Supporting governance action to improve the prevention, prosecution and law enforcement of wildLIFE crime

Introduction

Wildlife crime (WLC) has a negative impact on species worldwide and puts the EU’s biodiversity under growing pressure. The project wildLIFEcrime takes up the most acute issues of the revised Environmental Crimes Directive, aims to reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and proposes the establishment and anchoring of long-term solutions in governance institutions with immediate responsibility in the law enforcement chain.

Objectives

WildLIFEcrime tackles all relevant governance actions needed to reduce WLC:

1. Prevention
2. Case-management
3. Prosecution
4. Conviction of WLC

It identifies bottlenecks and shortcomings to improve effectiveness and efficiency in all stages.

Implementation

To secure the availability of skilled staff, capacities, and a reliable cooperative structure between governance institutions, the project is implemented by a strong consortium of governance bodies, research/forensic institutes, and NGOs.

The consortium of WildLIFEcrime includes 13 partners from DE and AT who planned this proposal together. They will achieve the project’s general objective to significantly support the recovery of threatened species by:

• Preventing WLC
• Significantly raising the number of correctly reported WLC cases
• Working towards a swift management of cases
• Ensuring better prosecution and adequate judicial proceedings

Focus Species and Regions

The focus lies on nine species of community interest:

• Bear
• Wolf
• Lynx
• Otter
• Beaver
• White-tailed eagle
• Imperial eagle
• Red kite
• Marsh harrier

These species will be addressed in 6 focus regions in the two countries.

Strengths and Sustainability

The project’s strength lies in anchoring specially designed WLC-specific trainings in already existing, institutionalized platforms, e.g., police academies, forensic institutes, and university education.

The sustainability, uptake, and replication of project results are based on two pillars:

1. Building up and stabilizing the necessary structures in 2 focus countries
2. Using the partners’ strong networks and their ties to governance institutions to push for replication of the approach and policy shaping across Europe.