Launch of the ECO-SOLVE Programme

ECO-SOLVE is a new three-year project within the European Union’s Global Illicit Flows Programme, implemented by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). The project was initiated in September 2023 with the aim of introducing innovative approaches to combating global environmental crime.

The launch event will take place over a half day and will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, live interviews, and videos and animations, with contributions drawing out the nature of the problems that ECO-SOLVE aims to address, and highlighting the ways in which the project has set about tackling them. We are expecting an audience made up of key European Commission staff; representatives from the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) and the Global Illicit Flows Programme; senior NGO leaders working on environmental crime, organized crime and corruption; and key officials from intergovernmental organizations.

Environmental crime

About The Speakers

Astrid Schomaker

Executive Secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Laura Avila Rivera

Grants Liaison, GI-TOC

Grants Liaison, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Peter M Wagner

European Commission

Director, Head of Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), European Commission

Jeremy Phan

Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife

Director of the Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife, Laos

Sofía Espíndola Oviedo

Environmental defender

Environmental defender combating illegal deforestation on indigenous lands, Paraguay

Salvatore Amato

Law enforcement liaison to ECO-SOLVE

Law Enforcement and Organized Crime Consultant

Ramon Gonzáles Gallego

Officer of the Spanish Guardia Civil and leader of the Cybercrime stream of EMPACT, Guardia Civil

Officer of the Spanish Guardia Civil and leader of the Cybercrime stream of EMPACT

Jorge Jesus

Seconded National Expert on environmental crime, EUROPOL

Seconded National Expert at Europol

Ilaria Di Silvestre

Head of EU Policy & Campaigns, IFAW

Head of EU Policy & Campaigns at IFAW

John Githongo

CEO, Inuka Kenya ni Sisi

CEO of Inuka Kenya ni Sisi, and former anti-corruption official with the Kenyan government

Maria Rosa Sabbatelli

Head of Unit for Global and Transregional Threats and Challenges, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) of the European Commission

Maria Rosa Sabbatelli is currently the Head of Unit for Global and Transregional Threats and Challenges at the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) of the European Commission.