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with a USD 4,000 fine. The suspect was acquitted of money
laundering, despite evidence showing USS 127 million had
passed through his accounts. An appeal filed by the Prosecu-
tors trying the case resulted in a conviction of money laun-
dering. The High Court of Jayapura, Papua, sentenced the
suspect to eight years imprisonment on 2 May 2014, revealing
the scale of illegal logging and smuggling.
Resolutions have also been adopted by the UN governing
bodies. These include ECOSOC Resolution 2013/40 on crime
prevention and criminal justice responses to illicit trafficking
in protected species of wild fauna and flora, the 2014 Commis-
sion on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice resolution
on strengthening a targeted crime prevention and criminal
justice response to combat illicit trafficking in forest products,
including timber as well as the General Assembly Resolution
68/193 emphasizing that “coordinated action is critical to
eliminate corruption and disrupt the illicit networks that drive
and enable trafficking in wildlife, timber and timber products,
harvested in contravention of national laws. The INTERPOL
General Assembly adopted a Resolution in November 2010
(AG-2010-RES-03) recognising that INTERPOL plays a
leading role in supporting international law enforcement
efforts to tackle environmental crime, which is transnational,
involving organised crime, who engage in other crime types
including murder, corruption, fraud and theft.
Recently, UNODC have developed the Global Programme for
Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime to strengthen the crime
prevention and criminal justice response, and are providing
support to a wide range of countries.
163
At INTERPOL, the Environmental Crime Unit
164
has an estab-
lished record of training law enforcement and conducting
successful operations across a number of countries to combat
environmental crime from wildlife crime to illegal logging.
Established in 2009, the unit became an official Sub-Directo-
rate of INTERPOL in 2013.”
A number of initiatives involving direct collaboration between
UNODC, WCO, CITES, INTERPOL, UNEP and other UN
agencies provide a new approach to share and exchange
vital information, support and training to countries under
particularly high pressure from environmental crime. These
initiatives have revealed important lessons and yielded signif-
icant early results. However, the scale and coordination of the
efforts must be substantially increased and a widened effort
implemented. They must be combined with efforts on good
governance, management and consumer awareness to ensure
a long-term demand reduction. It is particularly crucial to
support the countries directly, as financial resources need to
be directed towards efforts with effect on the ground, whether
in enforcement, governance or consumer awareness.
