3048/2023/WEB 'Financial investigations in wildlife and timber trafficking'

Wildlife and timber trafficking often encompasses serious transnational crimes and generates significant illicit proceeds. Despite the seriousness of this criminal activity, related financial investigations and asset recovery approaches remain largely under-utilised, with investigations and prosecutions still relying primarily on charges for poaching or trafficking.

On the occasion of the publication of the Wildlife Money Trails report by TRAFFIC and WWF, this webinar aims to provide guidance to law enforcers and prosecutors on conducting financial investigations in wildlife and timber trafficking cases in the European Union. It will provide an overview of the financial investigation strategy to identify money laundering offences and illicit proceeds linked to wildlife and timber trafficking. It will highlight specificities of the financial crime linked to wildlife and timber trafficking, building on the analyses of 16 EU case studies. Finally, the webinar will dive into one successful case study example related to Myanmar Teak trafficking into the EU.

This webinar is organised by TRAFFIC and WWF in the context of the EMPACT Operational Action 4.1 (2022) and the UNITE project, an EU-funded initiative aiming to disrupt criminals and organised crime networks trafficking in wildlife, timber, and waste in and via the EU, and to recover the assets generated from these illegal activities. The UNITE project is implemented by the French Gendarmerie (OCLAESP), the Spanish Guardia Civil, the Italian Carabinieri, the Slovakian and Hungarian Police, WWF and IFAW, with in-kind support from TRAFFIC. The Wildlife Money Trails report aims to encourage law enforcement authorities to apply “follow the money” principles in their wildlife trafficking investigations. In this way, law enforcers are more likely to uncover serious, repeated, or transnational organised crimes. The report will be shared with the audience prior to the webinar.