The Rise of Environmental Crime: A Growing Threat to Natural Resources, Peace, Development and Security

Introduction The large-scale killings of up to several hundred thousand elephants in the last decade 2 have probably triggered much of the global attention on the wider wildlife trafficking crisis. This has been reflected in numerous conferences, resolutions and declarations in over 70 significant events since 2012 to support efforts to curb the poaching and illegal trade. 3 The wider illegal trafficking of thousands of species, of birdlife, reptiles, fish, amphibians, mammals and plants has reached unprecedented scales, damaging ecosystems, diversifying transnational organized crime (TOC), and causing losses in revenues from tourism. Forestry crimes, from unregulated or illegal burning of char- coal to large-scale corporate crimes concerning timber, paper and pulp involving large- scale deforestation, have major bearings on global climate emissions, water reserves, desertification schemes and rainfall. 4

The scale and nature of the challenge of illegal wildlife trade have been well recognized in decisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (see decisions and resolutions following COP 16) 5-7 , the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Crim- inal Justice and UNODC, 8 the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN Security Council, UN General Assembly, INTERPOL, 9 the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and others, including many significant nations. High-level polit- ical conferences have also addressed the issue, most notably recently convened in Botswana and Paris (December 2013), London (February 2014), and Tanzania (May 2014). This has led to resolutions at the UN Environment Assembly in 2014 and 2016, in the UN General Assembly in 2015 on Tackling illicit trafficking in Wildlife (A/RES/69/314), in Resolution 23/1 of The Commission onCrime Prevention and Criminal Justice on strengthening a targeted crime prevention and criminal justice response to combat illicit trafficking in forest products, and by INTERPOL General Assembly (AG-2014-RES-03). Yet, while these resolutions increase the political momentum, the crisis is still deepening in many regions. In spite of some successes, the responses in terms of impact on the ground are still behind the scale and development of the threat to wild- life and ecosystems, as well as increasingly also development goals, peace and security. Environmental crimes, including illegal mining of gold, diamonds, illegal unreported and unregulated fisheries and trafficking in hazardous waste also undermines legal commerce and robs developing countries of an estimated USD 91–259 billion every year. Tax revenues from this activity could have been used for schools, infrastructure investments, health care and business development.

The issue of environmental crime, however, has much more far-reaching impacts and threats to human security and sustainable development. Firstly, many people are involun- tarily recruited as a result of poverty and lack of alternatives. Secondly, the diversification of organized crime into these sectors as a low-risk, but profitable crime further acceler- ates corruption and undermines legal business models by deflating prices and even through the use of forced labour.

Finally, environmental crime, beyond destroying the very platform on which our health, food production, economy

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