The Green Customs Initiative Prepared by Green Customs

The Green Customs Initiative Prepared by Green Customs Initiative Secretariat UN Environment

The Green Customs Initiative What is Green Customs? An unprecedented partnership of international organisations Its objective is to enhance the capacity of customs and enforcment officers to: – Detect and prevent illegal trade – Facilitate the legal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities covered by the relevant conventions and MEAs.

The Green Customs Initiative Genesis of GCI Origins: • Capacity building - customs training under Ozone CAP to implement the Montreal Protocol) and • CITES Capacity building Illegal and legal trade should be considered in a more holistic way by making links, where appropriate, with other environmental conventions to provide integrated training. Synergies and recognition of common ground between various treaties with trade-related elements was developed

The Green Customs Initiative The Green Customs Partners Basel Convention on Biological Diversity CITES Montreal Protocol Rotterdam Convention Stockholm Convention Chemical Weapons Convention Interpol WCO UNEP UN Office of Drugs and Crime 4

The Green Customs Initiative Main GCI activities and materials • • • Workshops to train customs officers Green Customs Guide E-leaning modules Green Customs website Other tools and materials

The Green Customs Initiative Green Customs Guide Topics for each MEA or treaty – Definitions – Provisions for regulating trade – The specific role of Customs in implementing the MEA/treaty – Official materials to be aware of Practical considerations – Health and safety – Identification – Seizures and disposal – Derogations

The Green Customs Initiative E-learning modules • Hosted on WCO training platform • • GCI Introduction, CITES and Montreal Protocol modules already available Modules coming soon: • Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm • CBD • OPCW

The Green Customs Initiative GCI Website www. greencustoms. org

The Green Customs Initiative Green Customs achievements Coordinated delivery through an umbrella partnership involving multiple organisations with diverse mandates Addresses the need for coordinated training For some of the MEAs, the only structured interaction with the customs community Train-the-trainer approach and incorporation of the Initiative in the countries’ national customs training curricula

The Green Customs Initiative Major Deliverables Since 2004: 45 regional, sub-regional and national training workshops; >350 customs officers from almost 120 countries; tools, guides and e-learning training materials

The Green Customs Initiative Current activities Update GCI Guide to the Multilateral Environmental Agreements; Re-develop the GCI website; The ENFORCE-GCI side event A regional GCI workshop for Central America (3 -5 May 2017, Santo Domingo, DOM) A national GCI workshop (7 -9 June 2017, Cheonan, KOR)

The Green Customs Initiative Future plan To develop a Strategy Plan based on the Overall Strategy developed in 2014 To focus on training the trainers, address issues of free zone, transit or trans-shipments, and high-level awareness raising To make efforts to fund-raising

The Green Customs Initiative Key Messages Customs officers - front line of every country's defence against illegal trade, and the first link in the enforcement chain; Adequate capacity of Customs to prevent illegal trade is needed for effective implementation of MEAs; It is important for GCI partners and Customs authorities to work closely together to safeguard environmental security.

The Green Customs Initiative Thank you www. greencustoms. org Green Customs Secretariat greencustoms@unep. org