The need for action
Customs and border protection officers constitute the front line of every country's defence against trans-boundary illegal trade. They are the first link in the “compliance and enforcement chain”, and without adequate capacity to prevent or detect illegal trade, the rest of the chain will be considerably less effective. Building the capacity of these officers is therefore vital. Training is a key component of capacity building, but can be time-consuming and expensive when delivered separately for the wide range of issues customs officers must cover. An effective solution is coordinated training – and this is where Green Customs comes in…

Helping to address the problem - the Green Customs Initiative
The Green Customs Initiative is an unprecedented partnership of international organisations cooperating to prevent the illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities and facilitation of the legal trade in these. Its objective is to enhance the capacity of customs and other relevant enforcement personnel to monitor and facilitate the legal trade and to detect and prevent illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities covered by the relevant conventions and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). These include ozone depleting substances (ODS), toxic chemical products, hazardous wastes, endangered species and living-modified organisms. This is achieved through awareness-raising on all the relevant international agreements as well as provision of assistance and tools to the enforcement community. Green Customs is designed to complement and enhance existing customs training efforts under the respective agreements.

UNEP’s Governing Council expressed concern over the increasing environmental damage caused by illegal traffic in endangered species and dangerous and harmful substances and products. It also recognised that continuous efforts must be undertaken by all countries and relevant organisations and agencies concerned with ensuring compliance and enforcement of relevant international agreements. The Green Customs Initiative is a partnership actively addressing these concerns.
(Council Decision 21/27 on Compliance with and enforcement of multilateral environment agreements, February 2001)

Green Customs Partners
The partners of the Green Customs Initiative comprise the secretariats of the relevant multilateral environmental agreements (Basel, Cartagena, CITES, Montreal, Rotterdam Stockholm), Interpol, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, UNEP, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Customs Organization. The Green Customs Initiative also works closely with a number of other regional and international organisations. Please see Partner Organisations page for more details.


Benefits of Green Customs

For Customs Officers:

  • Increased knowledge about environmental issues, particularly those related to MEAs
  • Enhanced skills required to enforce national environmental commitments
  • Better recognition of the role of customs officers in environmental protection

For Countries:

  • Increased detection of smugglers and illegally-traded commodities by national customs officers, and facilitation of legal trade
  • Strengthened capacity for national compliance and enforcement of MEAs through monitoring of trade
  • Increased opportunity for dialogue with regional trade partner countries on illegal trade issues
    Sustained capacity building through integration of Green Customs into national customs training curricula
  • Prevention of loss of revenue from tax and duty avoidance associated with smuggling
    Increased integration of environment into the security agenda

For Partners:

  • Increased opportunity for synergies in implementation between MEAs
  • Shared training infrastructure and experience developed by the Secretariats

For Global environment:

  • Decrease in environmental crime, control of toxic chemicals and waste, better species protection– leading to a less polluted and more sustainable environment


Green Customs Tools:

Green Customs Guide
A guidebook for trainees and trainers to be used as a core element during the training courses and as a post-course reference document

Workshops to train customs officers
Many Green Customs training workshops have been held all around the world. These have ranged from regional workshops to sub-regional and national workshops.

Green Customs website and materials
Information and more details on the Initiative can be found on this website, including links to training materials and information on partner organisations

 

Photo credits: Main © French Customs, top to bottom (left to right): © Ezra Clark, © UNEP OzonAction, © World Customs Organization, © Environmental Investigation Agency, © World Customs Organization, © Ian Cruickshank -UNEP / Still Pictures, © Korekazu Yashiro/UNEP / Still Pictures, © OPCW, © Felicia Beth Tuman / UNEP / Still Pictures, © Environmental Investigation Agency.