civil society organizations that have been calling for the adoption of a new untalked protocol on crimes that affect the environment.
The new protocol could harmonize laws and ensure global recognition of and action to combat crimes that affect the environment with benefits to communities, economies, and governance around the world.
But EIA recommends that any such instruments should be broaden reach, recognizing the interconnectedness of crimes that affect the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
The very fact that we are all gathered here today to discuss this issue underscores its global importance.
Now, we must urgently turn this collective recognition into meaningful action.
I thank the Representative of Environmental Investigation Agency US.
I now give the floor to Stakeholder five Wildlife Justice Commission.
Excellency, Distinguished Delegate colleagues, it's an honor to address this high level debate on behalf of the Wildlife Justice Commission.
This General Assembly has built a clear and sustained political mandate on these crimes through its resolutions on tackling illicit trafficking in wildlife and most recently, through the resolution on crimes that affect the environment transmitted from the CCPCJ and adopted by this Assembly.
Those resolutions are unambiguous.
The United Nations Conventions Against Tranational Organized Crime and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption are frameworks through which international cooperation must be delivered and states are called upon to implement them fully.
The Wildlife Justice Commission works alongside governments and law enforcement agencies globally to disrupt and help dismantle transnational criminal networks involved in wildlife trafficking, including terrestrial, marine, and timber species, a major form of crimes that affect the environment.
From that operational perspective, one message is clear, these are not isolated conservation offenses.
They are serious, highly profitable crimes, often enabled by corruption and linked to other serious crimes, including drug and human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and financial crime.
They must therefore be treated as such.
Through our work, we have seen firsthand what works.
Effective responses are intelligence led and enforcement focused, targeting entire criminal networks across the supply chain.
This includes using special investigative techniques, financial and corruption investigations, joint investigations, anti money laundering measures, asset confiscation, international cooperation, and multi agency coordination.
Applied systemically, these tools move enforcement beyond low level seizures and towards the networks, facilitators, and beneficiaries who drive these crimes.
These are precisely the tools Untok and UCOok provide and yet in practice, they remain underused in environmental crime cases.
Closing this implementation gap is now essential.
This year presents a major opportunity under the UTC.
Too many states still do not classify environmental crimes as serious crimes under the UTAC threshold, placing them outside the convention's reach.
The upcoming 13th Conference of the Parties to UTC this October must deliver a meaningful response.
We encourage states to establish an ad hoc committee with a mandate to negotiate a dedicated protocol on crimes that affect the environment to harmonize criminalization, strengthen international cooperation, and enable the systemic use of UTAC tools.
Pending its entry into force, existing UTAC provisions must be fully utilized.
Corruption remains a key enabler of these crimes and the UCOC is indispensable to addressing it.
UNCOC resolution 11-9 adopted by consensus by 192 state parties, contains crucial commitments to address corruption, enabling environmental crime.
I thank the representative of Wildlife Justice Commission.
We have had the last speaker in this high level debate.
I would like to express my appreciation to all participants for their invaluable insights and contribution to the deliberations on this important matter.
The high level debate on the theme preventing and combating illicit trafficking in wildlife and other crimes that affect the environment is now concluded.
The main theme is adjoint.