Environmental crime constitutes a major element of the growth in serious criminal activity and is bound up with threats to global peace and security, while also providing a soft entry point into global illicit flows for traffickers. The trade is often highly organized and accompanied by state-led corruption, violence and widespread human rights abuses. All the available evidence points to a burgeoning problem, driving biodiversity loss and environmental damage, which in turn decreases the planet’s resilience to climate change. As awareness of this problem has grown, laws, policies and enforcement priorities have developed, but the continued growth and impacts of environmental crime suggests that responses still fall short.
ECO-SOLVE has been specifically designed to address these issues. It will effectively monitor the online trade, extract useful and digestible data that can inform law enforcement and private sector action, while driving greater transparency and accountability in trickling illicit online markets. It will also target the most harmful actors who, though corrupt activities, readily facilitate and operate global illicit markets, such as illegal logging, which perpetuate the global biodiversity crisis. Finally, it while also including local and Indigenous communities in regional and multilateral forums to drive productive, trusted and confident conversations between community members, enforcement officers and policy makers.
