The Federal Environment Ministry of Germany has partnered with INTERPOL and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in a collaborative effort to combat the detrimental effects of environmental crime. Through the German government’s International Climate Initiative (IKI), an investment of €5 million has been allocated to a three-year project aimed at identifying and preventing transnational crimes that impact climate, biodiversity, and the environment.
This project will focus on addressing environmental crime across five key areas: fisheries crime, forestry crime, illegal mining, pollution crime, and wildlife crime. Environmental crime encompasses a wide range of illegal activities that cause harm to ecosystems, animals, plants, and the climate. Heike Vesper, WWF’s chief executive of transformation and policies, emphasized the severity of environmental crime, stating that profiting from the destruction of the environment and biodiversity is not a minor offense, but a serious crime with both local and global repercussions for people and nature.
Vesper highlighted that environmental crime has been significantly underestimated thus far, with illegal deforestation, fishing, and mining being major contributors to global warming and species loss. These activities pose a significant threat to human livelihoods. Internationally, environmental crime ranks as the third most profitable form of criminal activity, following drug trafficking and counterfeit crimes, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in illegal profits annually.
One of the primary objectives of the German-funded project in collaboration with INTERPOL and WWF is to enhance the capacities and transnational cooperation among law enforcement agencies. The goal is to safeguard civil society organizations involved in uncovering and prosecuting environmental crimes. Steffi Lemke, Germany’s federal environment minister, emphasized the exacerbation of the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution by transboundary organized environmental crime.
Lemke noted that criminal organizations are inflicting significant damage on the natural foundations of life. By partnering with INTERPOL and WWF, Germany aims to combine efforts and make a valuable contribution to combat transboundary environmental crime. INTERPOL, an inter-governmental organization working with 196 countries, highlighted the destructive and far-reaching consequences of environmental crimes. Valdecy Urquiza, INTERPOL’s secretary general, underscored the borderless nature of environmental crimes and their long-term impacts that extend beyond immediate damage.
Urquiza expressed that the joint project with Germany and WWF will provide essential support in developing capabilities, intelligence, and operational outcomes to tackle environmental crimes effectively.
