Because more than one agency can be charged with combating environmental violations, communications among the responsible agencies is vital to ensuring effective enforcement activities.
The UK initiative “Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime” (PAW) composed of the UK CITES Management Authority, the Home Office, UK Police Forces, Customs and Excise and NGOs, described as a “virtual enforcement think-tank,” is one example of a joint enforcement initiative. Another example of transboundary communications between agencies is provided by the tripartite multinational institutional framework established under the Lusaka Agreement. Through the Task Force, there is a direct communication link with the National Bureaux in the respective member States, and the link can be employed to facilitate the enforcement activities of national agencies inter se, since the Task Force provides a platform to link with the national bureaux of other States. [See the explanatory note under Guideline 48
’s introductory paragraph.]
The Green Customs Initiative [see case study following Guideline 33(f)], the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) [see case study following Guideline 48, as well as Guideline 43], and the World Customs Organisation facilitate transborder communications for customs officials. Interpol, Europol, and IMPEL perform similar functions for police [see Guidelines 34(c) and 48(a)].