On Friday 14 March, a conference entitled Black trade, criminal networks and enforcement responses was held to mark the imminent end of the ANU’s Transnational Environmental Crime (TEC) Project, funded under the ARC Linkage scheme. RegNet Research Fellow Julie Ayling is one of the three Chief Investigators on the project, together with Professor Lorraine Elliott of the Department of International Relations, CAP, where the project has been based, and Professor Greg Rose from the Faculty of Law, University of Wollongong. The Project Partner Organisation is the Department of the Environment (DOE). The research investigates emerging trends in transnational environmental crime and examines the conditions for successful regulatory and enforcement responses.

The conference was introduced by Dr Kimberley Dripps, Deputy Secretary of DOE. Speakers included all three CIs, as well as Grant Pink, Dr Dylan Horne, Dr Matt Marshall (all from DOE) and Dr Tanya Wyatt (University of Northumbria) who had all spent or are currently spending time as visiting fellows on the project, and Dr William Schaedla, formerly TRAFFIC’s Regional Director in South-East Asia. The administrative arrangements and delicious catering were ably managed by Ms Sophie Saydan.

Julie spoke about some of the future challenges in regulating TEC, specifically the adaptability and resilience of some of the criminal networks involved, the emergence of new markets and crime types, and the challenge of regulating in more innovative ways.

Future collaborations, beyond the current funding period, between the academics and the practitioners involved in the project are envisaged.

Further information about the project and the conference, links to the speakers’ presentations, and publications emanating from the project, can be found on the TEC webpage.