Environmental crime is a serious global threat with wide-reaching implications, not only for biodiversity but also for national and international security, social and economic development, climate change, and global health. Pollution of air, water and land, extinction of wildlife and depletion of natural resources evoke consequences at an unprecedented scale.

To respond effectively to environmental crimes, the international community has concluded several Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) containing international trade-related provisions, such as the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer; the Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants; the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Customs authorities, in line with their enforcement responsibilities, play an essential role in the implementation of these MEAs and the fight against environmental crime through enforcing various legislations which facilitate legal trade and deter illegal trade. To support its Members in carrying out their mandate, the WCO has ensured over time that Customs remains at the forefront of actions taken to tackle environmental crime by providing technical support, tools to enhance data, intelligence, and information sharing among Members, and operational technical support to execute joint multi-agency enforcement Operations.

Since 2001, the WCO has been an active partner in the Green Customs Initiative (GCI), a series of collaborative activities by partner organizations coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which aims to raise Customs officers’ awareness of trade-related MEAs.

Furthermore, in 2008 the WCO Council adopted a Recommendation concerning Actions against Cross-Border Environmental Offences, outlining steps to be taken by Customs administrations to enhance their capabilities in this area.

In November 2010, the WCO and four intergovernmental organizations – the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Bank – entered into a partnership and established the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). This Consortium works with law enforcement officials from across the criminal justice system in countries around the world,  to strengthen these systems and provide authorities with coordinated support globally to combat wildlife and forest crime, through targeted operational support, technical assistance, tools, comprehensive training and capacity development based on needs and priorities identified or requests received. This support includes a diverse range of capacity-building activities which are provided to countries across the world and a portfolio of tools and services. Guided by ICCWC’s Vision 2030, which will be actualized through 4-year strategic action plans, the WCO continues to support its Members through developing e-learning training modules on illegal wildlife trade which are accessible on the CLiKC! Platform, strengthening regional collaboration through the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices (RILOs), capacity-building initiatives, executing global enforcement operations with its Members, and promoting national, regional and international cooperation through its regional and global activities. Operation THUNDER, a flagship global illegal wildlife trade enforcement operation since its inception in 2017, is co-organized annually with INTERPOL and executed by Customs and Police authorities across different countries and regions, in collaboration with Wildlife management authorities. 

In response to its Members’ growing need for support on environmental issues, in 2012 the WCO established its Environment Programme to assist Members in combating environmental crime, in particular the illegal wildlife and timber trade, and the illegal trade in hazardous and other wastes, and ozone-depleting substances (ODSs). Not long after the establishment of the Environment Programme, the WCO began to implement activities under the INAMA Project, with the objective of strengthening operational capacities, improving IWT risk management and case selection, and fostering interagency and international cooperation on IWT of targeted Customs administrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia. Additionally, this Project has contributed to the accreditation of Customs officers as Technical and Operational Advisors (TOA) in the field of IWT, with the aim of establishing a pool of highly competent experts capable of organizing and delivering capacity-building activities to strengthen Members’ CITES enforcement capacities.

Each year, the WCO Illicit Trade Report provides further information on every component of the Environment Programme.

Along with the various tools and instruments offered by the WCO to its Members, the Environment Programme uses the CENcomm Environet platform to interact with Members and Partners. This is a real-time secure communication tool for information exchange among all competent national authorities, international organizations and regional networks, serving to bring together focal points and experts from across the world. Furthermore, the WCO CLiKC! e-learning platform contains courses on MEAs and on Customs measures to tackle environmental crime.

Through its Environment Programme, the WCO constantly works on broadening the scope of partnerships with other organizations fighting environmental crime. Over the years, the WCO has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the CITES Secretariat, the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions Secretariat, UNEP, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, and TRAFFIC.

Having worked for many years to encourage policy makers to turn their attention to environmental crimes, the WCO gained additional momentum in June 2014 when the WCO Council adopted the WCO Declaration on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, demonstrating the global Customs community’s commitment to addressing these crimes in a timely, coherent and coordinated manner.

The WCO also signed the ‘United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce Buckingham Palace Declaration’ in London, United Kingdom, in March 2016. Signatories to the Declaration committed to cracking down on illegal wildlife trafficking. Later that year, the WCO signed the Hanoi Statement on Illegal Wildlife Trade.

From training frontline Customs officers to continuously engaging with high-ranking decision makers, the WCO and its Environment Programme are determined to raise the profile of environmental crime as a crucial issue, and to provide Members with the support they need to fight against it. Through the implementation of various Projects and global enforcement Operations, the Environment Programme provides technical assistance to Customs administrations, facilitates data collection on the trafficking of environmentally sensitive commodities, and supports intergovernmental and inter-agency cooperation.