Strengthening cooperation between environment and customs

As decision-makers are gathering this week at UNEA-6 to discuss how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, the conversation about the cooperation between environmental and customs authorities to support the enforcement of MEAs, in particular the Basel Convention to prevent and tackle the problem of illegal traffic of hazardous and other wastes is highly relevant.

This year the 8th annual meeting of Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic or in short ENFORCE was hosted by the World Customs Organization and allowed to hear voices from regions and globally about enforcement and environmental crimes challenges and opportunities. The eighth ENFORCE meeting was held back-to-back with the Green Customs Initiative Annual Partners Meeting and together these discussions fostered cooperation on a range of issues including best practices and actions undertaken to combat illegal traffic, the role of trade facilitation in promoting compliance to MEAs and enforcement issues.

See more in the Press release by WCO.