FAUNOS strategic goal is to combat organised environmental crime with improved prevention, detection and investigation resources in the hands of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). Such form of crime is highlighted as a top priority concern within the EU Security Union Strategy 2020-20253, being the third most lucrative criminal business in the world and the largest source of financing for non-state actors according to INTERPOL4. Consequences further involve devastating impacts to the economy, citizens wellbeing and the ecological balance of affected regions. To address this multifaceted threat, the new Environmental Crime Directive5 set out new offences, penalties and specific obligations to Members States to improve the effectiveness of the enforcement. Within its transnational public-private partnership, FAUNOS will implement a user-driven, technical and regulatory approach to assist Member States in the implementation of this Directive6.
The project specifically tackles waste and pollution crimes and will deliver innovative technical and technological resources, specialised training, anonymised statistical data on the reporting and investigation stages, as well as coordinative-cooperation mechanisms among competent authorities involved from regional to national and European level. To achieve this, FAUNOS will be based on outcomes and consortium partners stemming from (1) PERIVALLON(“Protecting the EuRopean terrItory from organised enVironmentAl crime through inteLLigent threat detectiON tools”) and (2) EMERITUS (“Environmental crimes’ intelligence and investigation protocol based on multiple data sources”) projects.
The technical solution consists of an integrated user-friendly platform enabling secure processing of multimodal data, including Copernicus satellite imagery, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) onboard sensors, open and private GIS-based services and historical records of criminal cases. Capabilities such as the automatic remote detection of waste disposal and pollutants on land and water, optimal UAV-based inspection and characterisation of sites of interest, dynamic prioritisation of incidents for further criminal investigation and identification of interconnections among criminal actors in organised crime networks will be adapted, deployed and tested. The platform will be integrated into the legacy infrastructure of Guardia Civil (GC), who will undergo a specialised CIFAL-M/UNITAR-certified training programme to accelerate the learning process and ensure a successful uptake of project results.