A/HRC/35/33 the transfer in accordance with the Convention. All States parties must prohibit trade in violation of the Convention and penalize the trade or possession of listed species. 60. The European Union implements the Convention through its wildlife trade regulations and became a party to it in 2015. In addition, it extends even stricter protections with respect to certain forms of wildlife crime. For instance, as part of its Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan, the European Union Timber Regulation was adopted, prohibiting illegally harvested timber from entering the European Union market. Companies must exercise due diligence when placing timber or timber products into the market unless the wood has a permit under the Convention or the State of export has licensed it under the above-mentioned Action Plan system. States must adopt effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties to ensure compliance. 61. The European Union also provides strong protection regarding illegal, unreported and unregulated activity, in areas such as fishing. 51 For such activity, a State will receive a “yellow card” warning if it has a problematic fishing industry. If it does not cooperate in fixing the situation, the State could receive a “red card”, banning all fish caught in the State from entering the European Union market. Regulations on illegal, unreported and unregulated activity provide for cooperation mechanisms between the European Union and third countries to help the latter comply with the rules. 52 After receiving a yellow card in 2015, Thailand enacted several measures to reform its fishing industry, including by strengthening its human trafficking laws and improving law enforcement’s ability to engage in cross-border cooperation.53 62. Domestic laws are also important to ensure robust legal protection against wildlife crime. One notable example is the United States Lacey Act. The Act prohibits the trade and possession of a wide range of plants and animals, including all species protected under the Convention, in violation of United States law, state law and foreign law. Legal entities, alongside natural persons, are subject to the law, and the Act has been the basis for several corporate prosecutions. In Australia, the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act is another example of good legislation addressing wildlife crime. The law makes it a criminal offence for businesses to import any illegally-logged timber and requires businesses to exercise due diligence in this regard. 63. The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime is a collaborative effort of the secretariat of the Convention, INTERPOL, UNODC, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization that supports law enforcement in many ways. Beyond providing tools and guidance documents to teach States how to improve their enforcement efforts, the Consortium can deploy wildlife incident support teams to offer on-the-ground assistance. Together with other organizations, the Consortium helps coordinate multi-State operations to detect and stop cross-border wildlife crime. 64. INTERPOL is another organization that provides operational support and tools to enhance State capacities in this area. Under its Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Committee, INTERPOL has working groups on fisheries crime and wildlife crime, both of which, among other activities, bring together specialists in the area to network and exchange expertise. INTERPOL also has projects dedicated to specific types of wildlife crime and supports States by providing intelligence, analysis, and operational coordination. These include Project LEAF on illegal logging and related crimes, Project Predator on Asian big cats and other wildlife species and Project Scale on transnational fisheries crime. 65. Many regional initiatives exist that focus on cross-border law enforcement cooperation for wildlife and forestry crime. A noteworthy example is the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, an organization open to all African States. The Task Force is a permanent law enforcement institution that facilitates cooperation between States parties 51 52 53 14 For example, Council Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008; and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1010/2009. See https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/sites/fisheries/files/docs/body/cooperation_note_en.pdf. See www2.thaiembassy.be/press-release-thailands-progress-in-combating-iuu-fishing/.