Here are the suggestions from Song Yongbin, director of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF)’s Songha Da Wetland Protection Area, on establishing a national major clue network dispatching station for wildlife crimes.
In recent years, the sale of wild animals and products on the Internet has often appeared. Some criminals openly sell wild animals and products through online stores, WeChat Moments, and online celebrity products. Many of them are under national or even international key protection. The public security organs uncovered a batch of hunting and trading of wild animals and products, captured criminals, destroyed criminal dens, and seized illegal material shreds of evidence; however, there are still people who trade wild animals and products online, with more cunning and concealed methods. There is a long way to go to combat them.
Problems:
There is a wide range of wildlife and products traded online. In daily wildlife protection activities, volunteers often find online information about the sale of wildlife or wildlife products. Such as living protected wild animals, tiger products, ivory products, pangolin scales, rare bird specimens, marine biological products, wildlife products, and so on.
Online transactions are diverse and secretive. The more common way of online trading is through the online store, WeChat business, celebrities, etc. They also advertise information on the network platform, do some trickery on the online store, publicly displaying and selling video and picture information of living wild animals and wild animal products. Some play the "edge ball" and trade wildlife and products with obscure information such as entertainment and text games.
The domain span is large, and it isn't easy to find and verify. The investigation found that online transactions of wild animals and products often involve online transactions in place A and deliver in place B or cross-regional or even cross-border transactions. Among them are suspected of cybercrimes and crimes of destroying wildlife resources, where places, specific areas, and regions of the crime are not precise. The localization of the case limits public security organs; that is, the locality of the crime is subject to the crime's public security organ's jurisdiction. There are difficulties in reporting clues, locking evidence, and accepting cases.
Suggestions:
To establish a national-level dispatch station for major clues of wildlife crimes. Under the overall planning and jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security of China, the provincial and municipal public security organs of relevant regions will be dispatched to check the clues of major wildlife crimes according to the possible crime places, identify the crime places, and dispatch the local public security organs to investigate under the principle of territorial jurisdiction of the cases.
To establish a quick response mechanism for receiving clues online. Through the national network dispatch station for major clues of wildlife crimes, the clues of online trading of wildlife and products are quickly accepted and verified. False information is transferred to the network supervision department for legal processing, and the illegal acts that are administrative penalties are transferred to the administrative law enforcement department. Deal with it following the law and file investigations by the public security organs in the place where the crime was found and the place where the transaction was concluded.
To establish a joint and coordinated investigation mechanism that combines online and offline investigations. Taking online transaction clues as a breakthrough, coordinate with regulatory departments such as forestry, market, environment, and network to conduct a backward investigation of criminal chains related to wildlife trading, and quickly identify traders, sources, express delivery, logistics, storage, and transportation, hunting, and processing, etc., creating conditions for the public security organs to investigate and crack quickly.
To establish a data network for rapid screening and identification of wild animals and products. The national wildlife and product identification agencies shall be coordinated and managed according to the public security organs' investigation work needs. In line with the nearby identification principle, innovate and establish a fast network identification channel, reduce toll thresholds, and improve identification efficiency. Public security investigations, market coordination, network cooperation, forestry identification, and other work are carried out simultaneously to achieve timely combat.
To improve and implement a reward system for reporting criminal clues. If the clues provided by the informants are verified and play a vital role in the investigation of the case, the informants should be rewarded with material rewards to encourage netizens to supervise the illegal and criminal behaviors of online trading of wild animals and products and actively fight against the crime of online trading of wild animals and products.
Translator/Syying C
Original Chinese Article
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HYaLga-_e-Z8pDvx4XIMJg
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