As the world’s largest, least risky and most lucrative environmental crime, illegal logging has grown at an alarming rate in Latin American countries. Involving a vast criminal landscape and a complex modus operandi, illegal logging has grown relentlessly in the region, threatening the unique biodiversity it supports and thus posing a significant threat to the stability of Latin America, causing deforestation, habitat loss and the extinction of species while fueling conflict and violence.

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Of all the environmental crimes, illegal logging is considered the largest, least risky, and most profitable crime, with an estimated annual value of up to US$157 billion. WWF describes the practice as “the harvesting, transporting, processing, buying or selling of timber in violation of national laws.” it adds that “it also applies to harvesting wood from protected areas, exporting threatened plant and tree species, and falsifying official documents.” As the global timber trade has surged, with the value of forest product exports more than quadrupling over the past four decades, illegal logging has continued unabated, wreaking havoc on the environment.

Illegal logging has devastating environmental, economic, and social impacts. It fuels deforestation, endangering the home of 80% of the world’s remaining land-based biodiversity. As forests have essentially disappeared in 25 countries and lost over 90% of their cover in 29 others, illegal logging puts remaining arable land at risk of irreversible elimination. It also contributes to climate change through forest clearing, which is responsible for about 30% of the greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere. Moreover, it deprives the one in four people worldwide who rely on forest resources for their livelihoods of the ability to sustain their needs. Finally, illegal logging drives conflicts and violence, often being linked to criminal organizations and financing armed groups. 

Illegal logging manifests itself in various forms. It may involve felling trees without permission or in protected areas, cutting down protected plant species, exceeding legally permitted quantities of timber, and using corrupt means to access logging. However, this crime extends beyond harvesting to include the processing, laundering, and trade of illegal timber as well as fraudulent customs declarations and timber tax evasion. 

The Devastating Impacts of Illegal Logging in Latin America

Latin America is especially vulnerable to environmental crimes due to its outstanding biodiversity and wealth of natural resources. Although Latin America accounts for less than 15% of the earth’s land surface, it houses more than 40% of its biodiversity. The region is home to the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest remaining tropical forest, covering eight million square kilometres. The Amazon Basin is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. It supports over 40,000 plant species, 1,294 birds, 378 reptiles, 427 mammals, 426 amphibians, and 3,000 fish species. 

Yet, this incommensurable biological diversity is threatened by rampant deforestation. In 2022 alone, 1.98 million hectares of primary forest were lost in the Basin, the second-highest recorded after the 2004 peak. This environmental crisis is partly fueled by proliferating illegal logging plaguing the region, with between 50% and 90% of its timber being illegally harvested.

Illegal logging is particularly damaging to the environment and biodiversity, as criminals purposely target remaining high conservation value forests and protected areas, which contain over-harvested trees elsewhere. Illegal logging catalyzes deforestation, driving land grabbing of once pristine forest areas. This leads to significant biodiversity loss, as many endangered species are threatened with extinction due to overexploitation or habitat destruction. Latin America is the epicenter of the global extinction crisis, where up to 468 species are estimated to have gone extinct over the past centuries. The region has the most significant number of extinct animal species worldwide and has experienced the largest defaunation rate since 1970. Although it is the most biologically diverse region, it also shelters approximately one in five animals facing extinction. Therefore, as illegal logging continues unabated, the region faces creeping risks of widespread species extinction.

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Despite being ecologically significant for carbon storage, Amazon is being plundered at an alarming rate by illegal logging. Deforestation reduces the amount of carbon the forest can store and generates significant greenhouse gas emissions from vegetation degradation and fires used to clear land for exploitation. Indeed, the Amazon is essential in regulating the global atmospheric carbon levels. Its trees absorb considerable amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The Basin is thus a massive carbon reservoir, storing roughly 100 billion tons of carbon, three times the global yearly emissions from fossil fuels. However, when forests are removed, much of the carbon captured by trees is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. Due to rampant deforestation, Amazon has since turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, releasing more than it stores.

As is usually the case for environmental crimes, illegal logging is endemic in protected areas. Illegal loggers plunder the forests of indigenous territories, national parks and peasant collectives, devastating unique pristine environments. 

Illegal logging causes significant harm to Indigenous peoples who depend on forests for survival and livelihoods. Over the past decade, ostensibly protected Indigenous territories experienced a 129% increase in forest loss, stemming notably from timber trafficking. The Gran Chaco, the second largest forest in South America after the Amazon rainforest, is experiencing one of the highest deforestation rates worldwide. Despite being home to 9 million people and innumerable species, around a fifth of the forest has been razed. This has had a significant impact on the lives of Indigenous people, for whom the loss of the forest is arguably “nothing less than the end of the world.” Indeed, their livelihoods are deeply entwined with the health of the forest, on which they depend for their food, supplies, and cultural survival. Moreover, illegal logging has generated intense conflicts between local communities and criminal loggers who encroach on their protected territories. Indigenous people in the Amazon have seen their territories ceaselessly invaded by loggers, leading to violent encounters. These acts have cost the lives of many indigenous people and destabilized ethnic minority communities in their traditional territories.

Finally, illegal loggers deprive governments of much-needed revenues, unsustainably looting significant expenses of forests and avoiding paying taxes and permit fees. Illegal logging causes a significant drain on economies, diminishing the quality of and access to public services and hampering larger development initiatives. This undermines governments’ financial ability to foster socio-economic benefits for citizens, thereby sustaining a poverty cycle that underpins environmental crimes.

For instance, according to INTERPOL, Peru loses around 1.5 times more to illegal logging than the total value of its legal timber exports, as 60% of logging in the country is conducted illegally. It also faces a concerning rise in poverty as 70% of the population is poor or at risk of falling into poverty, making criminal activities increasingly appealing alternative sources of revenue.

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Illegal Logging’s Modus Operandi, Actors, and Enablers

Timber trafficking involves three stages: harvesting, transportation, and transformation. First, corteros (cutters) illegally fell trees, often outside of concession boundaries and in protected areas. Then, criminal networks organize the shipment and “laundering” through the timber transformation. Illegal logging is orchestrated by patrones (bosses) who plan and facilitate trafficking operations. This procedure is employed across the Amazon Basin to cover up the origin of illegal wood. Therefore, the difficulty in combating illegal logging in Latin America lies in the persistent concealment of illegally sourced timber’s provenance.

Front companies and falsified documents obscure the origin of wood harvested in prohibited areas or quantities exceeding those authorized. These documents, required to certify the legality of the timber, are counterfeited or obtained illegally through corruption, providing a protection mechanism for criminals. Thus, fraudulent forestry permits hide the coveted illegally felled timber and allow its laundering.

As for every environmental crime, corruption is the prevalent enabler of illegal logging. A World Bank study stated that “large-scale illegal logging operations cannot occur without the explicit or implicit consent of those government officials in charge of protecting the forests.” INTERPOL estimates the global cost of forestry corruption at roughly US$29 billion annually. Corruption occurs at every stage of timber trafficking, including issuing logging permits, evading controls, processing timber, falsifying customs documents, and selling. An Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) report outlined this intricate web of corruption in the Latin American forestry industry, involving politicians, forestry officials, timber companies, sawmills, transporters, loggers, mayors, and police, among other officials.

After being harvested, the wood is sent to sawmills and processing plants, where it is either sawed into boards or carved into a final product to be legally resold. As opposed to drug trafficking, timber is not sold in illegal markets but instead fed into legal sectors where its illegal origin is concealed. Thus, when illegally sourced timber exits these processing facilities, it appears legal, making its way to domestic and international markets. Illegal wood in one country may be legally imported into another, especially when transformed into products. For instance, UNEP and INTERPOL estimate that 86% of illegal tropical timber entering the European Union and 62% entering the United States arrives as paper, pulp, or wood chips instead of roundwood, sawn timber, or furniture products.

Illegal logging is profoundly intertwined with organized crime. A report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime uncovered connections between illegal logging in Mexico and transnational drug traffickers. Illegal logging’s high profitability has attracted criminal groups, offering a unique source of income to fund their operations with minimal risk. Mexican cartels involved in illegal logging have also been linked to land grabs and deforestation, resulting in an interconnected web of illegal operations fueling violence in the country.

Non-state armed groups, mainly financed through illegal activities, also contribute to illegal logging. They collaborate with criminal networks to oversee criminal operations in the Amazon region. These militias and guerrilla groups provide security services to ensure the transit of timber trafficking, charging a fee for transporting timber through territories under their control. In Colombia, deforestation has significantly increased from 2016 onward, explained in part by the demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group following the peace agreement signed with the government that year. Before 2016, FARC’s presence in the forests as a hiding place discouraged activities that resulted in forest loss. However, FARC’s withdrawal opened up protected territories across the Amazon region for other criminal groups, while dissident members who refused to demobilize turned to illegal logging and land grabbing to supplement criminal proceeds from drug trafficking.

The EU’s Updated Regulatory Framework as a Promising Solution  

The scale, concealment levels, and vast criminal landscape surrounding illegal logging necessitate a comprehensive strategy from national governments to combat timber trafficking. Indeed, as opposed to other criminal products, wood becomes legal once its origin is blurred, enabling it to move freely throughout markets. This fact is reflected by the persistent presence of illegal timber within the European Union’s markets, accounting for roughly one-fifth of Europe’s wood imports.

Around 45% of all timber exported from the Amazon Basin goes to Europe. Brazil is Latin America’s biggest supplier to the EU, which imports one-third of all timber harvested from the Brazilian Amazon. However, this figure clashes with the high proportion of illegal timber in Brazilian exports, as indicated by an estimated 80% of wood logged in Pará being harvested illegally. 

To address this predicament, the EU updated its regulatory framework for timber supply chains as part of its commitment to combating deforestation. It adopted in June 2023 the Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), which enters into application in December 2024, replacing the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). EUDR is a significant watershed moment in the global fight against forest destruction, given that the EU is the world’s second-largest importer of products causing deforestation. 

EUDR strives to improve the traceability and legality of timber products entering the EU market, focusing on due diligence across the whole supply chain – from extracting raw materials to the final product reaching consumers. The regulation sets more stringent due diligence requirements, prohibiting the sale of products not produced legally, degradation-free, and deforestation-free on the EU market. It applies to a wide range of commodities, including soy, oil palm, rubber, coffee, cacao, cattle, and wood, as well as their derived products. All companies trading the listed commodities in the EU must demonstrate that they are not sourced from deforested areas or have contributed to forest degradation. 

Before products are released to the market, companies will need to verify the geolocation of the forest and land source of the products using remote sensing information or satellite images. Moreover, they will be required to conduct risk assessments on their activities with traceability information and report annually on their due diligence strategy and the actions taken to ensure regulatory compliance. 

EUDR is part of a larger plan to combat deforestation and forest degradation, launched in the 2019 Commission Communication on Stepping up EU Action to Protect and Restore the World’s Forests. This commitment was strengthened by the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the Farm to Fork Strategy, which provide a comprehensive strategy for the EU to lead and drive environmental protection.

Therefore, this updated regulation presents a unique opportunity to support sustainable forestry exploitation and combat illegal logging and deforestation. By addressing the overarching issue of traceability that underpins timber trafficking, EUDR has the potential to embed good practices into global timber supply chains, thereby preventing the penetration of illegal timber on the legal market. Although this regulation is specific to Europe, it will influence international forestry trade, including from Latin America, shifting sourcing towards exclusively traceable origins. The EUDR will drive the implementation of regulatory compliance measures for the European market, thus setting a precedent for the global timber trade that can be emulated across domestic markets.

The post The Devastating Impact of Illegal Logging in Latin America appeared first on Earth.Org.

Illegal fishing has emerged as a significant transnational organized crime, conducted in all fishing jurisdictions. Asia is one of the regions in the world most seriously affected by this environmental crime, which has thrived unabated for the past two decades. This situation has caused serious damage to the environment and ecosystems, while endangering the food security and livelihoods of local populations and leading to numerous crimes and human rights violations.

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Understanding Illegal Fishing and Its Scale

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF) encompasses various criminal fishing activities and occurs in fisheries of all types and sizes, both on national waters and high seas. Illegal fishing is defined as fishing activities violating local or international laws. It can involve fishing without a license or permit, in restricted areas, using prohibited equipment, exceeding quotas, or targeting prohibited species. Unreported fishing includes fishing activities that are not or improperly reported to authorities, while unregulated fishing refers to fishing vessels not subject to any regulations, fishing in areas lacking management measures, operating under no nationality, or from countries that have not joined the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMO).

IUUF is a pervasive environmental crime responsible for one out of every five wild-caught marine fish. It is also a highly lucrative criminal activity, generating up to US$36.4 billion annually in illegal profits. No matter the nature and extent of IUUF, this activity jeopardizes marine ecosystems and fish stock conservation. IUU catches are not accounted for when assessing fish stocks, hindering sustainable fish population management and conservation efforts and leading to a chronic state of overfishing. 

Routinely operated on a large scale, IUUF can often be classified as a transnational organized crime. It is estimated to be the sixth largest transnational criminal activity by revenue, with high rewards and minimal risk. This interplay, which underpins environmental crime, is explained by poor and inconsistent fisheries management and enforcement, notably on the high seas.

More on the topic: Explainer: What Is Environmental Crime?

Developing countries are particularly prone to IUUF, where the limited capacity to enforce fishing laws drives crimes on the seas. IUUF thrives under weak governance conditions, including corruption, ambivalent legislation, and a lack of enforcement will. Developing countries often cannot afford costly and complex fisheries control mechanisms, allowing IUUF to be carried out with impunity and continue unabated. Moreover, illegal fishermen deprive countries of essential revenue and food by paying no taxes or duties on catches, ultimately exacerbating poverty. In addition to significant criminal profits, IUUF causes global losses worth billions of dollars in unpaid taxes, customs, licensing fees, and other legal costs.

Moreover, illegal fish can easily penetrate the complex and weakly regulated global supply chains. IUUF illegal products are difficult to detect, making this activity an environmental crime challenging to combat.

Illegal Fishing in Asia

The fishing industry is fundamental in Asia. Over half of the world’s fish catches occur in Asian countries, where the proportion of people relying on the fishing sector is considerably higher than in other regions. Local seas provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people and generate billions of dollars in economic activity. However, the region is also plagued by overfishing, with around 64% of its fisheries facing a medium- to high-level threat to survival. 

Most overfishing in Asia is attributable to IUUF, which is prevalent in the region. The western central Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans, including Southeast Asia, are among the most severely affected areas worldwide. IUUF catches account for over one-third of recorded catches, which remained unchanged for the past two decades. IUUF also weighs on Asian governments’ revenues, costing billions of dollars in unpaid taxes, landing fees, and export revenue. Consequently, as fishery represents a fundamental resource for Asian countries, IUUF poses an alarming challenge to the region, menacing fish population sustainability, marine biodiversity, food security, revenue, and livelihoods while causing environmental damage, undermining interstate relations, and encouraging transnational crimes.

The widespread and enduring nature of IUUF can be attributed to its lucrative, low-risk, high-return nature. For instance, on illegal Asian markets, one kilogram of Totoaba fish bladder is worth more than one kilogram of cocaine, costing up to US$50,000 per bladder. In parallel, the significant demand for seafood across markets – especially for tuna, cod, mackerel, and squid – has exacerbated rampant overfishing. The declining marine fauna has driven up market prices, providing further financial incentives for IUUF. However, the illegal methods employed to maximize catches also push declining populations toward extinction, creating a vicious cycle.

As fish stocks are being quickly depleted, IUUF has emerged as a central concern for countries in the region. Notably, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said IUUF is the most serious internal security threat his country faces. In response, he implemented a “sink the boat” policy, consisting of blowing up illegal trawlers apprehended in the country’s territorial waters.

Due to the rising concern of Asian countries, IUUF is moving to and intensifying in exclusive economic zones and international waters, which are harder to detect than in territorial waters. Moreover, illegal fishers routinely use flags of convenience, under which ships are registered in a different country than the one where the owner resides or holds citizenship. This practice enables trawlers to camouflage and evade their own country’s conservation and management regulations. When deliberately registering a vessel to a country reluctant or ineffective to monitor and control fishing activities, trawlers are regarded as operating under a Flag of Non-Compliance. This allows vessels to avoid scrutiny and operate with impunity. Hence, countering this environmental crime’s expansion outside state jurisdiction and intricate modus operandi requires greater resources and international cooperation. 

Nevertheless, many Asian states lack the resources to patrol and uphold regulations in their national waters. For example, Indonesia has only 72 coastguard vessels that oversee approximately 6 million square kilometers of territorial seas, more than double the size of the Mediterranean Sea. 

Inadequate enforcement capacity is compounded by the absence of comprehensive multilateral management in Asia, brought about by lingering disputes over territorial zones of control. Operating across disputed territorial seas, IUUF exacerbates conflicts over maritime boundaries and hinders international cooperation on fisheries management, leaving the issue unresolved. In addition, the increasing risk of fish depletion stands as a destabilizing element in an already delicate region, fueling tensions that are exacerbating conflicts over maritime boundaries and facilitating IUUF. 

Enforcing fishing regulations is also hampered by transhipping, which involves transferring fish or other supplies from a fishing vessel to a refrigerated cargo vessel while at sea. Although this practice is often legal and commonplace, it can facilitate IUUF through misreporting of catches, targeting prohibited species, or fishing without a license or permit. Additionally, it allows ships to remain at sea for long periods, further complicating their monitoring. 

Crew members subjected to forced labor or human trafficking can also be trapped on fishing boats for years without returning to land, which prevents the identification of abuses and abject working conditions. Although some Asian countries have sought to address this widespread issue – including Thailand, which implemented a 30-day maximum time at sea for commercial fishing vessels – transshipping and forced labor remain commonplace in the fishing industry. 

Among Asian countries, China holds particular importance in fishing. China has the world’s largest distant water fishing fleet, often described as China’s “second navy.” However, this “armada” has routinely come under criticism from international environmental and fishery bodies for being the worst violator of fishing rights and international regulations. The methods employed by Chinese fishing ships have also been denounced for causing devastating environmental damage. For example, in a case brought by the Philippines, the Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration condemned China for the destruction and ransacking of over 100 square kilometers of pristine coral reefs using illegal methods, often occurring under the protection of Chinese patrol vessels. 

The Chinese IUUF issue is deeply entwined with China’s maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea, as the trawlers act as a deniable means to assert control over 90% of the sea that the government claims. Geopolitical considerations push China to maintain a global fishing presence, which contributes to occupying disputed waters and forcefully defending China’s vast territorial claims. While China has made promises to regulate its national fishing vessels, these considerations have led China to predominantly pay lip service to fisheries management agreements, leaving its distant-water fleet largely uncontrolled and opening the door to rampant IUUF.

The Multifaceted Impacts of Illegal Fishing

While accurately quantifying the environmental consequences of IUUF is impossible, its devastating contribution to overfishing, destruction of marine ecosystems, and pressure on already vulnerable marine species in the Asia-Pacific region is evident.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), IUUF is one of the greatest dangers to marine ecosystems, undermining efforts to manage fisheries sustainably and endeavors to conserve marine biodiversity. In several Asia-Pacific countries, IUUF hinders assessing fish stocks accurately and setting catch limits for some species. This problem is compounded for fish supplies already reaching their limits, for which failure to include meaningful estimates of IUU catches in population assessment places species at risk of irreversible depletion.

According to a UN report on biodiversity, 33% of marine fish stocks are being harvested at unsustainable levels, and 60% have already reached the maximum level. As marine species have decreased by about 40% in just over 40 years and roughly 30% of the world’s fish stocks are overfished, IUUF exacerbates the creeping risk of marine resource exhaustion. Using prohibited gear, fishing in protected areas, and the incidental capture of endangered species also cause severe damage to marine biodiversity. 

IUUF often relies on illegal and destructive fishing methods such as blast and cyanide fishing. Blast fishing involves using explosions to stun or kill large schools of fish to speed up catches. It often kills all marine life in the blast’s radius and causes irreversible damage to sensitive marine habitats such as coral reefs. A coral reef takes 5 to 10 years to recover from a single explosion. 

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The devastating impact of this method is visible in Indonesia, having contributed to the destruction of 70% of its reefs. Moreover, blast fishing is incredibly wasteful, as most fish sink to the bottom and cannot be recovered. 

Cyanide fishing is used to stun fish, making harvesting fish for the exotic pet market easier. This method can wipe out nearby fish populations and seriously damage coral reefs. The combination of cyanide use and stress causes up to three-quarters of the organisms to die within 48 hours of capture, necessitating even larger catches to compensate for the losses. 

IUUF depletes fish populations, disrupting food chains that sustain the entire marine environment. The consequences of this environmental crime are evident in the dwindling fish stocks in Asia, which are at risk of no longer providing sufficient fishery resources to guarantee food security and livelihoods in the future. 

IUUF constitutes an existential threat to the livelihoods of the 520 million people who rely on fishing activities for a living and the 2.6 billion who depend on fish for their diet. As fish populations decline due to overfishing in prohibited areas, food supply chains for coastal communities are at risk. The environmental impacts and the depletion of fishery resources create a ripple effect on the catches and livelihoods of other fishers, too. By overexploiting fishery resources, IUUF adversely impacts responsible fishermen who comply with established regulations, ravaging local fisheries and jeopardizing small-scale fishermen’s incomes and food security. 

Moreover, fishing on the high seas has expanded as coastal fish stocks dwindle, although sailing farther from shore significantly increases operating costs. IUUF vessels often seek to reduce costs by exploiting workers through forced labor, linking IUUF to other criminal activities. These also include document forgery, money laundering as well as human, drug, and wildlife trafficking. 

IUUF, as it is usually the case with environmental crimes, takes advantage of poverty. Fishermen are drawn into IUUF activities in the absence of alternative income opportunities. Migrant workers are also highly vulnerable to IUUF operations. However, illegal fishing does not comply with international labor standards and sailors on IUU vessels are subjected to inhumane living and working conditions. Workers are frequently paid minimal wages, forced to work long hours with no concerns for safety, and given inadequate food and accommodation. A 2019 Greenpeace report on IUUF highlighted inhumane working conditions and modern slavery, with illegal acts including long working hours, withholding the wages of fishing crew, physical abuse, and sexual abuse.

Some IUUF operations are financed by fish wholesalers or moneylenders, leading fishermen into a cycle of debt and preventing them from abandoning IUUF activities. The reduction in available fish resources pushes IUU vessels to move away from the coast and spend more time at sea, which encourages human trafficking. Operators turn to human slavery to cut costs, forcing misled individuals to work for months or even years for very little money. The practice of transhipment at sea has compounded the problem, virtually turning these ships into floating prisons for indentured workers.

Fighting Illegal Fishing and Its Consequences

IUUF fishing has continued unchecked in Asia, wreaking havoc on the environment and ecosystems while endangering the food security and livelihoods of local populations, exacerbating conflicts and leading to numerous crimes and human rights violations. To address this persistent issue, comprehensive measures are needed, ranging from updated regulations to increased monitoring.

First, RFMOs should request that transhipment take place only at ports where authorities can oversee the exchange to uncover any illegal activity. The South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation implemented this measure, setting a precedent for other RFMOs.

Second, to expand vessel transparency, all commercial fishing vessels should be mandated by the respective coastal and flag state governments and RFMOs overseeing their operations to continuously use an automatic identification system. This enables ships and traffic surveillance systems to determine vessels’ identity, status, location, and path in the navigation zone. Such regulations were established by the European Union, requiring fishing vessels longer than 15 meters to be equipped with, and constantly broadcast, an automatic identification system. 

Third, before issuing a license or authorisation, the flag and coastal states should request information about the vessel’s leadership, operators, and owners. Together with RFMOs, these states must maintain publicly accessible, up-to-date vessel registers that include the vessel identity numbers, licenses, and ownership. In addition, countries should implement the Fisheries Transparency Initiative standard to ensure public access to information on fisheries laws and regulations. 

Fourth, the International Labor Organisation (ILO), International Maritime Organisation (IMO), and RFMOs must collaborate to list vessels with a history of human rights violations, including forced labor practices and human trafficking. This list should be supplemented with vessel tracking data to improve enforcement and identify vessels that may require additional scrutiny. 

Finally, flag states are responsible for enforcing fishing regulations, whether in the territorial waters of coastal states, in waters managed by an RFMO, or on the high seas. This role implies effective monitoring, developing a solid legal structure for prosecuting IUUF and exchanging information with countries and relevant organizations. Moreover, no fishing permits should be granted to vessels with track records of IUUF, human rights abuse, and labor violations.

Consequently, fighting IUUF and its environmental impacts necessitates implementing policies that increase transparency and deter illegal activities by governments. As IUUF thrives on opacity, facilitated by suspicious activities such as transshipping, remaining at sea for extended periods, gaps in vessel tracking, and port avoidance, ensuring greater transparency can prevent violations at sea, leading to more sustainably managed fisheries worldwide.

The post Economic and Environmental Consequences of Illegal Fishing in Asia  appeared first on Earth.Org.

Wildlife crime is one of the most significant transnational criminal activities, drawing in organized criminal networks due to its low risks and high returns. Left unabated, the expansion of this environmental crime has left a dark imprint on society, generating violence and instability, and wreaking havoc on our planet’s fragile ecosystems and biodiversity. With a complex set of drivers and dynamics, wildlife crime has become an urgent problem that needs to be addressed at the international, national, and individual levels.

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Among all environmental crimes, wildlife crime is one of the most devastating, pushing threatened species to the brink of extinction and causing irreversible consequences on ecosystems around the world. As the recurring problem of environmental crimes, wildlife crime does not have a universally accepted definition, further complicating the fight against this serious crime. Nevertheless, it is understood by the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) as the harming, taking, trading, obtaining, possessing, and consumption of wild fauna and flora in contravention of national or international law. 

The Global Challenge of Wildlife Crime

No country is left untouched by wildlife crime, which affects biodiversity, entire ecosystems, local communities, national economies, human health, national security, and socio-economic development. Transnational wildlife crime is highly lucrative, estimated at up to US$199 annually, and facilitated by low financial and risk burden, enabling criminals to prey upon the flora and fauna with minimal costs. This comes at the expense of government revenues, depriving states of up to US$12 billion annually.

The challenge in combating wildlife crime lies in the wide-ranging spectrum of animals and plants targeted by this criminal activity. Over the last two decades, 6,000 different have been seized by authorities, with no single species accounting for more than 5% of incidents. Wildlife crime distinguishes itself as being truly a global issue, with virtually every country in the world being implicated. No country is responsible for more than 9% of the shipments seized, while approximately 150 nationalities have been identified among the suspected traffickers. 

Yet, although seizure data offer tangible evidence of a criminal activity obscured from view, they can often be challenging to interpret in isolation and represent only a fraction of the illegal wildlife trade. Therefore, seizure data cannot be taken at face value as they fail to represent the actual scale of the trafficking in protected wild fauna and flora species, suggesting a much broader magnitude and range of offenses. 

Wildlife crime causes significant harm, including the destruction of wildlife resources and ecosystems, desertification, environmental degradation, and the risk of species extinction. Nevertheless, wildlife crime is often treated as a “victimless crime” and often fails to be set as a priority in fighting organized crime.

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Wildlife Crime’s Criminal Landscape

Wildlife crime has rapidly evolved from being regarded as an emerging threat to one of the most significant transnational criminal activities. It is ranked as the fourth-largest transnational criminal activity after drug, counterfeit goods, and human trafficking. Low risks and high returns from wildlife trafficking have attracted organized criminal networks to expand into this criminal activity, bringing along greater violence and instability. Thus, wildlife crime is positioned as one of the most profitable activities fueling organized crime and terrorism, along with drug smuggling, human trafficking, and the illegal arms trade.

The level of sophistication in illegal trade makes the extensive involvement of organized crime evident. This includes the transition to internet markets, the vast amount of seized shipments, and the co-opting of legal trade markets into the criminal supply chain, all indicating a high level of organization. While some products are entirely illegal, such as rhino horns, for which trade is prohibited, some still enter legal marketplaces. Timber, for instance, is frequently fed into legal industries where its illegal origin is obscured, especially as wood illegally harvested in one country may be legal to import into another. These wildlife products are processed and sold as legal commodities, providing traffickers access to a far wider array of potential buyers.

Wildlife crime also involves corrupt officials at all levels, who enable illicit wildlife trade at sourcing, transit, and export stages. Corruption underpins the illegal trade in natural resources, nurtured by the vast profits made by various organizations from this criminal activity. It enables perpetrators to carry out their crimes with impunity, thereby contributing to the thriving of this criminal activity. For instance, an estimated US$18,000 to $30,000 in bribes were given to border officials per day to allow ivory to cross the Vietnam-China border illicitly. 

Wildlife crime converges with other illicit activities, being perpetrated alongside corruption, tax evasion, fraud, money laundering and arms trafficking. Criminals operate along the entire supply chain, exploiting institutional and legislative loopholes. Combined with porous borders and ineffective customs procedures, these regulatory weaknesses contribute to the fact that poaching and trafficking of protected species by criminal organizations across borders continue unabated today.

The significant criminal proceeds from wildlife trafficking are linked to the highly speculative value of wildlife products. Their price on the illicit market increases with the rarity and the threat of species extinction. Some endangered wildlife products are more valuable than gold, creating significant financial incentives for illicit wildlife markets. This dynamic produces a human-induced ‘anthropogenic allee effect,’ where the scarcer the supply of protected species, the higher the price consumers are willing to pay. This fuels a vicious cycle in which rare species are particularly coveted and highly prized, increasing hunting and making species even rarer and more expensive.

The deeply entrenched involvement of transnational criminal organizations in wildlife trafficking reflects the importance of addressing this environmental crime beyond the conservational implication it creates. As stressed by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “Combatting this crime is not only essential for conservation efforts and sustainable development, it will contribute to achieving peace and security in troubled regions where conflicts are fuelled by these illegal activities.”

Wildlife Crime’s Drivers and Dynamics

Wildlife trafficking, like every other kind of trafficking, is fueled by demand. It involves many distinct markets that mainly encompass traditional medicine, wild food, luxury goods, fashion, exotic pets, and furniture, each with its drivers and dynamics.

Traditional medicine derived from wild animals or plants is based on the assumption that wildlife products impart certain healing qualities. This is the case for the pangolin, the world’s most traded mammal. Pangolins are poached for their scales, believed to have therapeutic properties, and widely employed in Asian traditional medicine traditions. However, no scientific evidence has been established for their therapeutic or health benefits, while plants and synthetic products have proven to be effective substitutes for curing illnesses. Pangolin trafficking has led to a rapid decline in the species’ population, critically endangered today, weakening ecosystems as each pangolin’s consumption of termites saves nearly 40 acres of land from devastation.

More on the topic: Pangolin: The World’s Most Trafficked Mammal Slipping Into Extinction

Wild-sourced products are often sold as food, driven by the consumption of exotic dishes rather than necessity. These luxury dishes are often derived from endangered species that cannot be cultivated or bred and are instead poached to meet the demand. Shark fins are a prime example. They are considered a delicacy in East Asia, and their consumption symbolizes wealth and status. Demand for shark fins has soared since the 1980s, bringing overexploitation of the shark population by cruel and wasteful methods. Shark finning entails capturing sharks, removing their fins, which account for only around 5% of total body mass, and then disposing them back in the sea, dead or alive. Up to 73 million sharks are killed each year to support the global shark fin market, threatening many of the imperiled shark species with extinction.

Due to their rarity, wildlife products have become stores of value in the form of jewelry, decorative objects or works of art. Their value is attached to their traditionally recognised preciousness and intrinsically limited supply. In addition, the illegality of these products and the associated difficulty of obtaining them impart more prestige to their possession, thus fueling the demand for trafficking. Ivory is one of these assets, regarded as a precious commodity whose exclusivity was enhanced by the international ban on the sale of ivory enacted in 1989. The high value and persistent demand for elephant ivory has led to a poaching epidemic which threatens the very survival of the species. 

Animal skins, furs, feathers, and fibers are also used to make clothing and accessories for the fashion industry. These expensive items rely on wild-sourced materials, particularly if captive breeding is impossible, leading to rampant illegal poaching. Shahtoosh, made from endangered Tibetan antelopes, is a clear example. A single shahtoosh shawl or scarf requires the wool of four antelopes. However, since wild antelopes cannot be domesticated or sheared, the only method of obtaining wool is to kill them and strip them of their fur. Consequently, 90% of Tibet’s antelope population was decimated due to global demand for shahtoosh over the previous century.

Exotic animals destined for pets and private collections are frequently chosen precisely because they are becoming scarcer in the wild, exacerbating the population collapse of endangered species. Parrots are among the most trafficked exotic live animals. They are highly prized for their vocalizations, cognitive ability, and colorful plumage. Habitat degradation and trade have depleted parrot populations, making parrots the world’s most vulnerable bird species. Wildlife trade is identified as the leading factor pushing one-third of parrot species to the brink of extinction.

Finally, wildlife trade is also driven by the demand for furniture. Customers particularly value tropical hardwood even as it involves endangered tree species and is sourced from tropical rainforests or other protected areas with fragile ecosystems. Rosewood, used for artwork and luxury furniture, illustrates this. Called “the ivory of the forest,” it is the most trafficked wild product and has been illegally harvested to unsustainable levels. Beyond endangering many internationally protected trees that produce it, rosewood trafficking decimated forests through extensive illegal logging, causing irreparable harm to natural habitats and the environment.

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The Adverse Societal and Environmental Impact of Wildlife Crime

The unprecedented surge in wildlife crimes jeopardizes decades of conservation successes and the future of many species. Increasing demand for pangolin scales, elephant tusks, rhino horns, redwood, shark fins, tiger skins, and numerous other wildlife products is pushing endangered or at-risk species to the brink of extinction. Poaching has emerged as the primary cause of animal extinction risks, fueling the world’s biodiversity crisis. 

Every year, wildlife trafficking snatches around 200,000 pangolins from the wild. Although no population surveys have accurately quantified the number of pangolins left, the unsustainable decimation of its population puts the species’ survival at stake. Annually, around 15,000 elephants are killed for their tusks. The ivory trade has ravaged African elephant populations, which have decreased by an estimated 84-96%. Over the past decade, 10,000 African rhinos have been poached for their horns, and less than 30,000 individuals remain today. 

Besides population losses, wildlife crime also causes severe gender imbalance and affects the reproduction rate of vulnerable species, resulting in long-term conservation concerns. Elephant poaching is a clear example, as selective poaching of males in species where females bear no or smaller tusks causes sex-ratio imbalances in the population. With reproduction rates affected, elephant populations have struggled to recover. Similarly, macaws have a slower reproductive cycle compared to other birds. However, the disproportionate targeting of macaws by poachers has left fewer and fewer individuals for reproduction, contributing to the species’ population decline. In the flora, illegal logging frequently removes the largest and most valuable trees for reproduction, which has detrimental effects on population gene pools and regeneration, increasing the species’ vulnerability. Moreover, the demand for larger and more ornate specimens results in the poaching and illegal harvesting of the fittest individuals from the breeding population, endangering subsequent generations.

Population decline in species targeted by illegal wildlife trade compromises entire ecosystems. This is the case for keystone species, without which the surrounding ecosystem’s structure and life balance could collapse. Sharks, for instance, play an essential role in the oceanic system by helping to maintain a healthy, balanced ecosystem. However, shark finning has decimated shark populations globally. It has disturbed the food chain, increasing specific fish populations at the expense of other species. Similarly, African elephants are considered “ecosystem engineers,” clearing space through their colossal diet for smaller species to thrive, as well as scattering seeds and fertilizing the soil with their dung. 

The annual global economic cost of wildlife crime is estimated to be between $1-2 trillion. This undermines efforts to create economic opportunity for countries and communities whose livelihoods rely disproportionately on natural capital. Thus, wildlife crime impedes the successful attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those based on biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. It causes large economic losses to national and local economies, depriving populations of the resources required to improve their socio-economic status.

Additionally, trafficked exotic species pose a biosecurity risk because they can carry seeds, bacteria, parasites, fungi, and viruses. Being ripped from wildlife and released into new environments where native populations are not sufficiently resistant to alien organisms can compromise the lives of humans, native species, and livestock. Three-quarters of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses transmitted from animals to humans, mostly originating in wildlife. In other words, this means that human activity, such as environmental destruction and wildlife crime, facilitates disease transmission and threatens global health. Stopping wildlife crime is therefore a critical step not just to protect biodiversity and uphold the rule of law but also to help prevent future public health emergencies.

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Essential Steps to Combating Wildlife Crime

The international community’s commitment to addressing wildlife trafficking has been demonstrated by the adoption of four resolutions by the UN General Assembly since 2015. Each resolution acknowledges the harm wildlife crime inflicts on the environment, conservation and biodiversity. The 2019 UN General Assembly resolution 73/343 on tackling illicit wildlife trafficking reaffirmed the growing prevalence of poaching and illegal trade worldwide, as well as their direct role in the extinction of numerous species. Nevertheless, there is still no global agreement on wildlife crime. The regulatory framework has been limited to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which fails to comprehensively englobe wildlife crime. This has called for a legally binding wildlife crime convention to address the shortcomings of CITES. 

At the national level, countries must ensure that illicit wildlife trafficking is set as a severe crime in legislation. Moreover, each country can impede illegal trade by prohibiting the entry, exit, and possession of illegal wildlife products obtained anywhere else in the world. Likewise, commercial traceability procedures should be improved to ensure the integrity of the supply chain from origin to destination markets. This is also the case for monitoring mechanisms to prevent and combat corruption, which is the primary enabler of wildlife crime.

At the global level, the international community can assist local law enforcement by providing technical assistance and capacity building, including coordinating international operations, cross-border investigations and judicial collaboration. Furthermore, harmonizing legislation within countries and between regions can effectively close gaps that enable perpetrators to commit crimes with impunity. 

At the individual level, significant steps can be taken to reduce the incidence of wildlife crime. Purchasing products with transparent and ethical supply chains is the first line of defense against wildlife crime. This involves avoiding products derived from wildlife and plants, even if legal within the country of origin. It also entails ensuring that the products have been obtained ethically from sustainable sources, with a traceable supply chain from origin to sale point. While abroad, thinking carefully before choosing places and activities that advertise experiences with animals potentially linked to wildlife trafficking helps to prevent unintentionally promoting wildlife crime. This is also the case for buying exotic food, which could be linked to wildlife, animals or plants. When choosing a pet, obtaining the animal from a reputable and captive-bred source is vital, as many species continue to suffer illegal wildlife trade. Finally, promptly reporting suspected evidence of illegal wildlife trade is essential to hold perpetrators of wildlife crime accountable and end impunity associated with these crimes.

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.

The post How Does Wildlife Crime Threaten Global Ecosystems and Biodiversity? appeared first on Earth.Org.

Illegal mining has emerged as the “new cocaine” in Latin America, becoming the central target of criminal organizations to finance their activities and expansion. Driven by a new gold rush in the region, this serious environmental crime has left a bleak footprint behind it, driving deforestation, poisoning ecosystems, endangering protected species, and devastating indigenous lands.

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With gold prices soaring over the past two decades, criminal groups once focused on drug and arms trafficking have moved to illegal mining, an illicit industry that INTERPOL and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimate as generating up to $48 billion in criminal proceeds annually. 

Gold has become the “new cocaine” in Latin America, more lucrative, easier to launder, and considerably less risky. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report 2019 showed that the value of illegal gold exports exceeded that of cocaine in the two largest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru. Yet, the rapid expansion of illegal gold mining and trafficking has been accompanied by equally unprecedented damage to the environment, linking transnational criminal organizations to severe environmental crimes.

More on the topic: Explainer: What Is Environmental Crime

The New Gold Rush in Latin America

Illegal mining is a grave environmental crime, the most damaging, rapidly expanding, and profitable criminal activities in the world. As with environmental crimes, illegal mining does not have a universally accepted definition. It commonly refers to mining activities that violate regulatory laws, in restricted areas, and with prohibited equipment and chemicals. As noted by UNODC, the consequences of illegal mining are extensive and far-reaching, negatively impacting the environment, habitats, human and animal life, Indigenous communities and their livelihoods, public health, economies, development, and the rule of law.

Although gold has been traded for millennia, more than half of all gold mined in human history has been mined in just the last 50 years. Gold demand comes from four primary sources: 50.6% is allocated to the jewelry industry, 26.7% to private investments, 15% to central bank assets, and 7.7% to technology companies. Skyrocketing prices and demand for gold across these sectors have sparked a new gold rush in Latin America, leaving a deep environmental footprint. 

Illegal gold miners move deeper into forest areas, encroaching on protected areas and indigenous territories and expanding across borders. This poses serious law enforcement challenges. Indeed, illegal gold mining occurs in remote areas with limited state presence and challenging forest landscapes, leading to its unchecked expansion. Furthermore, unlike cocaine, once “laundered,” gold becomes legal and can freely cross international borders to enter the formal consumer market. With the difficulty of tracing the origin of illegal gold, organized crime has access to a convenient flow of criminal proceeds.

The ravages of illegal mining have a significant cost. According to the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, each kilogram of gold causes R$1.7 million (US$325,000) in environmental damage, around ten times its market price. In Colombia alone, mending the damage caused by mining would cost nearly US$11 billion and take up to 40 years. What’s more, gold mining does not positively impact the socio-economic conditions of the Amazonian population. Mineral extraction fails to guarantee positive changes in local realities long-term, with only brief effects on GDP per capita indicators. On the contrary, mining keeps local populations impoverished, disrupting livelihoods and destroying the environment.

The Perpetrators Behind Illegal Mining

According to the UN, illegal mining serves as a vital avenue for the expansion of non-state armed groups (NSAG), providing a significant revenue stream to militias, warlords, organized criminal groups, and terrorist organizations through the sale of illegally mined minerals. As the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) points out, although the true scale is challenging to assess due to a relatively recent development, criminal organizations have deeply infiltrated gold production chains in the Amazon. This has placed illegal mining as a hub with other criminal offenses, intersecting with organized crime, conflict-related violence, money laundering, forced displacement, human trafficking, environmental damage, and corruption.

Environmental crimes have proliferated in the Amazon basin, which spans nine countries, without regard to national borders. Illegal gold mining is one of the major problems facing all Amazon countries. It causes irreparable damage to forests and rivers, leading to deforestation and contamination across the Amazon. As stated by InSight Crime, it is by far the most widespread and insidious environmental crime occurring in the tri-border regions where the borders of Amazonian countries meet.

Pristine areas in the heart of the Amazon rainforest have been transformed into hotbeds of illegal gold mining controlled by NSAGs. These include the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s last guerrilla insurgent group, the splinter factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (ex-FARC), which did not demobilize after the agreement peace with the Colombian government in 2016, the Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s largest drug cartel, and the First Capital Command (PCC), Brazil’s most powerful mafia. The “low risk, high reward” nature of illegal mining, characteristic of environmental crimes, has pushed these criminal and armed groups to exploit gold mining as a source of income, supplementing other illegal activities such as extortion and coca trafficking. 

Expanding into areas where the government lacks authority, NSAGs have exercised control over illegal mines with impunity while obtaining significant sources of revenue to finance their expansion and maintain their dominance. 

Illegal gold is estimated to account for a large portion of the total gold mining activity of South American countries, accounting for 86% of the gold mined in Venezuela, 80% in Colombia, 70% in Ecuador, 45% in Bolivia, 30% in Peru and 28% in Brazil. These groups have firmly established themselves in neighboring countries and spread beyond national borders. The ELN and ex-FARC, for example, have made significant inroads in Venezuela, moving from Colombian guerrilla status to binational groups and extending their operations throughout the country.

In Venezuela, NSAGs control gold mining sites and routes. While some criminal organisations involved in the mining sector operate independently, the majority are linked to the Maduro regime. Forest areas, national parks, and protected areas alike are targeted for illegal mining activities, often with authorities’ blessing. Gold is mined, laundered, and sold through corrupt channels within the Venezuelan government or dominated by NSAGs, with little regard for environmental damage. Under the national Constitution, Venezuelan gold can only be purchased through the Venezuelan Central Bank, through which illegal gold can thus be channeled “formally.” Nevertheless, two-thirds of all gold extracted is still smuggled out of Venezuela via clandestine routes.

The Environmental Impacts of Illegal Mining

Illegal mining involves environmentally destructive methods that threaten ecosystems and entire communities, depriving local populations of vital resources. This is evident in countries housing the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest remaining tropical rainforest, home to 10% of the planet’s known biodiversity and 15% of the world’s total river discharge into the oceans. The forest is plagued by rampant deforestation, which increased by 25% in the first half of 2020, mainly due to illegal mining.

Among Amazon Basin countries, Venezuela is the one experiencing the fastest-growing rate of deforestation, primarily owing to illegal mining carried out by guerrilla groups and mining gangs known as sindicatos. Similarly, NSAGs play a significant role in deforestation in Colombia. Here, deforestation increased significantly following the 2016 Colombian peace process, which left a vacuum filled by other groups seeking to exert control over territories previously controlled by the FARC and intensifying their illegal activities. Deforestation due to illegal mining in the country is estimated to be 2.3 times higher than that linked to legal mining. The environmental toll of gold mining is substantial, with an estimated 20 trees being cut down for every kilogram of gold mined.

A large proportion of deforestation occurs on indigenous land, especially in Brazil and Venezuela. Both countries account for 50% and 32% of illegal mining sites, respectively. Notably, in the protected territory of the Yanomami indigenous peoples, on the border between Venezuela and Brazil, satellite images show a 20-fold increase in illegal mining activity between 2016 and 2021. Between 2018 and 2022, deforestation of Yanomami people’s land due to illegal mining rose from 1,236 hectares to 5,053 hectares, a 308.8% jump.

Besides deforestation, one of the most severe environmental consequences of illegal mining is mercury poisoning. Small-scale gold mining is the second-largest source of mercury pollution globally, behind the burning of fossil fuels, alone accounting for around a third of total mercury pollution. 

Although highly toxic and hazardous, illegal miners widely use mercury to extract gold from other minerals. It binds to gold particles, forming a heavy amalgam that can be burned to leave only gold. Each gram of gold extracted by illegal mining in Latin America releases an average of 4.63 grams of mercury into waterways. Given that one gram of mercury is sufficient to contaminate a 20-acre lake, the region’s pervasive illegal gold mining causes irreversible environmental degradation. But solid mercury only accounts for 20% of mercury dumped into the environment, with the remaining 80% being released into the air as vapors, affecting the health of surrounding populations. 

Artisanal gold miners release tons of mercury into Amazonian rivers and lakes every year, generating levels up to 34 times above the safe limit. This destroys the environment, contaminates water and soil, poisons ecosystems, accumulates throughout the food chain, and harms the health of human populations living as much as 400 kilometers downstream.

The 2013 Minamata Convention, which all Amazon states except Venezuela have ratified, regulates the importation and trade of mercury. This convention is part of international efforts to restrict the use of mercury in industry and manufacturing. However, organized crime persists in illegally trading in the chemical element, smuggling it into countries in the region and fueling mining networks for continued use.

Mining is also devastating for floodplains, the adjacent land areas to a river. Illegal placer gold mining – the extraction of riverbeds and alluvium for mineral deposits – leads to the discharge of large quantities of sediments into rivers. Placer mines stretch on entire floodplains, expanding along the river over dozens of kilometers. The miners upturn the soil’s top layer to uncover the gold-bearing placer sediments, leaving a bleak lunar landscape behind. Illegal placer mining activities have led to at least 350,000 hectares of forest and wetland habitat loss in the Pan Amazon.

In 2021, Greenpeace’s monitoring revealed that illegal mining had contaminated and devastated 632 kilometers of rivers in the Munduruku and Sai Cinza Indigenous Lands in Brazil in just five years. The contamination of rivers by illegal mining has caused irreversible environmental damage to once-pristine environments, as seen with the Tapajos River, one of Brazil’s largest clearwater rivers. Once dubbed Brazil’s “Blue River”, Tapajos has drawn a rush of gold miners since 2019 as environmental enforcement faltered under Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government. Their illegal activities polluted the river water, turning it brown. 

Biodiversity in the Amazon is also at risk, with illegal gold prospectors and miners, called Garimpeiros, preying on protected and endangered species. As many of these species also play essential roles in seed dispersal, seed predation, herbivory and pollination, illegal miners not only endanger their population sizes but also compromise entire ecosystems that depend on each species to function sustainably.

Combating Illegal Mining

Illegal mining’s devastating environmental impact and the involvement of organized crime groups have made it an urgent issue on the international agenda. 

In its resolution 2019/23, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) recalled the need to develop comprehensive, multifaceted, and coherent strategies and measures to counter illicit trafficking in precious metals and invited member states to take appropriate measures to prevent and combat trafficking in precious metals by organized criminal groups. Additionally, the General Assembly’s resolution 75/196 adopted in 2020 emphasized the substantial increase in the volume, rate of transnational occurrence and range of criminal offenses related to trafficking in precious metals, acknowledging the potential use as a funding source for organized crime.

After four years of Amazon destruction under Bolsonaro, Brazilian president Lula da Silva made cracking down on illegal mining and ending deforestation a top priority upon assuming office in January 2023, after more than 25,000 miners invaded protected Yanomami territories due to Bolsonaro’s disregard for environmental protection rules, allowing a rampant expansion of illegal mining in the Amazon. Lula’s government launched a large-scale campaign to evict illegal miners from Brazil’s largest indigenous reserve and restore control of the Amazon. In the first four months of 2023 alone, Brazilian forces dismantled 340 mining camps and chased miners from 80% of the protected forest they had taken over. 

Although the war against illegal mining is far from won, with miners returning after operations were scaled back, Lula stressed that his government will not lose against environmental criminals. Brazil’s commitment to combating illegal mining has resonated in other Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, and led to the execution of the first-ever binational operation in the Amazon with Colombia in December 2023.

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In 2019, Peru and the United States launched Operation Mercury, deploying 1,200 Peruvian police, 300 soldiers, and 70 prosecutors to expel 6,000 illegal miners from Madre de Dios, the epicenter of illegal mining in Peru. By 2020, the operation had entirely eliminated illegal mining in the region and reduced deforestation by 92%. The success was made possible by the comprehensive support of the national government, cooperation with external partners to obtain funding and operational backing, the semi-permanent government presence established in the region to prevent the return of organized crime, and an emphasis on economic development and alternative job creation alongside law enforcement efforts.

Although illegal gold mining has returned to protected territories following a law enforcement reduction during the Covid-19 pandemic, Operation Mercury demonstrated its potential as a model for future anti-illegal mining operations in Latin America, complemented by environmental protection and remediation.

The PlanetGOLD program complements these law enforcement operations. Led by UNEP, the initiative collaborates with governments, private sectors, and local communities to promote cleaner and more efficient small-scale gold mining practices while ending illegal activities. In Latin America, Phase 1, which focuses on technical solutions and access to financing, was implemented in Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana and Peru. Phase 2, which focuses on formalizing small-scale gold mining, has been extended to Bolivia, Honduras, Suriname and Nicaragua.

The initiative introduces and facilitates access to alternative mercury-free technologies and best practices, enabling greater returns for miners while posing fewer risks to their health, communities and the environment and thus ensuring that gold is produced under environmental and social standards, allowing miners to access formal markets and benefiting all stakeholders.

The post The Environmental Impact of Illegal Mining in Latin America appeared first on Earth.Org.

Environmental crime, often sidelined and underestimated, is among the world’s most damaging, rapidly growing, and lucrative crimes. Understanding its complex nature, causes, and large-scale impacts is critical to uncovering the gaps that allow it to thrive and developing effective strategies to combat this pressing issue.

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The ‘Low Risk, High Reward’ Nature of Environmental Crimes

Although they pose a severe threat to the planet and society, environmental crimes are often perceived as a low priority by the international enforcement community and largely lack a comprehensive response from governments. However, they are one of the world’s most damaging, rapidly expanding, and profitable crimes, and their consequences are global. As stated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), environmental crime affects all countries indiscriminately, impacting biodiversity, national security, and socio-economic development.

The very definition of environmental crime is also not universally accepted, as it appears to be “victimless,” encompassing a wide range of offences, operating illicitly and clandestinely, and being difficult to identify. However, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL have recognized environmental crime as “a collective term to describe illegal activities harming the environment and aimed at benefiting individuals or groups or companies from the exploitation of, damage to, trade or theft of natural resources, including, but not limited to serious crimes and transnational organized crime.” These illegal activities mainly include wildlife crimes, pollution crimes, prohibited chemicals trade, illegal fishing, illegal logging, and illegal mining.

Despite ( or because of) not receiving adequate attention, environmental crime is growing at an annual rate of 5-7%, faster than the global economy, overtaking human trafficking as the third-largest criminal sector in the world after drug trafficking and counterfeiting. With up to US$281 billion in illicit gains annually, environmental crime is estimated to be one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in terms of profits. Indeed, natural resources, wildlife, and ecosystems can be easily exploited, mined, and poached at minimal cost. This profitability and the challenges associated with detecting and prosecuting its perpetrators make environmental crime attractive for organized criminal groups engaged in smuggling, terrorism, money laundering, and corruption.

The “low risk, high reward” nature of environmental crime has been fueled by a lack of dialogue, action, and consistency in public policy at national and international levels, along with the dominant perception of the issue by legal authorities as a conservation problem rather than a serious criminal activity. In countries primarily affected by environmental crime, combat efforts are severely under-resourced relative to the scale and impacts of the problem. At the international level, financial losses resulting from environmental crime are 10,000 times greater than the sums spent by international agencies to tackle it. Law enforcement agencies primarily focus on drugs, arms, and human trafficking, which creates a permissive climate for organized crime networks to expand their involvement in environmental crime.

Causes, Drivers, and Impacts of Environmental Crimes

Environmental crimes have a wide range of mutually reinforcing underlying causes, which are at the heart of the permissive environment that allows low risks and high profits, leading to pervasive and rampant criminality. 

According to the UNODC, causes include poor governance, widespread corruption, insufficient funding, lack of prosecution, limited international coordination, and ineffective regulatory frameworks. Mainly institutional in nature, these causes highlight the structural deficiencies of national and international governance systems that enable and sustain environmental crimes.

The expansion and perpetuation of environmental crimes are also driven by poverty and demand. Criminal groups frequently exploit impoverished communities by recruiting low-level criminals, smugglers, and couriers. Lack of livelihoods pushes people to engage in environmental crimes, which generate greater immediate profits than legal alternatives. These crimes affect the revenue streams of governments and local communities, fueling a cycle of poverty and impelling more people to commit environmental crimes. In addition, the large and growing demand for wildlife products, exotic species and foods, timber, pulp, cheap illegal chemicals, gold and minerals, and essential natural resources provides the organized criminal group with a steady and reliable source of income. Moreover, the scarcer illegal wildlife products are, the higher the value attached to them by buyers, contributing to the lucrative nature of environmental crime activities. In these circumstances, effective attempts to curb the illicit trade in environmental crime products often contribute to higher prices, incentivizing more offenders to commit these crimes.

More on the topic: How Does Wildlife Crime Threaten Global Ecosystems and Biodiversity?

The various illegal activities constituting environmental crime have serious implications, putting resource depletion, ecosystem destruction, species extinction, human health, loss of revenues, livelihoods, and climate stability at risk. Beyond the harmful effects on the environment and ecosystems, these crimes profoundly affect human society. They disrupt peace by benefiting armed groups and fueling armed conflicts, harm security by destabilizing countries, and hinder development by exacerbating poverty and inequality.

Environmental crimes generate a ripple effect in the costs inflicted on communities and countries. Not only do they harm the complex balance of the planet’s plant, animal, and micro-organism communities forming a cohesive unit but also hinder socio-economic development. They also jeopardize ecosystem services, in other words, ecosystems’ benefits and contributions to human quality of life and well-being. 

Preserving this natural capital through the protection of nature and the sustainable use of resources is essential to support development opportunities for current and future generations. Illegal deforestation, fishing, trade in endangered wildlife, depletion of natural resources, and dumping of hazardous waste all lead to a loss of ecosystem services such as climate regulation, food security, ecosystem resilience, sustainable livelihoods, and income streams. 

The World Bank estimates that the combined cost of illegal fishing, logging, and wildlife trade worldwide is between US$1-2 trillion per year, with more than 90% of economic losses resulting from the impact of environmental crime on ecosystem values.

The Fight Against Environmental Crime

Combating environmental crime is not an unachievable task. 

At the national level, Brazil has demonstrated how comprehensive regulatory frameworks and prompt law enforcement actions empower authorities to combat environmental crime effectively. In 2004, the country implemented the Plan to Protect and Combat Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAM), supported by a broad enforcement operation to curb illegal deforestation by targeting the entire criminal chain and its networks. This resulted in fines worth $3.9 billion, 700 arrests, the seizure of one million cubic meters of tropical timber, the confiscation of 11,000 properties, equipment, and assets, and an embargo on nearly a million hectares of land.

Coordinated implementation has been accompanied by holistic initiatives, such as the REDD mechanism and other programs, to promote indigenous peoples’ participation, stakeholder engagement, and alternative livelihoods. As a result, Brazil reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 76% in just five years, demonstrating the potential application of similar measures and actions by other countries to combat environmental crime.

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Other countries have also implemented substantial conservation measures. 

China, for example, has made significant environmental, police, and military strides to prevent the eradication of the Tibetan antelope, which had lost 90% of its population to poaching for Shahtoosh wool in the 1990s-2000s. It was combined with the creation of some of the largest protected areas in the world, which resulted in a slow population recovery. Nepal has also strengthened the fight against poaching and wildlife crime. Between 2014 and 2019, only one rhino was killed by poachers, although poaching increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, with six rhinos poached between 2020 and 2021. Another example is the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Created jointly by Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, it has contributed to the recovery of populations of elephants, wild dogs, lions, and rhinos.

At the international level, the Montreal Protocol highlights the importance of global action to combat environmental crimes and mitigate environmental threats. It has significantly curbed the illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances (ODS). The global agreement on the phase-out of ODS has allowed a drastic reduction in the shadow economy of chlorofluorocarbons, responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, effectively closing criminal markets.

Efforts to strengthen intelligence sharing have facilitated more extensive and effective international law enforcement operations, as evidenced by significant achievements in the interception of illegal timber and wildlife products. In 2013, INTERPOL’s Operation Lead led to the seizure of 292,000 cubic meters of timber and wood products worth approximately $40 million in Costa Rica and Venezuela. In East Africa, law enforcement agencies from Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe worked together to carry out Operation Wildcat, which resulted in 660 arrests and the seizure of 240 kg of elephant ivory.

Global Efforts and Response to Combat Environmental Crimes

A coherent policy response to environmental crime must catch up to this rapidly worsening problem. The effects of expanding global connections and trade over the past 20 years have outpaced the level of global response to tackle the issue of environmental crime. 

This inadequacy has prompted calls for mechanisms to identify, investigate, and prosecute organized crime actors. Efforts are underway to introduce a fourth protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). This new international legal instrument would be the first to create specific obligations for state parties regarding environmental crimes. Similarly, adding “ecocide” as a fifth core crime in the Rome Statute has been proposed to broaden the scope of international criminal law and allow the prosecution of environmental crimes at the international level.

More on the topic: Why Ecocide Should be an International Crime

Progress is being made to address gaps in the international legal framework and strengthen enforcement of environmental criminal law. In 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing crimes that affect the environment as falling within the scope of the UNTOC and calling for strengthening international cooperation in this regard. In 2021, the Fourteenth United Nations Crime Congress adopted the Kyoto Declaration, which calls on member states to make comprehensive efforts to prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment. Other initiatives include the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, which brings together five major international organizations – INTERPOL, UNODC, the World Bank, WCO, and CITES – to drive global coordination in the fight against wildlife crime.

The European Union has also taken a major legislative step regarding environmental crime. In February 2024, the European Parliament voted in favour of the new Environmental Crimes Directive (ECD). The ECD is intended to replace the obsolete version of 2008, which presented significant limitations and shortcomings according to the 2020 Commission evaluation. This new text aims to adapt the response to the growth of environmental crime, recognized as one of Europe’s primary organized crime activities. It clarifies the definition and scope of environmental crime, updates the list of criminal offences, harmonizes the types and levels of sanctions, strengthens international investigations and prosecutions, and improves national law enforcement chains. Celebrated as a “victory for the environment” by Greens/EFA MEP Marie Toussaint, the new ECD protects the environment more effectively and ends impunity for environmental crimes in the EU as part of the priorities and objectives of the European Green Deal, the bloc’s climate strategy.

More on the topic: New ‘Ambitious’ EU Legislation to Combat Environmental Crimes Introduces Tougher Penalties for Polluting Companies’ Representatives 

The Way Forward

Combating environmental crime requires recognizing its time-sensitive nature and the need for an immediate, committed, and sustainable global response. The international community must recognize and combat environmental crimes as a severe global threat affecting ecosystems, peace, security, and development. The expansion of environmental crimes and dynamic changes in the international landscape require a whole new scale of coordinated responses and cross-border collaboration.

Rectifying the under-dimensioned resources allocated to combating environmental crimes is imperative to combat their broad scope and profound impacts effectively. A comprehensive and coordinated global effort is at the heart of the strategy to adequately address the different facets of environmental crimes and their implications for development. The holistic approach must address environmental crime’s underlying causes and driving factors through coherent legislation, law enforcement, poverty alleviation, and awareness raising at the international and national levels. 

Combating environmental crime is as self-reinforcing as allowing environmental crime to spread unhindered. Taking proactive measures guarantees governments and communities income from the sustainable use of natural resources, strengthens the rule of law, stabilizes countries, and alleviates the poverty that fuels crime, all of which effectively hamper the proliferation of environmental crime.

At the consumer level, individual actions and behaviours have the power to either disrupt or contribute to the illicit wildlife supply chain. According to INTERPOL, refraining from purchasing products, food, traditional medicines, and souvenirs from exotic wildlife can prevent the exploitation or extinction of species. Staying informed about illegal items and activities, buying from reputable outlets, looking for certification marks, and ensuring products are sustainably sourced are all effective barriers against illegal wildlife trade and environmental crimes. Finally, reporting suspicious products to local police and environmental agencies can provide crucial information to law enforcement in combating environmental crimes.

A comprehensive strategy bringing together national governments and international agencies is essential to tackle the broader threats of environmental crime. Standing united and well-prepared will enable sustainable management, preservation, conservation, and restoration of our ecosystems and the services they provide for our economy, quality of life, and well-being, as well as for the health of our planet.

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