In Italy, a judge has applied a novel legal concept in sentencing two convicted plant smugglers: payment for the damage done to an irreplaceable ecosystem.
Following a trial in the Italian city of Ancona, Andrea Pombietti and Mattia Crescentini were found guilty of trafficking in endangered species; in this case, two rare cactus genera Eriosyce and Copiapoa.
Endemic to the Atacama Desert in Chile, these highly-sought after species survive in the driest climate on Earth, and the two men were found to be in possession of hundreds and for participating in a criminal enterprise that involved Greek and South American entities.
Being that Italy is a member of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), the Ancona court found the two men guilty, but in response to the case put forward by the public prosecutor, sentenced them to pay “moral damages” to an NGO called the Association for Biodiversity and Conservation (ABC), whose resident cacti expert worked alongside authorities to identify the species in Pombietti and Crescentini’s possession.
All were native to the Atacama Desert, and the damages of around $21,500 were paid to ABC for its legal costs and to further its conservation work in the very desert the criminals were exploiting.
A member of ABC said the money would fund cactus research projects to inform conservation strategies.
The Guardian reports that the case is one of the first in the world to order traffickers to pay for conservation in the ecosystems they exploit.
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“Any remedy that looks at a deeper solution that restores the environment is key … as opposed to only looking at one animal that has been killed or one tree that has been cut down,” said Blair Atwebembeire, an environmental lawyer in Uganda, whose work mainly involves the pangolin—the world’s most trafficked animal.
The Guardian spoke with another environmental lawyer, Rika Fajrini, who said that Indonesia primarily prosecutes under criminal, not civil law. As a result, the debt to society is paid to the state, not the animals or ecosystems damaged by the offenders.
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“The Italian case highlights that harm to wildlife is also harm to the environment – one that requires restoration, not just punishment of offenders,” says Fajrini.
Trafficking in animals and plants is the third most lucrative black market in the world, behind drugs and weaponry. Estimated to be worth over $100 billion in terms of money paid, if a fraction of that value was transferred to conservation, the fragile ecosystems and vulnerable species made victim in these schemes could be significantly fortified.
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