Green Customs Initiative

In September 2020, the Green Customs Initiative (GCI) released a pilot green customs curriculum for the Latin America and Caribbean region (Spanish speaking). The curriculum provides a structured outline to guide the region’s national customs training institutions in training related to the control of international trade in environmentally sensitive commodities. The goal of the curriculum is to raise awareness of customs and other border control officers on environmental issues, and enhance their capacity to effectively detect and contain situations linked to these commodities, such as their illegal trade.

This curriculum is based on consultations with representatives from national training institutes from 14 Spanish speaking countries in the region, and feedback that they provided in a needs’ assessment survey launched at  the Capacity Building Workshop for National Ozone Officers and Customs Officers of Latin America, Cuba and Dominican Republic, Asuncion, Paraguay, 20-22 August 2019.

The curriculum proposes sessions covering relevant trade-related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), the role of customs officers in addressing environmentally sensitive commodities, health and safety protocols, identification and tariff classification as well as how to prevent illegal trade of such commodities. A list of useful knowledge resources is also included.

Although designed in collaboration with the Spanish-speaking Latin America and Caribbean region to address their needs, the curriculum (available in Spanish and English) is a pertinent and timely tool that is adaptable to other regions in the world. As part of the next pilot phase, the curriculum will be rolled out in the region.

For more information, contact Amanda Cabrejo le Roux at amanda.cabrejo@un.org and Aphrodite Smagadi at aphrodite.smagadi@un.org.