Innovative solutions to fight wildlife trafficking and to reduce invasion of invasive alien species

From the Commission's own budget table for this call. Confirm against the topic page before you plan around it: these move when a work programme is amended.

Expected Outcome: Proposals are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes: custom officers, border guards and relevant law enforcement officers and civil servants from competent authorities have improved capacities to detect illegal wildlife trade and prevent invasive alien species introduction, reintroduction and spread; illegal wildlife trade is better detected, contributing to improved protection of endangered species, and the spread of invasive alien species through trade is prevented and identified as early as possible, supporting the EU and global biodiversity objectives. Scope: Wildlife trafficking and invasive alien species pose major threats to biodiversity [1] and present important challenges regarding enforcement, prevention and detection capacities. Invasive alien species also cause significant negative economic impacts, estimated at around €12 billion per year in the EU, and wildlife trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal activities worldwide [2] . Moreover, they pose significant health hazards. The rate of introduction of invasive alien species has been increasing. Wildlife trafficking is also increasing, especially due to increase in online trade [3] . The development of innovative tools to identify wildlife species in international trade offers opportunities for multiple applications to better combat drivers of biodiversity loss, in particular the overexploitation of wildlife through trade and illicit trafficking and, in specific cases, the introduction and spread of invasive alien species. European law enforcement, customs and competent authorities, need improved capabilities that allow better and automatic monitoring and detection in online trade (e.g. e-commerce platform and marketplaces); and in physical trade, considering trade and logistic chains (e.g. ports, border crossings, postal and logistics hubs); interpreting data from multimodal signals; to support the detection of illegal wildlife trade and smuggling and invasive alien species in trade (intentionally or unintentionally introduced) while minimising disruption to the trade flow. This topic is expected to support the implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 (target 12 on invasive alien species), the EU invasive alien species regulation [4] , the EU wildlife trade regulations [5] , the revised EU action plan against wildlife trafficking (2022-2027) [6] , the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (target 4 on halting species extinction…