Urgent action needed to combat environmental crime

(c) M Pitts US Aid Asia

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

It has become one of the fastest growing forms of transnational organised crime, with international bodies estimating its value in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. With your support, Born Free has taken action for years to help protect wildlife and the wider environment from the criminals who want to hunt, kill and sell wild animals.

“Experts warn that illegal wildlife trade, timber trafficking, illegal fishing, illegal waste disposal, and other environmental offences now operate with the same sophistication as narcotics or human trafficking networks and are often operated by the same organised crime groups,” said Born Free’s Head of Policy, Dr Mark Jones. “These crimes damage ecosystems, undermine legitimate rural economies, and fuel corruption and money laundering across borders.

“Yet, the international criminal justice system has failed to give environmental crimes the same degree of attention that other forms of transnational organised crime attract, and there is currently no global agreement on tackling environmental crime. As a result, organised criminal groups have come to regard these lucrative crimes as low-risk, high-return activities.”

Today, on World Environment Day, we say: this has to change.

Born Free is a co-founder and steering group member of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime. Founded in 2020, the Initiative encourages governments to fill the serious gaps in international and national law through the development of a legally binding global agreement on tackling environmental crime.

Our preference is for such an agreement to be housed within the international criminal justice system, specifically through a Protocol under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC).

Six years on, momentum is finally building for the international community to treat these offences with the seriousness they demand. However, our current tools remain inadequate. The UNTOC’s mechanisms to enable cooperation between States in response to transnational crimes can only be triggered when offences meet a four‑year custodial threshold – but in many jurisdictions environmental offences fall below that bar, creating gaps that organised crime networks exploit with impunity.

This is why launching a formal process to negotiate a dedicated Protocol on environmental crime under the UNTOC – with a strong emphasis on wildlife trafficking – is not only timely, it’s critical.

A Protocol would explicitly recognise environmental crimes as falling within the UNTOC’s scope. It would strengthen cross‑border cooperation, enable financial investigations and asset recovery, harmonise legal approaches, and reduce the safe havens that currently allow perpetrators of environmental crimes to operate across international borders.

These are precisely the tools that frontline enforcement bodies say they need, and they align with the ambitions set out in national strategies.

Wildlife trafficking and other environmental crimes are not niche concerns. They are a strategic threat to biodiversity, rural livelihoods, public health, the integrity of global markets, and national security. They fuel corruption, undermine good governance, and accelerate the decline of species already under immense pressure.

The UNTOC Conference of Parties in October this year offers a rare opportunity. By supporting the adoption of a Resolution to develop a global agreement, Member States can send a clear signal that the international community is ready to move from rhetoric to action – to build a coherent, modern, and enforceable framework capable of confronting environmental crime at scale.

Born Free is urging all governments to seize this moment and commit to negotiating a robust agreement that reflects the urgency of the crisis and the expectations of their citizens across the world.