The European Commission will allocate €1.73 million over the next three years to INTERPOL in support of its efforts to combat wildlife crime and protect the world’s natural resources from the illegal international trade in wild flora and fauna. Also, the European Commission decided to provide €2 million to prolong the MIKE programme, a mechanism that monitors and addresses elephant poaching across the African continent.

€1.73 million will be allocated by the European Commission to INTERPOL's Project Combat Wildlife Crime under the umbrella of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, highlighted that over the next three years this funding will help enforcement and international cooperation to address this worrying phenomenon. He also added that it should also build trust with EU partners, and show that the EU is serious about fighting biodiversity loss around the globe. Interpol and Europol work together on projects such as the fight against organized crime in relation to endangered species.

Project Combat Wildlife Crime is aimed at ensuring long-term capacity building, improved international information and intelligence exchange, and the coordination of enforcement efforts through the support of government authorities in the wildlife and forestry administration from source, transit and consumer countries. At a broader level, it will also contribute to better governance and the fight against corruption.

In addition, as part of its efforts against wildlife crime, the European Commission also decided to provide €2 million to prolong the MIKE programme, a unique mechanism that monitors and addresses elephant poaching across the African continent. The EU is working to strengthen CITES, which it implements through the Wildlife Trade Regulations. The CITES programme for Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) has been in operation since 2001 with the full participation of the governments of 43 elephant range States in Africa and Asia, where MIKE monitors levels of elephant poaching in some 85 sites.