Summary:
On Wednesday 20 May 2026 we organised a policy debate on the EU's response to illegal trade in wildlife, timber and minerals, with Prof. Daan van Uhm, Professor of Environmental Crime at the Open Universiteit in Heerlen, Matthias Petschke, Director for Customs at the European Commission, and Karl Falkenberg, President of the Club of Rome EU-Chapter, as moderator. Venue: Residence Palace, Rue de la Loi 155, 1040 Bruxelles.
Prof. van Uhm started off the debate with a presentation in which he painted a highly informative, broad picture of the interface between legal and illegal trade in natural resources from various angles in order to show the complexity of the topic.
He posed several fundamental questions that enlightened the debate such as: what do we consider as crime? He pointed out that this is strongly influenced by how we socially construct our environment, and warned that a legal framework with a strictly anthropocentric view is too limiting.
He also paid attention to the drivers of environmental crime, highlighting that geopolitical asymmetries attract environmental organised crime groups and that these groups change their motives and methods based on changing geopolitical and legal circumstances. He also shared illustrative examples of environmental crime, such as at the border between Panama and Colombia, where gold is illegally mined and imported into Europe, while consumers do not know what they are really buying.
He called for a cultural mindset shift by legislators and rule enforcers: they should learn to see a particular natural resource, for example an exotic bird, as part of a broader ecosystem.
Matthias Petschke, in response, highlighted his daily practice at the European Commission working on customs, the 'first line of defence' at the borders. He brought a dozen of pages long 'list of prohibitions and restrictions' that he works with at a daily basis. He acknowledged that it is a challenge to enforce these prohibitions and restrictions in practice. He made a plea for a holistic approach involving not only border checks but checks throughout the entire value chain. He also shared that a digital hub should help national customs services in the EU exchange more information in the near future.
The debate then continued with various questions from the audience, including more fundamental ones such as what do we criminalise and why? Prof. van Uhm had the final word and highlighted the need to move from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric approach in law-making.
