• Home
  • Topics
    • Industry and air
    • Waste and TFS
    • Water and land
    • Nature protection
    • Cross-cutting tools and approaches
  • Tools
    • Permitting
    • Inspections
    • Doing the right things
    • Better regulation
    • IMPEL Review Initiative
    • PREVENT
  • Projects
    • IMPEL projects
    • IMPEL-ESIX
    • LIFE SWEAP
    • WasteForce
    • SPIDER WEB
  • News
    • Latest news
    • Press releases
  • Publications
    • Outreach material
    • IMPEL Documents
    • General Assembly Meetings
    • Conference reports
    • EU Documents
  • Events
    • Internal meetings
      • General assembly
      • Board meetings
      • Expert team meetings
    • Project meetings
    • Conferences
  • About IMPEL
    • Strategy
    • Organisation
      • Board
      • Secretariat
    • Members and observers
    • Becoming a member
    • Contact
  • 
  • 
  • 

IMPEL

European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law

You are here: Home / Projects / BIOVAL – Ecosystems Recovery Calculation

BIOVAL – Ecosystems Recovery Calculation

October 11, 2020

Number: 2021/12, 2020/21
Status: Ongoing
Period: 2020 – 2021

Topic: Nature protection

Terms of Reference

  • BIOVAL – Ecosystems Recovery Calculation (2021)
  • BIOVAL – Ecosystems Recovery Calculation (2020)

Project report(s)

In progress.

Project description and aims

There is still a lack of awareness of the impact of wildlife crime to ecosystems and protected species. The way to calculate this damage in order to become a useful and reliable instrument during prosecution and during court cases is a topic that needs to be further explored. There are already some good examples. For instance, in Finland the prosecutor is obliged to work with a ‘pricelist’ that calculates damage to ecosystems and protected species. This varies from smaller infringements to wildlife crime where heavy endangered species are involved.

During several conferences and workshops related to wildlife trafficking and wildlife crime the need to make the damage to ecosystems and protected species visible during court procedures is emphasized. This is important because it contributes to awareness raising to prosecutors and judges who are often not specialized. A good, objective and a comparable system to make the damage visible will increase the support to use a ‘pricelist’ during prosecution and court procedures.

Several aspects must be considered. First of all, the ecological aspect of the infringement. Is recovery possible or are the effects of the crime irreversible? What is the amount of time needed to restore? Is the state of conservation at stake? Therefore, biological knowledge and knowledge about how ecosystems and protected species are functioning are necessary. Second, is it necessary to validate/calculate the ecological damage within the existing economic system. Here we need creative thinkers with knowledge about functioning of our economic systems. Third, we need knowledge of legal procedures, administrative law and criminal law. How is it possible to implement the calculation of damage within investigation, prosecution and court procedures? Questions are whether to use the knowledge about the damage as part of the verdict (penal law) or as cost need for restoration of the damage (administrative or civil law) or simultaneously.

We must keep in mind and think about communication strategies in a later stage of this project because making the public aware of the damage to nature, expressed in Euros, also contributes to raising awareness and, therefore, the prevention of wildlife crime.

Outputs/outcomes:

  • Overview of different approaches towards the calculation of damage to ecosystems and protected species as part of prosecution and court cases.
  • Recommendation to find a unified approach/process to calculate damage to ecosystems and protected species.
  • Develop a unified approach and process to calculate damage to ecosystems and protected species and the use during prosecution and court procedures.
  • Develop the necessary tools (e.g. pricelist, database, etc.) to calculate the damage to ecosystems and protected species.
  • Training/instruction sessions on the process and the use of the tools to calculate the damage to ecosystems and protected species.
  • Implementation of the tools to calculate the damage to ecosystems and protected species and the use during prosecution and court cases.

Lead country and contact

  • Belgium
    Jan van den Berghe (EUFJE)

Related files/information

  • Bird directive, 2009/147/EC.
  • Habitats directive, 92/43/EEC.

« Europe Marine Transborder Transect
Water and Land Remediation »

Article by

Search Projects

Newsletter

Join the IMPEL.eu newsletter list and stay up to date on all IMPEL.eu news.

Subscribe

Menu

  • Home
  • Topics
    • Industry and air
    • Waste and TFS
    • Water and land
    • Nature protection
    • Cross-cutting tools and approaches
  • Tools
    • Permitting
    • Inspections
    • Doing the right things
    • Better regulation
    • IMPEL Review Initiative
    • PREVENT
  • Projects
    • IMPEL projects
    • IMPEL-ESIX
    • LIFE SWEAP
    • WasteForce
    • SPIDER WEB
  • News
    • Latest news
    • Press releases
  • Publications
    • Outreach material
    • IMPEL Documents
    • General Assembly Meetings
    • Conference reports
    • EU Documents
  • Events
    • Internal meetings
      • General assembly
      • Board meetings
      • Expert team meetings
    • Project meetings
    • Conferences
  • About IMPEL
    • Strategy
    • Organisation
      • Board
      • Secretariat
    • Members and observers
    • Becoming a member
    • Contact
  • 
  • 
  • 

IMPEL

Chemin des deux maisons 73, box 3
1200, Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +44 (0)20 3289 7442
Email: info@impel.eu
Skype: impelsecretariat


Become a member

Membership of IMPEL is open to organisations or authorities working in the public sector who implement and enforce environmental legislation. Learn all about the benefits​ of being a member to our network.
Read More

Copyright © 2023 IMPEL · Data protection · Cookie policy · Webdesign: Alva Design

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our services. For our policy, please visit our
Functional Cookies Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}