Trends in Organized Crime

, Volume 19, Issue 1, pp 88–105 | Cite as

Building NESTs to combat environmental crime networks

Article

Abstract

This article begins by providing a brief overview of environmental crime in the Asia and Pacific, highlighting its complexity, varying dimensions and transnational nature. It acknowledges the difficulties in responding to organised criminal groups that operate with flexible modus operandi to commit such crimes. The paper then discusses the importance of the National Environmental Security Taskforce approach, a model developed by INTERPOL to tackle environmental crimes. Collaboration and cooperation, within and between government and non-government organisations, are conceptualised as having a possibly positive ‘panopticon effect’ that has implications for responding to both organised criminal networks and state corruption in this domain.

Keywords

Environmental crime Asia-Pacific Corruption Organised crime networks National Environmental Security Taskforce 

Notes

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the author.

References

  1. Akella A, Allan C (2014) Dismantling wildlife crime: executive summary. World Wildlife Fund, WashingtonGoogle Scholar
  2. Akella A, Cannon J (2004) Strengthening the weakest links: strategies for improving the enforcement of environmental laws globally. Conservation International, WashingtonGoogle Scholar
  3. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2015) ‘Southeast Asia’s haze: Find out what is behind the chocking smoke covering Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore’. ABC News, 19 October 2015Google Scholar
  4. Ayling J (2013) What sustains wildlife crime? Rhino horn trading and the resilience of criminal networks’. J Int Wildlife Law Policy 16(1):57–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Bisschop L (2015) Governance of the illegal trade in E-Waste and tropical timber: case studies on transnational environmental crime. Ashgate, FarnhamGoogle Scholar
  6. Boekhout van Solinge T (2008) The land of the orangutan and the bird of paradise under threat’. In: Sullund R (ed) Global harms: ecological crime and speciesism. Nova Science Publishers, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  7. Boister N, Currie R (eds) (2014) Routledge handbook of transnational criminal law. Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar
  8. Borras S Jr, Franco J, Wang C (2013) The challenge of global governance of land grabbing: changing international agricultural context and competing political views and strategies’. Globalizations 10(1):161–179CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Brisman A, South N, White R (eds) (2015) Environmental crime and social conflict: contemporary and emerging issues. Ashgate, FarnhamGoogle Scholar
  10. Burrell A, Gay S, Kavallari A (2012) The compatability of EU biofuel policies with global sustainability and the WTO’. World Econ 35(6):784–798CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Charles C, Gerasimchuk I, Birdle R, Moerenhout T, Asmelash E, Laan T (2013) Biofuels – At What Cost? A review of costs and benefits of EU biofuels policies. Manitoba: International Institute for Sustainable DevelopmentGoogle Scholar
  12. Dobovsek B, Pracek R (2010) ‘Solving problems related to environmental crime investigations’. In: Mesko G, Dimitijevic D, Fields C (eds) Understanding and managing threats to the environment in South Eastern Europe. Springer, Dordrecht, The NetherlandsGoogle Scholar
  13. Europol (2011) Oct. 2011: EU Organised Crime Threat Assessment . The Hague : Europol < https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/octa2011.pdf. Accessed 1 Jun 2013
  14. Fariz D (2012) ‘Corruption in forest Crimes’, in corruption, environment and the united nations convention against corruption. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ViennaGoogle Scholar
  15. Faure M, De Smedt P, Stas A (eds) (2015) Environmental enforcement networks: concepts, implementation and effectiveness. Edward Elga, CheltenhamGoogle Scholar
  16. Foucault M (1977) Discipline and punish. Allen Lane, LondonGoogle Scholar
  17. Gibbs C, McGarrell E, Sullivan B (2015) Intelligence-led policing and transnational environmental crime: a process evaluation’. Eur J Criminol 12(2):242–259CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Global Witness (2013) Rubber Barons: how vietnamese companies and international financiers are driving a land grabbing crisis in Cambodia and Laos. Global Witness, LondonGoogle Scholar
  19. Global Witness (2015) How Many More? 2014’s deadly environment: the killing and intimidation of environmental and land activists, with a spotlight on Honduras. Global Witness, LondonGoogle Scholar
  20. Graycar A, Felson M (2010) Situational prevention of organised timber theft and related corruption’. In: Bullock K, Clarke R, Tilley N (eds) Situational prevention of organised crimes. Willan, PortlandGoogle Scholar
  21. Higgins D, White R (2016) Collaboration at the Front Line: INTERPOL and NGOs in the Same NEST’. In: Pink G, White R (eds) Environmental crime and collaborative state intervention. Palgrave Macmillan, BasingstokeGoogle Scholar
  22. INTERPOL (2012) National environmental security task force: bringing compliance and enforcement agencies together to maintain environmental security. INTERPOL, LyonGoogle Scholar
  23. INTERPOL (2013) ‘INTERPOL meeting aims to strengthen cooperation on environmental crime activities’ (media release). INTERPOL, LyonGoogle Scholar
  24. INTERPOL (2015) Environmental crime and its convergence with other serious crimes’. INTERPOL, LyonGoogle Scholar
  25. INTERPOL and United Nations Environment Programme (2012) Summit report: international chiefs of environmental compliance and enforcement. INTERPOL and UNEP, LyonGoogle Scholar
  26. Joines J (2012) Globalization of E-waste and the consequences of development: a case study of China’. J Soc Justice 2:1–15Google Scholar
  27. Lemieux A (ed) (2014) Situational prevention of poaching. Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar
  28. Lemieux A, Clarke R (2009) The international ban on ivory sales and its effects on elephant poaching in Africa’. Br J Criminol 49(1):451–471CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Lundgren K (2012) The global impact of e-waste: addressing the challenge. SafeWork and SECTOR, International Labor Office, GenevaGoogle Scholar
  30. Moreto W (2015) Introducing intelligence-led conservation: bridging crime and conservation science’. Crime Sci 4(15):1–11Google Scholar
  31. Nellemann C, Henriksen R, Raxter P, Ash N, Mrema E (eds) (2014) The environmental crime crisis: threats to sustainable development from illegal exploitation and trade in wildlife and forest resources. United Nations Environment Programme and GRID-Arendal, NairobiGoogle Scholar
  32. Ngoc AC, Wyatt T (2012) A green criminological exploration of illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam’. J Asian Criminol 8:129–142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Pink G (2015) Personal Communication. [Grant Pink is the Australian representative to the INTERPOL Environment Committee]Google Scholar
  34. Pink G, Bartel R (2015) Regulator networks: collaborative agency approaches to the implementation and enforcement of environmental law. In: Martin P, Kennedy A (eds) Implementation of environmental law. Edward Elgar, CheltenhamGoogle Scholar
  35. Pink G, White R (2016) Collaboration in combating environmental crime: making it matter’. In: Pink G, White R (eds) Environmental crime and collaborative state intervention. Basingstoke, Palgrave MacmillanCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Pires SF (2012) The illegal parrot trade: a literature review’. Global Crime 13(3):176–190CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Pires S, Clarke R (2011) Sequential foraging, itinerant fences and parrot poaching in bolivia’. Br J Criminol 51(2):314–335CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Pires S, Moreto W (2011) Preventing wildlife crimes: solutions that can overcome the “tragedy of the commons”. Eur J Crim Policy Res 17(2):101–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Robin M-M (2010) The world according to monsanto: pollution, corruption and the control of our food supply. The New Press, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  40. Santoso T (2012) ‘Indonesia’s national strategy to combat illegal logging and Corruption’, in corruption, environment and the united nations convention against corruption. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ViennaGoogle Scholar
  41. Schneider J (2012) Sold into extinction: the global trade in endangered species. Praeger, Santa BarbaraGoogle Scholar
  42. Setiono B (2007) Fighting illegal logging and forest-related financial crimes: the anti-money laundering approach’. In: Elliot L (ed) Transnational environmental crime in the asia-pacific: a workshop report. Australian National University, CanberraGoogle Scholar
  43. South N, Wyatt T (2011) Comparing illicit trades in wildlife and drugs: an exploratory study’. Deviant Behav 32:538–561CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. United Nations Environment Programme (2011) UNEP year book: emerging issues in our global environment 2011. UNEP, NairobiGoogle Scholar
  45. United Nations Environment Programme (2013b) Division of Environmental Law and Conventions. (http://www.unep.org/delc/EnvironmentalCrime/tabid/54407/Default.aspx). Accessed 2 Jan 2014
  46. United Nations Environment Programme UNEP (2013a) Threats to biodiversity. <http://www.unep-wcmc.org/threats-to-biodiversity_52.html>. Accessed 4 Sept 2013
  47. United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (2013) Environmental Crimes, 2013. <http://www.unicri.it/print.php>. Accessed 2 Jan 2014
  48. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2011) Transnational organized crime in the fishing industry. United Nations, ViennaGoogle Scholar
  49. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2013) Transnational organized crime in east asia and the pacific: a threat assessment. UNODC, ViennaGoogle Scholar
  50. Van Dinh TT (2012) ‘Addressing corruption in the environmental sector: How the united nations convention against corruption provides a basis for Action’, in corruption, environment and the united nations convention against corruption. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, ViennaGoogle Scholar
  51. Varkkey H (2013) Oil palm plantations and transboundary haze: patronage networks and land licensing in Indonesia’s peatlands’. Wetland 33:679–690CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  52. Von Essen E, Hansen H, Kallstrom H, Peterson M, Peterson T (2014) Deconstructing the poaching phenomenon: a review of typologies for understanding illegal hunting. Br J Criminol 54:632–651CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  53. Warchol G, Zupan L, Clack W (2003) Transnational criminality: an analysis of the illegal wildlife market in Southern Africa. Int Crim Justice Rev 13:1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  54. Wellsmith M (2011) Wildlife crime: the problems of enforcement. Eur J Crim Policy Res 17(2):125–148CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  55. White R (2011) Environmental law enforcement: the importance of global networks and collaborative practices. Aust Policing J Prof Pract Res 3(1):16–22Google Scholar
  56. White R (2012) NGO engagement in environmental law enforcement: critical reflections. Aust Policing J Prof Pract Res 4(1):7–11Google Scholar
  57. White R, Heckenberg D (2014) Green criminology: an introduction to the study of environmental harm. Routledge, LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Wong R (2015) The organization of the illegal tiger parts trade in China. Br J Criminol. doi: 10.1093/bjc/azv080 Google Scholar
  59. Wright G (2011) Conceptualising and combating transnational environmental crime’. Trends Organised Crime 14:332–346CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  60. Wyatt T (2013) Wildlife trafficking: a deconstruction of the crime, the victims, and the offenders. Palgrave Macmillan, BasingstokeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Zhang L, Hua N, Sun S (2008) Wildlife trade, consumption and conservation awareness in Southwest China’. Biodivers Conserv 17:1493–1516CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Social SciencesUniversity of TasmaniaTasmaniaAustralia

Personalised recommendations