There are 94 federal judicial districts in the United States, and 9 sections within the Department of Justice’s environment and natural resources division, there are 9 sections, of which the environmental crimes division handles prosecutions, defending against and engaging in civil enforcement for four types:
- Pollution
- Employment
- Animal Welfare
- Wildlife
and often times bringing in subject matter experts to testify. Meanwhile, the usefulness of academic liaisons are are still under evaluation.
It also focuses on violations of acts, including Title 18 codes (federal crimes and criminal procedures, including conspiracy, smuggling, obstruction of justice…) and forfeiture laws.
While the FBI is certainly better equipped and resourced to fight these crimes, it tends not to be a priority for the Bureau, and since wildlife crimes in particular are especially difficult, requiring international coordination, Fish and Wildlife Services dedicate agents to wildlife crimes, dispatching attaché positions to 11 countries to work in various regions.
A 2013 Executive Order on wildlife trafficking established an international wildlife trafficking task force, combining resources from Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, and Department of State, much of which was undone in later years. Still, with links detected between organized crime, terrorist groups, and wildlife trafficking, as where wildlife is traded for weapons (see INTERPOL and National Geographic), agency priorities are still engaged in international prosecution, specifically of illegal hunts and the importation of trophies, as well as disrupting trade routes.
The Southern District of New York for instance will hold ivory crushes to destroy contraband, including elephant tusks, rhino horns, etc. See Operation Crash, for example.
This means certain attorneys are granted top secret clearance for the sake of Compartmentalized Specialized Information, while Fish and Wildlife Agents are tasked with finding and building cases, engaging in undercover and special operations, and working with Custom’s enforcement as well as INTERPOL’S segment devoted to wildlife crime, necessitating an intelligence center, since the Environmental Protection Agency is usually underresourced.
In general a core concern seems to be this:
Whereas veteran agents, officials, and attorneys may work hard, indeed their entire life to save critically endangered species, the ongoing destruction of the planet, coupled with backing off from or deregulating environmental policies, all works to accelerate climate change.
This creates a crisis — why bother to save rhinos when the human race is imperiled. Indeed, as scientific, criminal, and prosecutorial priorities shift, government resources have not. More impediments mean less efficacy. And therefore, an emphasis on pollution is critical.
However, the premise of renewable fuel (solar, wind, etc) is refused by the petrochemical industry, who simply does not want to go away. The problems derive from fossil fuels that enrich those resisting this change by mobilizing enormous resources to this end.
Yet by changing the demand and shifting economic factors, the policy too can shift. This requires a focus on the infrastructure, rather than the operations themselves. We have not been looking at these classified issues before, yet are now.
There are pathways available. It is a matter of which we choose to walk.