Trafficking Culture: researching the global traffic in looted cultural objects

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Intended Audience

Cultural heritage workers, organizations, crime prevention agencies.

Trafficking Culture

“Trafficking Culture is an interdisciplinary research consortium with an overall interest in understanding the illicit trade in cultural objects, developing and refining an evidence base for promoting effective policy interventions to reduce this global form of trafficking.

Our researchers, based at Maastricht University, Oxford University, University of Victoria at Wellington, and University of Glasgow combine criminological and archaeological expertise and participate in a number of independent, but thematically-overlapping research projects, supported by the rest of the Trafficking Culture consortium and by other colleagues. Our work is geographically diverse and inherently interdisciplinary.

From 2012 until 2016 this research programme was housed at the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and was funded by the European Research Council.

General Interests:

Analysis of antiquities sales and acquisitions data in order to provide size and shape estimates for the international illicit market

Development and evaluation of cultural heritage policy

Ethnographic research and fieldwork into antiquities looting and trafficking routes, as well as heritage security

Comparative analysis of parallel and related illicit commodities smuggling, including wildlife, fine art, fossils, and drugs

Qualitative interview of trade participants, regulators, and stakeholders

Our guiding principle is that the trade is demand-led and that effective countermeasures need to be focused on shrinking the destination market by reducing demand. By conducting innovative quantitative and qualitative research we have established and are growing a body of reliable, empirical evidence that can support the formulation of more effective cultural heritage protection policy. We are also committed to raising public and political awareness of the trade and of possible solutions to these problems by means of social media and other means of on-line education, as well as by targeted professional training.”

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SDGs LINKAGES

The resource is most closely related to SDGs around Risk Reduction, planning and management, including SDGs 4.4 (staff training), 9.1 (sustainable infrastructure), 11.4 (protect and safeguard cultural and natural heritage), 11.5 (reduce the impact of disasters), 11.B (Implement policies for inclusion, resource efficiency and disaster risk reduction), 15.7 (end trafficking of illegal wildlife products), 16.3 (promote the Rule of Law), 16.4 (reduce illicit trade), 16.6 (effective, accountable and transparent institutions), 16.B (policies and laws for sustainable development), 17.14 (policy coherence for sustainable development), 17.16 (international) and 17.17 (local and national partnerships).

Click on the SDG Target to discover Our Collections Matter indicators

SDG 4.4: Increase the Number of People with Relevant Skills for Financial Success
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Number of young people and adults in skills-development activities and programmes drawing on collections, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
Increase in number of young people and adults in such programmes.
Number and proportion of staff who have received training in the last year, to better support their contribution to the SDGs.
Programs and processes in place to ensure the availability of a skilled workforce.
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SDG 9.1: Develop Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Infrastructures
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Development of research-useful collections to support reliable, sustainable and resilient use by researchers and others.
Number and proportion of collections facilities and stores that support economic development and human well-being.
Number and proportion of collections facilities and stores that provide affordable and equitable access for all.
Investment in collections facilities.
Inclusion of collections information in regional and transborder initiatives, notably via digital access for discoverability.
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SDG 11.4: Protect the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Total expenditure (public and private) per capita spent on the preservation, protection and conservation of all cultural and natural heritage, by type of heritage.
Plans, policies and procedures in place for the safe use of collections for a variety of purposes, protecting and safeguarding both collections and those who use them.
Plans, policies and procedures in place for the identification, safeguarding and protection of cultural and natural heritage at risk.
Collecting programmes in place to protect, safeguard and make use of cultural and natural heritage, addressing the needs of communities and stakeholders, and ensuring that collections can be an effective resource for sustainable development.
Number and diversity of educational, awareness-raising, research programmes, and partnerships that aim to strengthen protection of cultural and natural heritage.
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SDG 11.5: Reduce the Adverse Effects of Natural Disasters
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Collections-based research that supports the understanding and management of disasters of all kinds.
Plans in place for public education and awareness drawing on collections and collections-based institutions to reduce exposure and vulnerability to disasters of all kinds.
Plans in place to ensure collections-based institutions steadily work to reduce their contributions to disaster risk, for example by reducing pollution and waste of all kinds.
Plans in place to ensure collections-based institutions, and people related to them (including workers) are protected from economic losses as a result of disasters.
Plans in place to provide special support/protection to poor and vulnerable people and groups in and following disasters.
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SDG 11.B: Implement Policies for Inclusion, Resource Efficiency and Disaster Risk Reduction
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030a.
Disaster Risk Reduction strategies and plans in place, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, to ensure collecting institutions and collections are factored into planning, and contribute effectively to Disaster Risk Reduction.
Collections-based institutions included in local plans for social inclusion, resource use, and Disaster Risk Reduction.
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SDG 15.7: Eliminate Poaching and Trafficking of Protected Species
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Policies and plans in place to ensure objects and specimens of protected species (for example ivory, rhino horn) in collections are protected against theft and do not enter supply chains.
Policies and plans in place to ensure that objects and specimens are only acquired in line with national and international legislation, or with legal dispensation.
Information on, programmes relating to, collections development, and partnerships relating to poached and trafficked species, notably protected and endangered species, to end poaching and trafficking.
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SDG 16.3: Promote the Rule of Law and Ensure Equal Access to Justice
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Collections development that relates to the rule of law, equality before the law, and justice for all.
Number of activities drawing on collections, for example educational, research and partnership activities, that promote the rule of law at national and international levels, and that promote a culture of lawfulness, and the right of all to justice.
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SDG 16.4: Combat Organized Crime and Illicit Financial and Arms Flows
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Identification of stolen assets, return of stolen assets.
Collections development, education, awareness-raising and partnership activities relating to organized crime, with a view to combatting organized crime everywhere.
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SDG 16.6: Develop Effective Accountable and Transparent Institutions
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Proportion of the population [audience/users/non-users] satisfied with their last experience of public services.
Access to information, and accountability policies and mechanisms, in place.
Effective institutional arrangements, both for own working and for working in partnership with other sectors, in place.
Plans and arrangements in place for extraordinary circumstances such as natural and human-caused disasters.
Effective arrangements in place to fulfil legal and social obligations and responsibilities.
Effective arrangements in place for transparent communication and reporting of institutional performance.
Effective arrangements in place for transparent decision-making and accountability.
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SDG 16.B: Promote and Enforce Non-Discriminatory Laws and Policies
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Proportion of population [audience/users/non-users] reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed in the previous 12 months on the basis of a ground of discrimination prohibited under international human rights law.
Number and proportion of policies that incorporate sustainable development considerations, in the full sense of recognizing all three of social, economic and environmental considerations.
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SDG 17.14: Enhance Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Proportion of policies that incorporate sustainable development considerations, linking to SDGs and targets.
Incorporation of policy considerations from outside the collections sector into policies of collections-based institutions, to facilitate partnerships and effectiveness.
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SDG 17.16: Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Number and/or increase in number, and diversity of global and international multi-stakeholder partnerships that share collection-related knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources to address the SDGs, or that otherwise involve collections-based organisations and institutions.
Number and/or increase in number, and diversity of global and international multi-stakeholder partnerships involving developing countries that share collection-related knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources to address the SDGs.
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SDG 17.17: Encourage Effective Partnerships
Our Collections Matter indicators:
Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private and civil society partnerships.
Number and/or increase in number, and diversity of local, national and regional multi-stakeholder (public, public-private and civil society) partnerships that address the SDGs drawing on collections, or that otherwise involve collections-based organisations and institutions.
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