The Illegal Bird Trade from the Western Balkans into the European Union: Drivers and Responses
Publisher: BIOSEC
Author(s): Teresa Lappe-Osthege
Date: 2020
Topics: Governance, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia
Current EU policy regulating the trade in birds does not sufficiently recognise the European dimension of the illegal bird trade. While the EU Birds Directive prohibits the sale of wild birds within the European Union, it permits the introduction of national and regional derogations (Article 9). This creates a highly complex legal context, which hampers the coordinated implementation and enforcement of existing regulations, particularly at Customs. In addition, action taken to tackle the illegal bird trade disregards the role of the European consumer market in driving illegal trapping, killing and trade of birds. Even where European regulations are tightened to curb the trade (e.g. with amendments to the Annexes of the EU Birds Directive or the classification of illegal bird trade as environmental crime), there is evidence to suggest that existing legal grey areas externalise illegal activity to the EU’s immediate neighbourhood in the Western Balkans. EU policy should shift its focus from predominantly tackling the illegal bird trade in source countries and instead increase coordinated efforts to target consumer demand in EU Member States where demand for illegal bird products is particularly high.