Workshop: Building lawsuits against illegal wildlife trade

We hosted a workshop on developing civil lawsuits for illegal wildlife trade (IWT) cases in Indonesia, part of the Defra-funded WILDS Project (1-10th March, 2020). Three Indonesian lawyers, Rika Fajiri, Grahat Nagara and Roni Saputra, joined came to Lancaster to explore how we might be able to build lawsuits that would allow us to seek remedies for the harm caused by IWT.

We had previously developed, in cooperation with economists, ecologists and lawyers, a conceptual framework for forming IWT lawsuits. Building on that, this workshop explored many technical details of Indonesian law that shape how we might operationalise those plans.

For example, we considered how the harm caused by IWT can be formally recognised as environmental harm within Indonesia's legal framework, which traditionally focuses on harm to sites/habitat, rather than harm to biodiversity. We concluded that, while that IWT harm is no different than other types of environmental harm traditionally recognised by the law (e.g., from deforestation, pollution), we would need to specifically articulate pathways of harm in ways that have not been traditionally used in Indonesian environmental legal practice. This draw on unique interdisciplinary exchange important to ensure that the law effectively protects the environment.

The workshop focused on finalising a draft guideline on how to bring forward civil liability suits for IWT in Indonesia--a resource we think can also be used to inform legal practise in many other countries.