Abstract
The illegal wildlife trade is among the fastest growing categories of transnational crime and is increasingly characterized as a problem by law enforcement authorities internationally and in Norway. This article examines the policing of illegal trade in wildlife at the Norwegian border. Wildlife trade is regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Observations and interviews with Norwegian customs inspectors show that the detection of wildlife is not a priority when inspectors make risk assessments of control objects. I argue that this is largely because the Norwegian Customs and Excise’s organizational strategies and distribution of resources are directed towards other flows of illegal goods at the expense of wildlife. The considerable professional discretion the inspectors are allowed to exercise does not promote the enforcement of CITES. The inspectors see such cases as complicated, time consuming and unrewarding in terms of penalties upon prosecution. Seizures of wildlife are often accidental rather than planned. The findings indicate a need to reinforce and fully implement existing legislation on illegal wildlife trade at both the policy and on-site levels.
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Notes
Norwegian Customs and Excise is an agency under the Ministry of Finance. The agency’s administrative body is the Norwegian Directorate of Customs and Excise, under which the Border Control Section of the Enforcement Department comes. To simplify, the shortenings ‘Norwegian Customs' or ‘Customs' will be used to refer to the Directorate and the Agency as one.
The seizure numbers were given in an interview with advisors working in the Norwegian Directorate of Customs and Excise.
Lov om toll og vareførsel [Tolloven] av. 21. desember 2007 nr. 119.
See [34] for a comprehensive discussion of transnational environmental crime.
To improve the implementation of the Convention and strengthen and simplify the national regulation, the Norwegian Environment Agency sent a proposal for a new administrative decision to the Ministry of Climate and Environment in May 2015. In the proposal, CITES is primarily governed under the Act relating to the management of biological, geological and landscape diversity (Nature Diversity Act). This should allow for improved regulation of possession and trade in CITES species domestically. The role of Norwegian customs in the control of transnational trade remains unaltered. When the Ministry has reviewed the proposal there will be a public hearing [10].
The Customs Act §13–1-1 draws a line between “initial” and “intrusive” searches. For intrusive searches that, for instance, require a person to undress, there must be some reason to assume that the person is carrying contraband. Suspicion can be based on concrete information or the person’s behavior when crossing the border [28].
Another important responsibility of the Norwegian Customs is the collection of revenue. Strong efforts are made to detect attempts to evade import duties on goods such as cigarettes, alcohol and meat, and substantial seizures of these items occur regularly.
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Runhovde, S.R. Seizures of inconvenience? Policy, discretion and accidental discoveries in policing the illegal wildlife trade at the Norwegian border. Crime Law Soc Change 64, 177–192 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-015-9596-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-015-9596-0