National | PANORAMA

Southeast Asia

South Asia

An Analysis Framework to enable biodiversity projects to take a One Health approach

Micol

Fascendini

FORM A REVIEW TEAM

QUICK SCAN OF THE PROJECT

IDENTIFY GATE ENTRIES

LEVERAGE MEASURES

EXPLORE ENABLING CONDITIONS

DISCUSS OH INTEGRATION

Southeast Asia

South Asia

An Analysis Framework to enable biodiversity projects to take a One Health approach

Micol

Fascendini

FORM A REVIEW TEAM

QUICK SCAN OF THE PROJECT

IDENTIFY GATE ENTRIES

LEVERAGE MEASURES

EXPLORE ENABLING CONDITIONS

DISCUSS OH INTEGRATION

Uniform sentencing

Country-level contexts are important to take into consideration as part of efforts to prevent illegal wildlife trafficking. It's really important to bring all the relevant stakeholders together to compare notes, share innovations, and ensure that sentencing guidelines are harmonised within and between jurisdictions. This can be bolstered by trainings and capacity building at the regional and international levels.

Having a knowledgeable judiciary can help establish uniform sentencing, and underscore the point that sentences for wildlife-related crimes seldom reflect the killing of a single animal, but rather must address the damage that wildlife trafficking can do to ecosystems, economies, and the rule of law.

This work has shown that it's important to bring all the relevant stakeholders together. The trainings as part of this solution have brought together law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary, all of which are crucial in effective interdiction and enforcement.

Cooperation – Enhancing information sharing across jurisdictions

Multi-jurisdictional cooperation is a key element of wildlife protection and illegal wildlife trafficking. Strategies to reduce the pressurse of illegal and unsustainable trade on biodiversity - and enhance the benefits to wildlife conservation and human well-being that derive from trade at sustainable levels - require cooperation between conservations, law enforcement, customs, and private industry.

Cross-jurisdictional comparisons of wildlife trade trends, patterns, impacts and drivers to bolster the knowledge base on trade in wild animals and plants.
Policy-level work to inform, support and encourage action by governments and international bodies to adopt, implement and enforce effective policies

Effective information sharing through formal and informal networks can result in high-level conviction and seizure of assets.

Once a baseline level of cooperation is established, individual nations should implement legislation to enable wildlife crime to be treated as serious and organised crime according to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), with penalties of four years or more in prison. Sentences should punish the offender to an extent that is justified by the circumstances, and be comparable with sentences applied to other serious crimes. Sentences should provide conditions that will help the offender to be rehabilitated, deter the offender and other persons from committing the same or a similar offence, and make clear that the community denounces the sort of conduct in which the offender was involved.

Information exchange between law enforcement agencies, FIUs, financial institutions, and civil society should be encouraged, to share knowledge, identify targets and patterns of behaviour, and more effectively mitigate wildlife crime risks.

Forensic accounting for wildlife trafficking interdiction

Photo courtesy of Harun Guclusoy/UNDP

Trainings

Wildlife crime is not purely a conservation issue, as its adverse impacts also threaten sustainable development, good governance, rule of law, and national security.

The aim of this building block is to identify the risks and vulnerabilities of money laundering and how it relates to wildlife crimes. Additionally, this building block endeavours to provide guidance and recommendations to law enforcement and related personnel to enhance the financial aspect of wildlife crime investigations.

Fraudulent paperwork can transform wildlife contraband into seemingly legitimate merchandise, enabling it to be openly traded and evade interdiction. There are many schemes that criminals use to create fraudulent wildlife paperwork, including false declarations of captive breeding, purchasing paperwork from corrupt officials, forging paperwork, re-using or altering old permits, etc. Forensic accounting is therefore an important building block

Transnational organised crime is found wherever money can be made from illicit dealings, and well-organised criminal groups have turned illegal exploitation of wildlife into a professional business with lucrative revenues. Criminal groups exploit gaps in legislation, law enforcement and the criminal justice system; and the generally weak legislation and inadequate law enforcement in wildlife protection has enabled wildlife criminal groups to flourish. Forensic accounting allows practitioners to close these gaps and bolster wildlife protection.

In order to capitalise on enhanced forensic accounting, complementary legislation should enable wildlife crime to be considered a predicate offence for money laundering, so that anti-money laundering tools can be used. Governments should review their criminal legislation to ensure that law enforcement agencies are fully authorised to follow the financial flows related to wildlife crime and to prosecute money laundering offences.

Domestic multi-agency cooperation should be common practice for wildlife crimes, involving police, customs, environmental authorities, Financial Investigation Units (FIUs), prosecutors, and other relevant domestic agencies for sharing information, intelligence, and conducting joint investigations where appropriate. Joint investigative teams which include FIUs are essential to target criminal networks and not just low-level offenders, and have long been used successfully to address other serious crime types.

Valuing traditional knowledge

Farmers in Phnom Kulen harvesting traditional herbs. Farmer introduced and cultivated over 10 medicinal plants. Photo UNDP Cambodia

UNDP Cambodia

Trainings designed to build capacity and awareness among the various stakeholders. Photo ABS Project Cambodia

UNDP Cambodia

The stores of traditional knowledge in upland Cambodia are rich and greatly varied, and include knowledge on conserving nature, health protection, farming systems, and plant and animal species uses and management.

These stores of knowledge reflect the varied geographic areas indigenous peoples and minorities live in, as well as the groups’ respective needs. All societies have utilized the natural environment for sustenance and succour, and the use of plants for medicinal treatment is therefore especially well developed across the globe.

As such, research institutions, private pharmaceutical companies and NGOs have in recent years recognized the importance of conserving this knowledge, but also using it to create benefits, which have not always been equitably shared. The absence of a system for the protection of traditional knowledge can easily result in the further erosion of this valuable knowledge and a permanent loss to local and indigenous communities, the country and the global community at large.

Failure to bring fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization the traditional knowledge and genetic resources - especially for indigenous peoples and local communities - is a key constraint for the effective conservation of biodiversity.

To remedy these past inequities and build a framework for future success, the ABS project is developing and finalizing national ABS frameworks and roadmaps, as well as models on bio-prospecting, a monitoring framework for tracking genetic resources application, and a monitoring and evaluation plan.

To ensure longevity and sustainability, an effective financial mechanism for benefit-sharing from ABS agreements has been established, with an ABS Administrative Permitting System and check-points inaugurated.

The power of innovation, realized via the synthesis of traditional knowledge with modern science and technology, has transformed genetic resources into medicines, foodstuffs, and many other products that are indispensable for human existence. In fact, it can be argued that both genetic resources and innovation underpin sustainable development.

Genetic resources are the planet’s patrimony, and can be harnessed for present and future generations; there exists a clear link between sustainable biodiversity use and economic growth. The Nagoya Protocol provides a platform for the equitable sharing of benefits that facilitates sustainable development for indigenous peoples and local communities, and the continued conservation of our natural capital for many years to come.