The Vladivostok branch of the Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia hosted the first intercollegiate scientific and practical conference on the preservation of biological resources with the participation of the Amur Tiger Center.
The conference on the theme “Preservation of biological resources as a component of the national security of the Russian Federation and the role of the executive authorities in ensuring it” was held in Vladivostok on April 30, 2015. Along with public environmental organizations, the Primorsk interregional environmental prosecutor's office, the Vladivostok branch of the Russian Customs Academy, the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, the Far Eastern Federal University, the Far Eastern Interregional Training Center of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, law enforcement officers of the Primorsky Krai and, of course, students Vladivostok branch of the Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
The conference discussed the criminal law problems of preserving the biological resources of the Far East and ways to solve them. It was about improving the legislation in order to make the punishment not only inevitable, but also effective and proportionate to the public danger, about interaction with the customs authorities. The law enforcement practice was analyzed on such types of crimes as illegal harvesting, illegal hunting and extraction of aquatic biological resources.
The Primorsky branch of the Amur Tiger Center has extensive experience in conducting advanced training courses for investigators, investigators, detectives of the Russian Interior Ministry in the Primorsky Krai, as well as hunting control officers to identify violations of hunting and forestry regulations.
“The Far Eastern Branch of the Law Institute is a unique educational institution, since the overwhelming majority of its graduates go to work in their specialty, while almost all of them remain working in the area of the Amur tiger. It is they who will carry out operational-search measures or investigative actions on crimes against nature,” says the director of the Primorsky branch of the Amur Tiger Center Sergey Aramilev - In this connection, it is extremely important that young investigators, investigators and officers of operational congratulations leave the university with comprehensive knowledge of the methods of investigation of art. 258, 258.1 and 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. We very much hope that we have managed to infect university professors with the importance and necessity of investigating crimes against rare and endangered species of animals, their food supply and habitats. In the end, this will seriously affect the number of cases of illegal shooting of the Amur tiger, selling and storing its body parts and derivatives from it.”
The report of Pavel Fomenko was devoted to the importance of the examination of wild animals as the basis of evidence in the investigation of criminal cases in respect of valuable species - the Amur tiger, Amur leopard and their prey. Was shows the dynamics of detection of offences related to illegal circulation of objects of fauna and flora in the Far East of Russia, over the last 20 years, and the number of examinations of the Amur tiger and ungulates conducted by experts since 2004.
“Currently, against the background of a decrease in the number of environmental crimes, the damage caused by the poachers to the state increases significantly. They started poaching in an organized, professional manner, using modern technical means, and these criminal encroachments pose a threat to national security both in environmental and economic terms, - comments Pavel Fomenko. - In order to resist poaching, law enforcement agencies must go one step ahead, including in the training of specialists. For this, it is important to purposefully engage in the development of environmental education programs and create a wildlife conservation center at the Vladivostok branch of the Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, which is the main forge for the preparation of investigators and investigators in our region”.
Such specialized centers have already been established in Primorye, and they play a great role in the conservation of biodiversity in the Far East. This is an educational and methodological center for customs protection of wildlife on the basis of the Vladivostok branch of the Russian Customs Academy, a class of basic survival and conservation of wildlife at the Training Center of the Border Management of the Federal Security Service of Russia in Primorsky Krai and an expert laboratory at the Primorskaya State Academy of Agriculture.