Wildlife Justice Commission

EU Legislative Interests

The main EU initiatives, policies and legislative files currently followed by WJC are those related to environmental crimes, including wildlife and fisheries crimes, and related subjects (for instance, biodiversity, nature conservation and ecosystems). In particular, WJC wishes to take part in discussions on the implementation of the revised EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking and the Environmental Crime Directive, alongside with other matters pertaining to the impact of criminality on the protection of the environment. The EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking aligns closely with many of our findings and priorities, including: - inviting Member States to recognise and treat wildlife trafficking as a serious crime (including promoting the adoption of an additional protocol under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), in line with the mandate of the ongoing UNTOC Open-Ended Intergovernmental Expert Group on Crimes that Affect the Environment (IEG CAE) process) - ensuring EU and national policies include proportionate, effective and dissuasive sanctions for wildlife trafficking - preventing and countering corruption associated with wildlife trafficking in line with the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) (particularly in line with the recently adopted UNCAC Resolution 11/9 on Preventing and Combating Corruption as it relates to Crimes that Affect the Environment) - strengthening action to target illicit financial flows related to wildlife trafficking (including financial investigations, asset recovery, anti-money laundering measures) - encouraging international and multistakeholder collaboration (including stronger partnerships between the EU and NGOs) - focusing on capacity-building along the entire enforcement chain, training, and specialised bodies

Communication Activities

WJC keeps itself informed about relevant EU policy implementation, public relations and communication activities by the EU that are related to wildlife crime and related matters (such as biodiversity, nature conservation and ecosystems, the trafficking of vulnerable marine species). In particular, WJC pays attention to the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking and activities related to this Action Plan (see above answer for more details on our relevant priorities in regard to this Action Plan).

Interests Represented

Does not represent commercial interests

Member Of

WJC plays an active role in various alliances to facilitate strategic coordination among governments, civil society organisations, and the private sector in targeting key stakeholders to influence policy and build political will: - WJC advocates for solutions to address corruption, a key enabler of environmental crimes, including wildlife trafficking. In pursuit of this objective, we have co-founded and are Chair of the UN Convention against Corruption Coalition’ Working Group on Environmental Crime and Corruption since its creation in 2019. The working group, comprises of over 230 civil society organisations from across the globe, seeks to facilitate discussions, the exchange of information and joint advocacy among civil society experts working on these issues. In particular, following the adoption of UNCAC Resolution 11/9 on Preventing and Combating Corruption as it relates to Crimes that Affect the Environment (including wildlife trafficking), the working group advocates for States Parties to effectively implement this resolution at the domestic level to ensure effective UNCAC implementation against environmental crime. - The WJC is a Founding Champion of the End Wildlife Crime Initiative, chaired by John E. Scanlon AO, former Secretary General of CITES. The Global Initiative to ‘End Wildlife Crime’ aims to encourage States to fill serious gaps in international law by advocating for and offering technical support to create a new global agreement on wildlife crime. - We are founding members of the Nature Crime Alliance, and our Executive Director Olivia Swaak-Goldman serves as its Advisor. - We are also part of other alliances such as United for Wildlife, the FACT Coalition, the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (we chair its Working Group on Crimes that Affect the Environment), and the Wildlife Trafficking Alliance (WTA). - We are a member of Project Anton, a public-private partnership launched to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, led by Canada’s Scotiabank and supported by United for Wildlife. Other partners include the Canadian financial intelligence unit (FINTRAC), federal governments around the world, banks and civil society. - We are also a member of the Europol Financial Intelligence Public-Private Partnership (EFIPPP), promoting transnational cooperation and information exchange between Europol, financial intelligence units, law enforcement agencies, banks. More particularly, we have been supporting efforts in its new workstream on wildlife trafficking, launched in 2024. - We also work with policy institutes such as the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), international organisations, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), INTERPOL, Europol, associations such as the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP), non-for-profit entities, such as the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), amongst others. - We are proud of our partnerships with the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) and Transparency International with whom we join forces against anti-money laundering and corruption. - We partnered with a number of NGOs on a joint Roadmap to Closing Captive Tiger Facilities of Concern, which lays out a path for phasing out captive tiger facilities of concern by outlining immediate control and management mechanisms; planning for phase out; and solutions for confiscated and transferred tigers. For more details: https://wildlifejustice.org/building-political-will/

Organisation Members

See following links: - https://wildlifejustice.org/partners/ - https://wildlifejustice.org/building-political-will

Additional Information

All information is preliminary until final audit of financial information in May 2026