THE GUARDIA CIVIL’S NATURE PROTECTION SERVICE -SEPRONA- AND THE PUBLIC COMPANY TRAGSATEC ARE LEADING THE LIFE+ SATEC PROJECT, A EUROPEAN INITIATIVE TO FIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME.

The project is part of the European Commission’s LIFE+ program and involves police organisations from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Italy, with the involvement of other countries inside and outside the European Union.

The effect of global warming is one of the greatest dangers facing mankind, aggravated in many cases by the misuse of environmental resources resulting from criminal activities. Aware of this, the highest political institutions and various actors address this problem from different approaches: scientific, economic, social or legal.

Environmental crime is present in all these dimensions, and this is where the LIFE+ SATEC project is born to promote the definition of international legal frameworks, as well as new investigation methods, the training of agents and the cooperation of police and legislative entities with the aim of combating environmental crime.

An important contribution of this project to the objective of the Council of the European Union, in relation to the need for Member States to become aware of the fight against environmental crime, is the EnviCrimeNet Network, a forum focused on the coordination of activities in Europe and third countries; both the closest ones and others with a strong interest in environmental impact such as Latin America or Africa.

In this way, the LIFE+ SATEC project, which has the support of Europol and, in Spain, of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITERD), will support the actions of EnviCrimeNet in various aspects, forming a European Centre of Excellence that will complement criminal investigation through improvements in the training of agents; In the regulatory framework, it will provide the EU institutions with advice from a police perspective on legislative initiatives with an impact on the preservation of the environment. It will also strengthen joint action by different countries around the world to combat criminal activity in areas such as the irregular management and illegal trafficking of waste, trafficking in species, trafficking in plant protection products, research on the web, etc.

The LIFE+ SATEC project is further supported and coordinated with specialised bodies in the fight against environmental crime. In addition to Europol, CEPOL and the specialised Networks (ENPE, IMPEL or EUFJE), in their respective competences of supporting the work of the participating organisations, have added their support to the first international network on environmental crime focused on the consolidation of this type of criminal investigation from a transnational perspective.