Establishing a Network of Controlled Delivery Units for Forest Law Enforcement

CHALLENGE
Although international trade in stolen timber and other forest products, including wildlife, is recognized as an important component of the global forest law enforcement and governance challenge, relatively little attention has been devoted to developing the capacity to intervene effectively to counter illegal international supply chains, to prosecute criminal enterprises and individuals, and to thereby deter the illegal trade. 

Controlled Delivery (CD) is the technique of allowing illicit or suspect consignments to pass out of, through or into the territory of one or more countries, with the knowledge and under the supervision of competent authorities, with a view to identifying persons involved in the commission of offenses. This technique is routinely used by law enforcement agencies in many sectors to identify persons connected with criminal activities related to the smuggling of contraband and to gather evidence against them.  Apart from seizures of the contraband, the technique may also be used to bring the syndicates involved in timber and wildlife smuggling to justice.

However few developing countries' Forestry, Customs and related law enforcement agencies are prepared to engage in such operations in relation to forest products, mostly due to lack of confidence, lack of capacity and poor cooperation with colleagues from other agencies/countries. Smugglers benefit from this situation.

APPROACH
The project objective is to reduce international trade and trafficking in illicitly obtained forest products, especially but not only timber, by developing and mobilizing a collaborative network of Customs and forest law enforcement agencies and officials.    By equipping this community of practice with knowledge of the controlled delivery technique and by building relationships, communications channels and confidence in the integrity and intention of members of the community of practice, the project will help to establish the credibility of Customs enforcement and increase smugglers' perceptions of the risk of detection and apprehension.

A manual on controlled deliveries, developed by INTERPOL, the CITES Secretariat and the WCO (World Customs Organization) , will be used as the basic training material for this activity.  Distribution of the Controlled Deliveries Manual has been limited to Customs and law enforcement agencies via WCO and INTERPOL restricted access networks.  This will be the first face-to-face training program based on the manual and the first ever to focus on forest-related contraband.

RESULTS
This activity is ongoing.

A workshop bringing together 50 participants from 18 African and Asian countries (officials from the police, Customs or judiciary) and experts from the World Bank, the World Customs Organization (WCO), INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was held in Shanghai, China on December 7-8, 2011. The workshop covered forest and wildlife crime and law enforcement in China, global wildlife and timber smuggling routes, wildlife and timber methods of detection, controlled delivery techniques (including financial aspects), prosecution, as well as group activities aimed at building a network of practitioners. A followup report will monitor participants' future collaboration and possible conduct of controlled delivery operations.

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Author : The International Consortium for Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) -- a partnership of the World bank, the World Customs Organization, INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the CITES Secretariat.
Last Updated : 02-24-2017