Enhancing Environmental security by preventing environmental crime: WCO prepares customs officers for their new role: Green Customs

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Faridabad, India 31 May 2009.
Customs officers representing 14 countries from the Asia-Pacific
region came together to better equip themselves to fight against
environmental crime at the first training workshop of its kind.

The workshop which was held at the training facility of India’s
National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics (NACEN) in
Faridabad, enjoyed the cooperation of the WCO, NACEN, and partner
organizations of the Green Customs Initiative, with funding support
from Japan Customs. Customs and environmental experts from a number
of international organisations and partner countries completed the
line-up.

Environmental crime, perceived by some as a low priority when compared
with the smuggling of drugs or weapons, or in the context of today’s
financial crisis, is a growing and increasingly lucrative business.

“Environmental crime can have grave health, environmental and
financial consequences and as such deserves serious attention. Such
illegal activities are carried out by national and international crime
syndicates worldwide and can earn an estimated US$ 20-30 billion
annually” said Rajendra Shende head of UNEP’s OzonAction Programme
which hosts the Green Customs Initiative Secretariat.

It is recognised that customs officers are in the front line of a
countries defence against transboundary illegal trade and therefore
need the knowledge, capacity and tools to enable them to best fulfil
their important role as protectors of the environment.

“The WCO recognises the importance of the role of customs authorities
around the world in tackling environmental offences and has therefore
assigned a high priority to these issues, with 2009 being a year in
which environment is a priority” said Mr Mikuriya, Secretary General
of the WCO Secretariat, “Our increased commitment is demonstrated
through activities such as this training workshop organized by the
WCO under the banner of the Green Customs Initiative, the first of
its kind, as well as a number of other initiatives and tools, such as
joint operations and communication tools designed to assist our
colleagues around the world”

The Green Customs Initiative provides coordinated and cost-effective
delivery of training and awareness raising of customs officers and
enforcement personnel that is delivered through an umbrella
partnership involving multiple organisations with diverse mandates.
At this workshop, which was entitled Environment boarder protection,
the Government of India launched two major initiatives demonstrating
the country’s commitment to combating environmental crime. India is
the first county in the world to officially incorporate the Green
Customs Initiative into the National Customs Training curricula,
thereby building the capacity of customs officers to detect and
prevent illegal trade in environmentally sensitive items such as toxic
and ozone depleting chemicals, endangered species and living modified
organisms, as well as facilitating the legal trade in these items. It
was also announced that an e-learning tool, developed in cooperation
with the United Nations Environment Programme and NACEN to train
customs officers in the monitoring and controlling the trade in ozone
depleting substances was released today. The WCO welcomes these
efforts to regionalize and nationalize Customs training curricular.

The Green Customs Initiative
The Green Customs Initiative is an unprecedented partnership of
international organisations cooperating to enhance the capacity of
customs and other relevant enforcement personnel to monitor and
facilitate the legal trade and to detect and prevent illegal trade in
environmentally-sensitive commodities covered by the relevant
conventions and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). These
include ozone depleting substances (ODS), toxic chemical products,
hazardous wastes, endangered species and living-modified organisms.

The Green Customs Initiative achieves its aims through awareness-
raising on all the relevant international agreements as well as
provision of assistance and tools to the enforcement community. Green
Customs is designed to complement and enhance existing customs
training efforts under the respective agreements.

The partners of the Green Customs Initiative comprise the secretariats
of the relevant multilateral environmental agreements (Basel,
Cartagena, CITES, Montreal, Rotterdam Stockholm), Interpol, the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, UNEP, the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Customs
Organization. The Green Customs Initiative also works closely with a
number of other regional and international organisations.