What is environmental crime?

The term environmental crime covers not only the illegal trade in wildlife, but also forestry and fishery crimes, illegal dumping of waste including chemicals, smuggling of ozone depleting substances and illegal mining. Illegal mining is not limited to illegal extraction of resources, it also has severe environmental impacts, whether from mercury pollution from artisanal gold mining, or destruction of natural flora and fauna, pollution, landscape degradation and radiation hazards, with negative impact on arable land, economic crops and trees. A broad understanding of environmental crime includes threat finance from exploitation of natural resources such as minerals, oil, timber, charcoal, marine resources, financial crimes in natural resources, laundering, tax fraud and illegal trade in hazardous waste and chemicals, as well as the environmental impacts of illegal exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Environmental crime has in recent years received global attention due to its serious and deleterious impact on the environment and ecosystems, as well as on peace, security and development.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Climate Action

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions