On October 13th the European Parliament voted\u00a0overwhelmingly in favour of Catherine Bearder MEP\u2019s report on the EU\u2019s Action Plan against wildlife trafficking.<\/p>\n
The report to the Environment Committee demanded that wildlife crime is included in Europol\u2019s 2017 SOCTA (Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment), upgrading wildlife crime to a \u201cserious and organised crime\u201d as they have with terrorism, human trafficking and arms smuggling.<\/p>\n
MEPs also voted for a full and immediate EU-wide ban on the ivory trade.<\/p>\n
This comes after an EU Commission delegation to CITES CoP17 voted against a full international ban on the trade in ivory in South Africa late last month.<\/p>\n
Catherine Bearder MEP who wrote the report said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWildlife trafficking is the fourth biggest organised criminal activity on the planet – It is high time we got really serious about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe penalties against wildlife trafficking must be very severe to reflect the seriousness of this crime and must be the same across the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gangs know where they can get away with little detection and soft punishment, and concentrate there –\u00a0 This must be stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am also delighted that MEPs are calling for a full and immediate EU-wide ban on the ivory trade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On October 13th the European Parliament voted\u00a0overwhelmingly in favour of Catherine Bearder MEP\u2019s report on the EU\u2019s Action Plan against wildlife trafficking. The report to the Environment Committee demanded that wildlife crime is included in Europol\u2019s 2017 SOCTA (Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment), upgrading wildlife crime to a \u201cserious and organised crime\u201d as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n