Insufficient data, weak cooperation, excluded communities and corruption hamper an effective response to environmental crime.
Insufficient data, weak cooperation, excluded communities and corruption hamper an effective response to environmental crime.
The EU-funded ECO-SOLVE project brings new approaches to the response to global environmental crime. This is out of recognition that environmental crime is a major contributor to the growth in serious criminal activity and is associated with threats to peace and security. It is enabled by corruption, accompanied by violence and drives environmental damage while eroding the resilience of communities that depend on natural resources. Laws, policies and enforcement priorities still fall short of the mark in responding to environmental crime.
The project monitors the online trade in illegal wildlife, extracting data to inform enforcement and regulation, while driving greater cooperation in the response through the uptake of DNA, stable isotopes and AI technology. It investigates and exposes the corrupt actors who facilitate illicit timber flows. And it includes community perspectives in local policing strategies to ensure the voices of communities – potential agents of change – are heard in multilateral forums.
In 2021, expert analysis highlighted key gaps in our global fight against environmental crime, and concluded that while criminals adapted quickly to new opportunities, the people trying to stop them did not. ECO-SOLVE’s response is to support innovation and adaptiveness in the response to environmental crime, in the hope of giving those who protect our planet the upper hand.
Activity 01
Data for disruption
The Global Monitoring System links AI-enabled ‘data hubs’ in key countries, which monitor online illicit wildlife markets. They will promote local intervention in wildlife trafficking, support capacity building in law enforcement, and generate data to shape global policymaking.
Activity 02
Elite protection exposure
Through public exposure-oriented research, we aim to uncover evidence of elite-level corruption behind the illegal timber industry, and identify gaps in enforcement and legislation.
Activity 03
Community engagement
Empowering local communities by incorporating their insights into counter-crime strategies, providing a platform for connecting them to global stages and supporting community resilience.
Activity 04
A strategic grant facility
A grant facility heightens the impact of the other actions, by enabling partnerships, empowering communities and funding projects linked to improving the use of AI image recognition and DNA sourcing technology.
Latin America
The GMS operates in Brazil and Colombia, and the project’s corruption and community work focuses on the Amazon Basin, which is a nexus for gold, mercury and timber trafficking.
Asia
The GMS has hubs in Thailand, Indonesia and partners coming on board from East Asia to the Middle East. Corruption and communities work looks to stem the illegal flow of timber, wildlife and minerals from the Mekong region.
Africa
The GMS has hubs in Nigeria and South Africa, with corruption work focused on the Congo Basin and its flows of timber, minerals and wildlife. Communities work will unfold in DRC and Madagascar.
A closer look
An integral part of the EU Global Illicit Flows Programme (the GIFP)
As a key component of the GIFP, ECO-SOLVE is designed to bring innovative strategies to disrupt illicit environmental commodity flows to the programme, to foster global and regional collaborations, and to strengthen law enforcement capacities on environmental crime across critical regions. It contributes to the comprehensive objectives of GIFP to support the EU response to trafficking in human beings, wildlife or minerals, and strengthens its response to illicit multi-commodity flows led by criminal organizations.
Do you have data you’d like to add to our online wildlife trafficking database? Would you like to disseminate our stories of green corruption? Or replicate our community engagement dialogues? Get in touch to connect.
ECO-SOLVE leads the charge against environmental crime with its global, collaborative, data-driven approach. Our mission: transform data insights into impactful action; support law enforcement to disrupt illicit flows; empower communities; shape effective global policies. ECO-SOLVE is an EU-funded project within the Global Illicit Flows Programme.
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