Groundbreaking international treaty to protect wildlife from criminals

A cheetah rescued by Born Free from the illegal wildlife trade

From pangolins killed for scales, to wild-caught cheetah cubs traded as pets, and unlawful harvesting of timber, wildlife crime is a major threat to wild animals and places. 

Elodie Cantaloube

A new Council of Europe Convention marks a major step forward in combating this crime. This is the first international legally binding instrument to address the most important environmental crimes – including chemical or water pollution, as well as wildlife crime. The Convention is now open for signature by Council member states and others, and will enter into force once it reaches ten ‘ratifications’ (formal consents). 

Having been heavily involved in the process, working alongside our colleagues at End Wildlife Crime, Born Free is delighted by the news.  

The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, was adopted on 14th May and recognises a broad range of environmentally harmful behaviours as criminal offences. It also establishes a framework for international cooperation to enable these crimes to be tackled more effectively. 

Environmental crimes, and in particular wildlife trafficking, have escalated markedly in recent years, and are currently the fourth most valuable type of criminal activity worldwide. Typically considered low risk and high gain by criminals, these crimes pose a serious threat to biodiversity, animal welfare, public health, and global security.  

Often carried out by international criminal networks and spanning international borders, these offences call for a coordinated global response. This requires cooperation between enforcement authorities and the harmonisation of national legislation to prevent criminals from exploiting weaker laws in certain countries. The new Convention provides a vital tool to help achieve this. 

The Convention sets out a clear list of offences that all signatory states will be required to recognise, prosecute and penalise accordingly — thus making such activities less attractive to criminals. It also introduces a framework of measures to facilitate cooperation among relevant national, regional, and intergovernmental bodies, essential to combat these criminal activities, given their cross-border nature.   

The Convention also includes a dedicated chapter on prevention, underlining the need to prioritise preventive measures as an essential part of the overall strategy to address environmental crime. It also contains provisions on the protection and rights of victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers, acknowledging their crucial role — as well as that of civil society and other stakeholders — in ensuring effective enforcement and justice. 

A noteworthy addition is the inclusion of a provision for ‘particularly serious offences’. This stipulates that intentional acts likely to cause severe damage to the environment, such as widespread pollution, major industrial disasters, or large-scale forest fires, must be punished particularly severely. Such acts may constitute ‘ecocide’, a concept already recognised in some national legal systems and currently under discussion at international forums. 

Born Free’s Head of Policy Dr Mark Jones commented: “The new Council of Europe’s Convention represents a major step forward in the fight against wildlife and wider environmental crime. It is the first legally binding international instrument to recognise wildlife crime as a serious offence and to require appropriate sanctions against those responsible. 

“The Convention will complement the efforts of the European Union — which adopted similar legislation last year in the form of its Environmental Crime Directive — as well as those of individual Member States with national laws already in place. By harmonising rules at the international level, the Convention will help strengthen cooperation, facilitate enforcement and deter criminals. These actions are critical to tackling offences that do not stop at national borders.” 

Adopted by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on 14 May, the Convention will be open for signature by the end of the year to all Council of Europe countries — including the UK and the 27 EU Member States — as well as any other nations. It will enter into force once ten countries have signed it, and become legally binding on all signatories. 

Born Free, alongside its #EndWildlifeCrime colleagues, has been lobbying hard to ensure the new Convention is robust and effective from the beginning. We will now encourage its ratification and implementation by as many countries as possible. In parallel, we will continue to advocate for the adoption of an international instrument to combat wildlife crime under the United Nations framework, in order to leverage existing UN tools and mechanisms to address the issue even more effectively.