Brussels SWD(2016) 38 final
Introduction
Wildlife trafficking is not a new phenomenon, but its scale, nature and impact have changed considerably in recent years. Wildlife trafficking today is not only bringing some iconic species to the brink of extinction, but also hindering sustainable economic development. Moreover, it has strong links with transnational organised crime networks and corruption. In some instances, it also threatens national and regional security. Wildlife trafficking directly undermines EU policies to support sustainable development worldwide, particularly as regards protection for global biodiversity and efforts to strengthen good governance. The European Commission has therefore developed an EU Action Plan against wildlife
trafficking to tackle the phenomenon within the EU and strengthen the EU’s role in combating it worldwide.
The Plan has three priorities:
(1) preventing wildlife trafficking and tackling its root causes,
(2) making implementation and enforcement of existing rules and the fight against organised wildlife crime more effective, and
(3) strengthening the global partnership of source, consumer and transit countries against wildlife trafficking. The fight against cross-border crime in an area of justice and fundamental rights and making the EU a stronger global player feature among the current Commission’s ten political
priorities. This document presents data on the scale and nature of wildlife trafficking in the EU and globally, analyses the action taken so far, and explains why further measures are needed at EU and international level. It also shows the links with the measures in the proposed EU Action Plan which seek to tackle the challenges described here…
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016SC0038&from=EN
