May 2025 — At a time when biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and climate instability are accelerating, international recognition of environmental crime as a serious global threat is gaining momentum. At the 34th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), held in Vienna from 19 to 23 May 2025, policymakers and experts continued to highlight the links between environmental crime, organized crime, and its harmful impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity, and communities.
As the United Nations’ main body on crime and justice, the CCPCJ offers a key platform to advance the global fight against wildlife and other crimes affecting the environment. The CCPCJ plays a central role in advancing the UN Conventions against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and Corruption (UNCAC) – both essential tools for tackling organized crime and corruption, major drivers of wildlife crime.
This session is especially significant, as it is the last prior to the 15th UN Crime Congress taking place in Abu Dhabi next year. Held every five years, the Congress guides international crime prevention efforts and high-level commitments are adopted to shape the future of global crime prevention efforts, including environmental crime.
IUCN members and partners – including the International Council of Environmental Law (ICEL), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), International Wildlife Trust (IWT),Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and others – contributed actively to the dialogue, alongside States and other civil society organizations. IUCN members shared technical expertise, data, and lessons learned from field operations and legal reform efforts. During the session, States were encouraged to strengthen collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders – including environmental organizations, whistleblowers, and advocacy groups – who play a vital role in combating environmental crime. These partners can support crime prevention by monitoring illegal activities, reporting violations, and advocating for policy reforms.
A growing consensus: Environmental crime is organized crime
A central theme across more than a dozen side events was the growing understanding that crimes such as wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, illicit mining, and waste trafficking are not isolated environmental issues – they are increasingly orchestrated by transnational criminal networks. These activities are driven by profit and enabled by corruption, weak enforcement, and legal loopholes.
Throughout the week, experts emphasized the importance of applying tools provided by the international legal framework, in particular the UNTOC and UNCAC, to these cases. Calls were made, in particular during an event hosted by the WJC on Harnessing the Power of UNTOC Against Crimes that Affect the Environment: Lessons Learned in Disrupting Pangolin and Ivory Trafficking Networks, for leveraging tools and techniques available under the UNTOC framework to effectively dismantle transnational criminal networks. This includes combining intelligence-led investigations, special investigative techniques (such as controlled deliveries, undercover operations, and surveillance), financial investigations, anti-corruption measures, international cooperation, cross-sectoral partnerships, and technical assistance. At this event, the WJC presented findings from its new report analysing pangolin scale and ivory trafficking trends, providing concrete illustrations of how sustained, collaborative efforts, and the use of tools provided under the UNTOC framework have led to the dismantling of major trafficking networks and significant declines in trafficking flows over the past decade.
Addressing legal gaps: Non-CITES listed species
Among the key topics addressed at two side events organised by IUCN members, one organised by WCS and supported by IFAW, and another by ICEL and supported by WJC, was the urgent need to close legal loopholes that allow the trafficking of species not listed under CITES. With only 0.4% of the world’s species covered by CITES, many remain unlisted and vulnerable to exploitation. This creates a loophole where wildlife illegally sourced in violation of national laws can still be traded internationally, as these species are not subject to CITES controls. Traffickers exploit this disconnect to launder illegally obtained wildlife through legal markets. IUCN Members called for clear, enforceable, and practical legislation to enable effective action by law enforcement agencies. To this end, WCS launched a drafting guide to support national legislators in developing clear and effective legal frameworks to prevent the import and sale of wildlife and wildlife products sourced in contravention of the law of their country of origin.
Looking ahead
On the final day of the CCPCJ, Member States adopted by acclamation a resolution on Tackling illicit trafficking in wild fauna and flora, including timber and timber products, the illegal mining of and illicit trafficking in minerals and precious metals, the illicit trafficking in waste and other crimes that affect the environment. Sponsored by Brazil and co-sponsored by seven other States, the resolution will now be transmitted to the Economic and Social Council for adoption by the UN General Assembly. The resolution welcomed the establishment, in accordance with the UNTOC Conference of the Parties resolution 12/4, of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group on crimes that affect the environment, which will meet for the first time at the end of June 2025.
This moment presents a crucial opportunity to close existing legal and operational gaps and scale up our efforts to combat environmental crime before entire species and ecosystems are wiped out. The link between biodiversity loss and criminal activity is clear. The forthcoming expert group meeting, the UNCAC Conference of the States Parties, and the Crime Congress offer important opportunities to push for more ambitious commitments to protect our biodiversity. For IUCN and its members, this is a critical space for engagement – bridging science, policy, and practice to ensure that nature is protected through law, and that environmental crime is treated with the urgency it demands.
