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Highlights Day 1: 10 March 2013 35
UNODC considers wildlife crime a very serious transnational organized crime and trains law
enforcers to detect wildlife species in the same way they detect drugs, as well as fraudulent documents for
smuggled migrants and victims of human trafficking. Before the BLO mechanism was implemented, any
of the various law enforcement agencies stationed at border could intercept a shipment of contraband,
seize the contraband, and arrest those involved in the shipment. The intercepting agency would have
to relay the information relating to the seizure to the competent authority in the country where the
enforcement took place. If there was a need to cooperate with the country where the shipment was
headed, then the information would also have to be relayed to the competent authority in the destination
country. Therefore, the latter competent authority would have to communicate relevant information to
the competent authority in the source country. This information relay would usually take several weeks
to complete.
With the BLO mechanism now in place, law enforcement agencies stationed at a border can
communicate more informally and foster more functional interagency cooperation. Each country
traversed by a particular border must appoint one person as part of the BLO, which meets once or
twice a week, or once every 2 weeks, to exchange information, formally or informally, on the contraband
going through the checkpoint. Through the BLO, countries sharing a common border enjoy real-time
information exchange through an informal communication system and stronger cooperation among their
law enforcement agencies stationed at the border.
To end, Mr. Broussard shared an example of how the BLO can facilitate wildlife seizures to promote
the implementation of BLO mechanisms in other parts of the world.
Dr. Bennett thanked Mr. Broussard for his presentation and encouraged the participants to confer
with Mr. Broussard regarding BLOs over dinner that evening.
Ms. Ioana Botezatu, leader of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)
Environmental Crime Programme’s Project PREDATOR, began by linking her presentation to the discussion
initiated by Justice Shah and Justice Embong regarding the judiciary’s role in fighting wildlife crime.
Recounting INTERPOL’s presentation before the European Parliament at a seminar on wildlife crime, Ms.
Botezatu suggested calling wildlife crime “wildlife genocide.” She also reminded the participants of the
need to consider wildlife crime a threat not just to environmental security, but also to national security.
Ms. Botezatu then discussed INTERPOL’s Project PREDATOR, which focuses on Asian big cats,
particularly wild tigers and snow leopards. Project PREDATOR is the first structured program of the
INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme, which is a young structure itself and which involves
a high-level political agenda, on-the-ground activities, and multidisciplinary exercises. The program
categorizes its activities according to the four processes involved in its intelligence-led enforcement
approach: (i) capacity processes, which involve training and dissemination of best practices on enhanced
performance in member countries; (ii) intelligence processes, including enhancing, analyzing, and
transmitting intelligence to member countries; (iii) operational processes, such as coordinating joint
operations; and (iv) advocacy processes, which entail communicating successes and creating new
partnerships for cooperation and funding, among others. In other words, the INTERPOL Environmental
Crime Programme first analyzes how resources can be best deployed given the information gathered,
before launching enforcement operations.