Conservation litigation’ tries to put a true price on wildlife crime

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• An international team of experts says it’s possible to sue environmental and wildlife offenders for the damage they inflict upon ecosystems and biodiversity and seek compensation to help restore what has been lost.
• Several countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mexico, already have legislation that allows for this “conservation litigation,” experts say.
• There have also been several successful civil lawsuits in which environmental offenders have had to provide compensation for ecological restoration.
• However, conservation litigation is not commonly used due to a lack of understanding about its feasibility, and the difficulties of coming up with defensible, scientifically robust remedies for environmental and wildlife crimes — but experts say they hope this litigation is used more frequently in the future.

Gibbons, hornbills, komodo dragons and even Sumatran orangutans — these are just a few of the animals once kept illegally behind bars at a small zoo in North Sumatra, Indonesia. In 2019, police raided the zoo for operating and keeping protected species without appropriate permits, and the facility eventually closed down. More than a year later, the North Sumatran chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), one of the country’s largest and most active NGOs, filed a lawsuit against the zoo. But this lawsuit was far from ordinary.

https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...es-to-put-a-true-price-on-wildlife-crime/amp/