Committee Description

Welcome to the United Nations Security Council, 2024, where we will be focusing on the Illicit Trafficking of Natural Resources. This double-delegate committee will incorporate elements of General Assemblies, including policy-making and resolution-writing, alongside fast-paced crisis updates which will put delegates to the ultimate test! 

Illicit trade of environmental and natural resources is currently one of the most lucrative forms of transnational crime. In 2019, the World Bank Group estimated that illegal fishing, logging, and wildlife accounted for nearly 2 trillion dollars of global GDP. Furthermore, the International Institute for Sustainable Development predicts that nearly 25% of the value of all global trade of natural resources consists of environmental crimes. 

These criminal activities allow organizations to evade government taxes and import-export tariffs. Additionally, groups may evade key environmental regulations by overfishing, harvesting, or poaching vulnerable species, through poor and unsustainable logging and deforestation practices, or by misreporting data of business activities. Finally, the shipping of waste and toxic chemicals abroad enables major corporations to illegally and unethically escape regulations for sustainable waste management.

In this committee, delegates must write critical legislation to put an immediate halt to the illegal trade of natural resources across national and international borders. They must address recent environmental and shipping crises through efficient and innovative solutions. Only through greater collaboration can the nations of the UNSC come together to put an end to the illegal trade industry.

Our dais looks forward to seeing global cooperation and diplomacy as well as key creative ideas to address this ever-growing crisis. We cannot wait to meet all of the delegates throughout the course of the weekend!