 We have an urgency to address activities that are a serious threat to integrity of our air, water, and soil. For example, pollution crime, deliberate oil discharging, illegal transport and disposal of waste, e-waste, dangerous substances. The other theme is natural resources. We have an urgency to protect natural resources such as fish and timber, which are subject of exploitation due to the economic value and inadequate environment legislation. The third theme is biodiversity. We have an urgency to protect endangered species from počing and illegal trade in animal parts. Many species such as rhinos and tigers are highly valued for day-by-products such as ivory, horn, skins, and other parts. Many of you have already visited and many of you will visit the gorillas. By yourself you will see how worthy the fight is against environmental crime. Criminals stand to gain high profits at a low risk from these types of crimes. Let's watch together an interval video, which says much more than my words. Please go with the video. We have with us the Honorable Patricia Madrigal Cordero, who is the Republic of Costa Rica's Vice Minister of Environment. She is a lawyer with a specialization in international law. The Vice Minister has a wealth of experience in multidisciplinary and inter-institutional activities related to the definition of environmental policies, mainly on biodiversity, wildlife, and more recently on marine conservation issues. Madame Patricia Madrigal Cordero, could you give us your quote? We want to start this. I'm going to speak in Spanish, which is my mother language. Thank you very much for the invitation and I would like to share some reflections on the topic. But the most important thing is that security is not only about the absence of violence against people and goods. Security implies the conservation of the environment, which is what allows life and development in our countries. Gracias, señora Cordero, ministra. I'm introducing now Director Anil Kumar Singh Ha, Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation in India since December 2014. He has been a police officer since 1979 and has held a number of key positions during his service. The director possesses a postgraduate degree in psychology and has attended the prestigious Kennedy School of Government Harvard University. Mr. Siham, what you can tell us? Thank you, Mrs. Zandani. Thank you. Excellences, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. In India we have believed for centuries until now also. And the time has come for us in India to reaffirm our faith in what we believed. That is the peaceful coexistence of mankind and not of mankind alone, but also of mankind with nature. Be it in terms of the exploitation of the natural resources or be it the protection and conservation of our wildlife. India ranks among ten top species rich countries. And many of those species are endangered ones, some critically and some not so critically. So we have an ambitious program and up till now that ambitious program is receiving a lot of success in the conservation and protection of our wildlife. And also in ensuring that the environment is protected in a manner that it is held in trust for the future generations to survive on and to enjoy the fruits of. Thank you. Thank you. I'm introducing Mr. Dihama Sulemanali, who was appointed as general prosecutor of the Republic of Djibouti in 2006 and before he was appointed as prosecutor of Djibouti in 1997. In 1999 Mr. Dihama Sulemanali was privileged to be appointed as judge at the Djibouti cart of the first instance. Mr. Sulemanali. Thank you Mrs. Mandriani. Mr. Dihama Sulemanali, I'm going to speak in French. I'm the originator of Djibouti, so I'm general prosecutor of Djibouti. I'm going to talk about the protection of the sea and the problem of marine pollution. Why? Because Djibouti is a small country in the Gulf of Athens, at the entrance of the island of Babel-Mandeb. And in Djibouti, life is not possible without the sea. What makes Djibouti alive is the sea. So for this reason, protecting the sea and the maritime coast for Djibouti is a matter of life or death. Thank you very much. I'm introducing Mr. Emmanuel Gasana, has been inspector general of Rwanda National Police since 2009. Before being appointed inspector general of Rwanda National Police, he held very positions and appointments in the defense force. Mr. Emmanuel Gasana has been the chairperson of the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Corporation and Interpol Executive Committee member as a delegate for Africa. He is also vice president for the Global International Association of Chiefs of Police in charge of Africa. I think until this week or next week. Mr. Gasana. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me this moment to also talk about environmental crimes that are very closely linked to human security and call to the attention of the police on the policing agenda. Members here you are aware about, excuse me, about effects of environmental crimes on our daily life. Effects on the floor and the fauna to ecosystems. Effects of conflict and wars in Africa and beyond. The consequences of that on environment. You are aware about the wildlife protection and its impact on our daily life. Tourism, everything. In the case of Rwanda, we... Mr. Gasana, it's just a short statement then I will ask you some more questions. Rwanda, we count so much on tourism at the end of Rwanda and therefore we are good to discuss this topic. Thank you. So in this panel that we wanted to have in an informal way to feel more relaxed and to have a discussion more in a sort of talkative way. We are going to describe the different forms of environmental crime and respond to a number of major questions. I'm starting with the minister Madrigal Cordero. And with her we will speak about forest crime and I'm going to ask my question in Spanish. I have two questions for you. Madame Cordero will ask one per time. The 26% of the total surface of the forests in Costa Rica has some categories of protected wild areas. In this context, how have environmental crimes evolved in your country? Okay, I go with second one as well. What are the strategies adopted by the government to prevent them, including international cooperation? Thank you. I think that the first thing to admit is that traditionally environmental crimes have been considered of little importance. Not only by the police authorities, but by judicial systems. And it is clear that in the face of the crimes against life or the heritage, the conservation of natural heritage has not been a priority. Sin embargo, la conservación de la biodiversidad y el patrimonio natural es la base para el desarrollo de nuestros países. La cacería, la tal ilegal, la contaminación, la pesquilegal han dejado de ser realizados por personas individuales para convertirse en delitos perpetrados por bandas organizadas que tienen acceso a un mayor nivel de organización, capital y tecnología. Para compartir con ustedes un ejemplo en nuestro país la explotación de una madera preciosa propia del bosque seco, que le llamamos Cocobolo, su nombre científico es Valberia Retusa, se comenzó a identificar como un problema que requería atención desde el 2010. Los altos prezios internacionales que tiene la compra de esta madera han llevado una explotación intensiva. Es una madera dura en donde lo que interesa es la parte interna y por eso su aprovechamiento implica un grande desperdicio de este recurso con lo cual hay que buscar más ejemplares de esta especie. A este año se inizu entrado conjunto entre la Fiscalía Ambiental, la Oficina Interpol, las oficinas de inteligencia policial y delitos varios y el Ministerio de Ambiente de Energía para atender la problemática considerándolo un caso de crimen organizado. Existen indicios que involucran a los países donde esta especie tiene su rango de distribución que va desde México hasta Panamá. Los principales compradores de esta madera se encuentran en otros continentes. Se exportan forma de rodillos que luego se convierten en producto de gran valor como lapiceros, kulata de armas de fuego o instrumentos musicales. Esta especie, a pesar de que están a la pendice dos desites, el convenio de comercio internacional para la protección de las especies amenazadas de fauniflora silvestre desde 2013, alugado adir todos los controles. Se aprovecha tanto en terrenes privados como en áreas silvestres protegidas y se almacena hasta tener la cantidad suficiente que amerite una exportación. Se transporta adulterando la guía de transporte y se mezcla con productos de procedencia legal para superar los controles de aduanas. Los delitos ambientales normalmente están relacionados con otros delitos como en narcotráfico. Así se han identificado como forma introducir cocaína en exportaciones de tiburón o en la madera. E inkluja otra serie delitos como la usurpación de áreas protegidas, el transporte ilegal, la información fraudulenta solo por mencionar a algunos. La sofisticación en la delincuencia organizada que hay inklujo, los recursos naturales y las áreas protegidas en sus esquemas criminales plantea un enorme reto para la protección y el control. Tradicionalmente, la protección de las áreas silvestres protegidas ha estado mano de guarda parques. Sin embargo, estos funcionarios a quienes se le debe de reconocer su valor y su compromiso no han sido compensados como autoridad de policía para enfrentar este tipo delincuencia y me cuentan con los recursos financieros y tecnológicos necesarios. Por poner un ejemplo, en el mes de marzo un operativo de tres días para decomisar un cargamento de cocobolo por el transporte y la vigilancia se calculo más o menos en seis mil dólares. El atco tráfico ha encontrado en las áreas silvestres protegidas en zona para su depósito temporal. In su presencia implica un peligro para los guarda parques, para el turismo, implica cacería y tala i legal, extracción de minerales. Por eso Costa Rica ha decidido establecer en breve un nest, un grupo de trabajo especializado en seguridad ambiental, el National Environmental Security Service Force para coordinar las diferentes policías, el poder judicial y ejecutivo en este tema. El objetivo es utilizar los recursos humanos y financieros existentes con mayor eficiencia, con mayor coordinación institucional haciendo una mejor recopilación, análisis, sistematización y divulgación de la información y un mayor trabajo multidisciplinario. Muchas gracias. Mrs. Cordera has highlighted some points that, for example, the importance of law enforcement working together with specialized units environmental crime. He has already mentioned a sort of convergence crime, environmental crime linked to other forms of crimes such as drug trafficking and also she has mentioned the need to approach this kind of crime in a way which is multidisciplinary. And I know that Costa Rica has adopted a concept that has been developed by our environmental security unit, which is the concept NEST, National Environmental Task Force, which has the goal of putting together all components of law enforcement of specialized agencies in order to have a strategy for approaching this problem, which is multidisciplinary. Multidisciplinary to face a problem which is convergence, converging many crimes and also crimes perpetrated by what we call today polysindicate. I'm moving to Mr. Sinha. We touch with you to major area, the biodiversity and environment quality. With 70% of the world tiger population in India, with locative market of tiger bones, skins and other products, protecting tigers and Asian big cat must be an incredible challenge. Could you tell us which are the major challenges in your career that you have faced in investigating environmental crime? Well, thank you very much once again Mr. Sinha. Let me tell you, I couldn't agree more with Excellency from Costa Rica when she said that the intensity and the seriousness of the crime is not really very well understood. And I can tell you that the biggest challenge that one must understand is that how to deal with the greed, the unbridled greed of people who are into these crimes. These criminals are not individual criminals. They are very well interconnected. And their connections are such that they take and assume transnational character. I can very briefly touch upon that not too distant past in the history, we had a brigand who was poaching tigers for the ivory. At the same time he was smuggling sandalwood. And he had created such a reign of terror in the forested areas down south in India that a coordinated effort was made to nab him. He was elusive and after a very long struggle we got him. And well, she had for himself created some kind of an image of Robin Hood, which he was not. So for the people to understand that the crime against the environment and the crime against wildlife is far more serious than they can think of as one of the biggest challenges. And in recent times our government in partnership with many other private and public sector enterprises launched a very ambitious program of educating people towards conservation and protection of the tigers. I'm very happy to tell you, the strangest ladies and gentlemen, that from 1400, now the population of tigers in India has gone up to, if I remember correctly, 2225. Same with the elephants. From 22,000 it has gone up to 28,000. And the rhinos also, they are around 2250. There has been some kind of concerted effort. I could rattle off all the measures that have been taken by the government of India Rights on the Wildlife Protection Act to empowering various bodies, to employing tools of forensic analysis, to many issues concerning the scientific methods that can be employed for the preservation, conservation and investigation. Of the crimes, preservation and conservation of the species that are endangered, including the tigers, and for the investigation of the cases relating them. We in the central bit of investigation, which I am heading, we have through a series of our endeavors taken up majors where we have built up our capacity and we have been investigating cases. And I am very happy to tell you that the cases that we have investigated, they have all ended up in conviction. In fact, there is not one case that has ended up in conviction. There are some very ambitious programs, again, that have been launched, like conservation of the tigers. We are trying to identify each tiger. And there is something called extract and stripes. The tigers have distinct stripe patterns, and we are trying to focus on that also. We are trying to work out our scientists, our experts, our police officers who are into investigation of these cases. They are moving combined. They are working in a concerted and a very coordinated manner, and they are doing pretty well. I would like to ask to try to understand more this because it's something that I couldn't understand by myself while reading some of the preparatory material was reading to prepare this panel. So you have this database of pictures that are taken for each tiger. So first of all, we have to identify that this is a very innovative technology to investigate. But for me, I need to understand two things. How you can distinguish one tiger from another and put them in a database. And why do you do that in term of investigative needs and tools? Well, that's very interesting. I must tell you on that, although I wouldn't bore you out of the fag end of the day with all the details that I'll leave for bilateral, I can tell you what happens is that when we were investigating the cases, at that point in time, we were investigating it with the help of the carcass that we got, the bones that we would put them through forensic analysis. Around that time, when we were trying to identify and we were trying to conserve and protect the tigers, we started photographing them. So when the photograph is started, then it became very difficult to distinguish them. So with the help of the camera traps that we kind of take the pictures, but with the help of the stripes, the method that I said that extract and stripes, we try to distinguish them. And that is important because we want to know that the numbers that we are talking about concerning their population is correct. It shouldn't be that we are identifying the same tiger over and over again. So this is one method of distinction. And I'm also happy to tell you that our scientists, our researchers are working on working out a method of establishing DNA with the help of the stripes of the tigers. So that is something which is there. Having said that, let me also tell you that we understand that now we stand at the coast of the things. We have to move very fast and we have to move in a manner that we don't upset the ecological balance, the limited exploitation or rather the controlled exploitation of the natural resources at the same time maintaining the ecological balance is very important for the survival of the mankind. The thing that I began with. And another thing that I'd like to tell you in the light of then, in India, when a police officer does a good job, he's called a tiger. And to me, all of you, my friends, my colleagues, distinguished people, you're all tigers. And like the police officers, if the tigers are to be protected, so the police officers, and we have fraternal feelings with the tigers, so we need to protect them and we want to protect them. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Dihama Sulemaina Lee, let's approach environmental quality and in particular oil and water, pollution crime and pollution from ships. What is it about, first of all, and which are the major gaps that you have identified in prosecuting, deliberate all discharging and negligent spills? Merci encore. Alors je, de par mon expérience, je koni de kategoride de pollution marine, notamment de pollution par hydrocarbure, donc par produits pétroli. Il y a d'abord e in affaire qui a duré longtemps, enfin, in histoire qui a duré longtemps, ce qu' il faut savoir, ce l'or ce je je djezé tout à l'heure que la mer était séonciel à Dubouti, c'est que Dubouti est un pays désertique, Harry, les activités portuaires, donc le commerce de différents ports, contribui à pratiquement plus de 90 % de l'économie djubousienne, donc ce les activités portuaires et la mer qui fait vivre la République de Dubouti. La mer est également essentielle pour Dubouti, parce que contenu de c'est un climat très chaud, très Harry, donc il est difficile de faire de l'élevage, donc c'est également la mer qui fait nourrir la population, donc il faut le protéger à ces titres-là. Il y a une pollution par hydrocarbure qui a été commise par des compagnies pétrolières et pas des moines, puisqu il s'agit des totales, mobile oil et de shell, puisque ce compagnie, pendant très longtemps, après la seconde guerre mondiale, avait des dépots pétrolières à l'intérieur du port de Dubouti et donc il y avait des pipelines souterrain qui acheminait les produits pétrolières depuis les quets, depuis les bateaux jusqu à l'heure des pots. Et comme Dubouti est très chaud, mais il y a en plus un taux des salinités très élevés, la mer rouge et la mer la plus salé, il y a y de fluide hydrocarbure pendant des décennies. Et puis y avait des rejet massif hydrocarbure, notamment pendant l'été, la saison très chaud, des fluide hydrocarbure et donc des rejet massif hydrocarbure en mer, ce qui avait pour conséquence d'empêcher la baignade, et puis surtout de bloquer l'activité de pêche. Pendant très longtemps on se demandait Dubouti, ne tom pas à pays pétroliers, d'o v vene ses fluide, on se rendit compte et le qu'est-ce été depuis le terminaux pétroliers de ses compagnie pétrolières. Alors ce que c'était très difficile pour Dubouti de faire face à des compagnies de ses taille pour un petit pays pauvre, donc il a fallu faire, dans un premier temps faire appel au système des nations unis, pour analyser, pour avoir les experts ki il fallait pour démontrer le lien des causalitons entre le rejet massif hydrocarbure, donc les cuv, les dépô et les pêblanes sous-térins des sociétés pétrolières. Suite à ça il a fallu donc faire un processus judiciaire qui a duré pendant 14 ans. C'était une très longue bataille d'expert puisque il a été difficile pour ses sociétés de reconnaître des rejet réguliers d'hydrocarbure en mer. Finalement, en 2014, il y a une décision finale où ses sociétés ont été condamnés à payer des dommagements considérables puisque chac une des justé a été condamnés à peu près à 50 millions d€ puisque le port de Dubouti aujourd'hui, enfin l'ancien port, puisque d'autres ports ont été construits des pays, doit être abandonés, puisque tous les sous-sols portuaires, les anciennes fuites, les anciennes calamisations ont été abandonés, mais le port, les sous-sols des ports se gorge des produits pétroliers, donc de toute façon, à la fina de l'année, il va être abandoné. La deuxième problematie qui s'épose pour Dubouti et le littoral maritime Duboutiens c'est que la mer rouge, depuis les canales de Suez, les deux, trois barbelles mondais et la position stratégique des infrastructures portuaires des Duboutis fait que cette façade maritime est probablement l'une des plus fréquentes au monde, car cet endroit au canal de Suez ou d'etre de barbelles mondais il y a quotidienement plus desants bateaux qui traversent. Dieu merci. Malheureusement, selon du point de vue, quand c'est passe, puisque c'est l'en qu'on est autorité de police chargés de poursuites, puisqu il y a beaucoup de déguévage sauvage sur le côte Duboutienne. Par exemple, au mois de septembre dernier, il y a un bateau Panemaian qui avait dégazé sur des îles qui sont distants à peu près à 7 km du port des Duboutis de façon sauvage et qui avait pris la fuite puisque ils le font ça de façon discrède et grâce aux enquêtes de police et à l'activité de recherche qui a été faite et grâce, surtout et celle-là où je va insister à interpol, on a pu arrêter les capitains et les bateaux et les navires en l'ensemble des mondans d'arrêt contre notamment les capitaines du bateau à Suès, au port de Suès. Je tient remercié également les autorités d'Egypte. Et on n'aurait pas pu le faire sans le travail de la police d'Irussienne et sans la collaboration d'interpol via les systèmes des Bécènes. Donc c'est tellement vital la protection des infractions des portiers du littéral du Bousien. C'est un exemple concret en l'espèce de ce peut être la coopération entre police et la démarche enfin l'intégration d'interpol pour essayer d'arrêter en tout cas d'empêcher de prévenir ces gens d'affraction. Merci so les mains. Je-je-je quelque chose sur vous pas seulement votre bateau mais aussi les choses que vous avez faite et que resorte le temps et votre détermination à combattre cette type de crime. Si vous deviez faire une évaluation on est d'un point gagnant ou perdant dans la bataille on gagne un père dans cette bataille. Mais j'espère qu'on gagne parce que si on gagne pas, c'est la mort. Donc je pense qu'on doit gagner et qu'on peut gagner. I'm moving to Mr. Gazana and let's back to the biodiversity and protection of wildlife. African elephant poaching and illegal ivory trade continues to be a major concern across Africa. Poachers kill, think about this. One elephant every 15 minutes or up to an estimated 50,000 elephants annually. There are some investigations that have uncovered that trafficking of elephant ivory are of course linked to enable crimes such as fraud, tax evasion, money laundering but also linked to arms smuggling and drug trafficking. Can you tell us more about this? Thank you. Illegal trade of ivory and wildlife poaching generally I should say this is an organized crime and definitely poachers always want arms or use arms and now that also brings the small arms that we punish as a crime. Poachers and this other activity they are doing generally is also conducted in a manner that is illegal and therefore corruption comes in because the network is covered crossing borders requires some beings of corruption in fact it also leads to ban the economy these dealers also under this kind of crime are connected to the world. Not only for the small arms and light people and also corruption but also some of these are insurgents hidden somewhere conducting killings and also using the arms these dealings of the illegal trade of ivory connecting from one place to another you have heard about what this was taking another dealings of the trafficking that has actually affected most african parks and this report that is unstable of course cross border dealings also brings about cyber crime because underling and covert dealings funding terrorism also comes in some of these ivory and other world ref poaching some of these species also are very very expensive and therefore we see cyber crime in the table we see similar arms and light weapons we also see corruption we also are talking about insurgents we are talking about the gangs that are armed and across the board also in this kind of situation has leading to state corruption I mean corrupts because of the of course the moment the world rife and terrorism is down completely then it leads to state corrupts and consequently we are seeing certainly linkage between ivory trading and other related crimes that are organized cross border and therefore this is a situation that is called to attention of policing, of reinforcers to prevent, respond and jointly work together to prevent the scudge, thank you I would like to say that Interpol decided to have this panel about environmental security not only because we are in Rwanda and so this is an important theme in this continent and I feel that there is not the right political attention and the general attention to this crime because people don't see the impact that it has they don't see people killed they don't see robberies and so we really should take all opportunities we have to make understand that there is organized crime there are other serious crime linked to this crime do you feel the same or do you feel that the attention on this environmental security issue is raising now thank you let me say that wildlife and tourism is at the heart of Rwanda because it contributes a lot to the economy but without the government will that is the political will without the efforts of security organization, security agencies without collective security by various actors and particularly connecting police to ensure that we prevent, curtail and also combat such networks of the criminals along the way we ever think about wildlife or environmental conservation so I am seeing many actors here I am seeing the government I am seeing the law enforcers connecting I am also seeing the connectivity national law, regional law and international law collectively working together at every level in the civil arrangement understanding the concept of operation and of course understanding the rules of engagement in preventing, in responding and also making sure that we both work towards ensuring that we protect the environment and therefore security is prevailing thank you so we have already seen that innovation in forensic technology investigating tools is there but also the use of a cyber crime is there in order to traffic to sell marketing all these products I would like to keep my words to Madam President and not only to be on time also to gain some time so by the way of concluding this special session I would like to end by coming back to my opening message every drop in the ocean counts now I would like each of our distinguished panelists to please explain in a sentence and even in one word the most important drop for you, Mrs. Cordeo Mr. Tsingha what's your drop? Well certainly in my eyes and for my countrymen the sedication as I said earlier in my eyes and for my countrymen the sedication as I said earlier in my eyes as I said earlier we have launched a very ambitious program of educating our people young minds included regarding the requirements of maintaining the biodiversity at the same time ecological balance preserving conservation and protecting our wildlife and we in the central bearer of investigation we have an international center in investigation coming up where we intend to train whosoever wants to come and train with us in matters of investigating such crimes concerning the wildlife and that invitation is open to the entire fraternity here so education in one word is the drop in the ocean that's going to count Mr. Suleiman Halim Mr. Suleiman Halim I would also like to join Mr. Suleiman Halim in fact the most police cooperation and the most judicial cooperation and that's what we intend to do in Djibouti and Interpol has also done in Djibouti since last September Interpol has held a seminar in Djibouti where they are not only in Djibouti but Djibouti as a neighbor in Somali with all the problems that these countries know and the different entities in addition to the federal government who are self-proklamed to meet in Djibouti and this meeting was specifically concerned with the problem of coal trafficking which is itself a secret of pollution and how to rebuild these lines of coal traffickers which at the base presuppose the problem of wood cutting and deforestation in Somali and which can also imply since they need transport to have maritime most of the boats that get out of the way are boats which belong to armatev and transport to produce them here so if you want there is a link between the environment the financing of terrorism and destabilization and the only way is cooperation between police and justice Mr. Kazan your drop drop in the ocean counts in Irwanda we had one dollar that campaign was popular and at a volunteering level we would just give in one dollar and finally a big infrastructure was constructed for genocide survivors now for this case commuter policing and corrective effort pastime corrective security we always make sure that we prevent the environment and also protect the wildlife thank you I would like to thank our special guest for their contribution and the drops in the ocean but I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Interpol and the environment security unit our staff is calling us from Leon because in single day they put the commitment and the drops in order to protect and secure our global environment thank you very much