How to Respond to Environmental Crime | Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime

What does the term 'Environmental Crime' mean to you? Probably something like elephant or rhino poaching. Perhaps the plight of the pangolin, the adorable little armoured mammal, often sighted as the "most trafficked animal in the world". But it is so much more than that - from the illegal wildlife trade to illicit plastic waste, and from illegal mining to timber trafficking.

The spotlight on environmental crime has never been more prominent, public consciousness around climate change has seen to that. Indeed, environmental crime was implicated in early theories surrounding the origin of COVID-19.

And so, in this episode we'll show you the breadth of research taking place here at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Through the story of our global responses to environmental crime we'll show just how integrated different illicit markets are with one another.

(This podcast is based around the paper ‘An analytic review of past responses to ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME and programming recommendations’)

Speaker(s):

Simone Haysom, Thematic Lead on Environmental Crime, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Farai Maguwu, Director at the Center for Natural Resource Governance in Zimbabwe and member of the GI Network of Experts

Vincent Opyene, a state-prosecutor in Uganda, specialising in wildlife crimes and founder of the Natural Resource Conservation Network.

Karla Mendes, Investigative Journalist at Mongabay, a non-profit environmental science and conversation news platform.

Peter Wagner, Director of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments at the European Commission.

Natalie Pauwels, the Head of Unit, Stability and Peace - Global and Trans regional Threats at the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments at the European Commission.

Ana Paula Oliveira, Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and presenter of The Ripple Effect podcast, part of the Assassination Witness Project.

Lucia Bird, Director of the West African Observatory, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Virginia Comolli, Senior Expert, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Jason Eligh, Senior Expert, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Additional Reading:

(GI Paper) An analytic review of past responses to ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME and programming recommendations - Link

(GI Paper) A Synthetic Age: The Evolution of Methamphetamine Markets in Eastern and Southern Africa - Link

(GI Paper) Deep-rooted interests: Licensing illicit logging in Guinea Bissau - Link

(GI Paper) Plastic for profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors - Link

(GI Paper) Branches of Illegality: Cambodia's illegal logging structures - Link

(GI Paper) Vietnam's virtual landscape for illicit wildlife trading: A snapshot of e-commerce and social media - Link

(GI Paper) Civil Society Observatory of Illicit Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa Risk Bulletin - Issue 25 - Kromah Cartel -