ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

Following a criminal investigation in which Italian law enforcement agencies discovered over 900 endangered cacti in Ancona, Associazione per la Biodiversità e la sua Conservazione (ABC) was permitted to bring a civil claim.

The plants in question had likely been transported without proper permits from Chile’s Atacama Desert into Europe. This would represent a breach of Italian laws applying the CITES, which opposes the “unsustainable exploitation” of certain wild species .

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for October 2024.

ABC’s claim seeks compensation from the defendants in connection with ‘moral harm’ caused to by poaching and smuggling to its work relating to conservation and sustainable legal production nurseries. If successful, ABC plans to invest the money into remedies relating to cacti conservation and restoration.