By Jodie Wrigley

While scholarly debate continues about possible causal links between climate events and violent extremism, the evidence suggests that these events make communities more vulnerable to recruitment, provide fertile ground for anti-democracy sentiment, and erode trust in institutions and governments. It is recognised that many of these challenges play out in and leverage the on- and offline public sphere. Strategic communication, therefore, is an essential tool to utilise in this space to help prevent and counter violent extremism. This Policy Brief provides a starting point to explore further the potential nexus between climate events, violent extremism, and strategic communication. It explores a whole-of-society view of the potential strategic communication challenge and what actions practitioners could implement now to help address or minimise this existing or potential emerging threat . For the latest updated statistics on wildlife crime visit the World Animal Foundation website.

The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - ICCT, 2024. 30p.

By Billy Kyte | Giulia Roncon

With the aim to support individuals in building resilient communities working to prevent, counter, and limit the damage of environmental crime, this handbook documents the challenges faced by defenders working in the environmental crime field and provides guidance to support their resilience.

The first section of the handbook analyzes definitional understandings of environmental crime and explores the impacts and harms it can perpetuate. The second section assesses the risks and challenges commonly faced by environmental defenders, including an assessment of their needs, and explores emergent regional issues that may play a part in such vulnerabilities. The final section presents a repository of best practices and tools that can help stakeholders to access available resources and to mitigate the potential risks they face.

The handbook draws from consultations involving nearly 100 prominent figures from civil society and media across Africa and Asia. Whilst findings are therefore geographically specific to some extent, our work confirms that the challenges experienced by environmental defenders in these regions were replicated globally as well. Although each country and regional context is different, the handbook outlines strategies that could be broadly implemented to support the community of stakeholders dedicated to tackling environmental crime worldwide.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). 2023.

By Faith Honor , Amanda Shaverand Devin Thorne

The trafficking of pangolins and their scales drives corruption, undermines the rule of law, creates public health risks, and even threatens local and regional security. Additionally, the illicit pangolin trade may have even played a role in onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Critically, the trade—and all of its related challenges—appears to be growing: between 2015 and 2019, 253 tonnes2 of pangolin scales were confiscated, and the annual quantity of pangolin scales seized increased by nearly 400%. To expose the logistics of how these scales are trafficked internationally, Tipping the Scales uses publicly available seizure data and investigative case studies. The global plight of pangolins is increasingly well-known, but less understood are the opaque supply chains that enable pangolin trafficking. To trace this illicit system from consolidation hubs in West and Central Africa to China’s consumer markets, Tipping the Scales analyses 899 pangolin seizures. Drawing on C4ADS’ Wildlife Seizure Database, law enforcement partner seizure data, official government documents, corporate data, and expert interviews, the report details how traffickers nest their activities within licit systems of trade and commerce. To disrupt this trade, C4ADS identifies opportunities for intervention and capacity building.

In Section I, the report finds that pangolin scale traffickers have co-opted bushmeat supply chains and legal breeding programs for their illicit activities. Bushmeat scale trafficking supply chains are particularly prominent in Central and West Africa; 72% of African scale seizures over the last five years have come from those regions. Growing demand for pangolin meat and scales has made pangolins a dual-transaction good3 that relies on transport networks between rural areas and urban and coastal distribution hubs. Further, the report finds that pangolin breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa obscure the lines between poaching, conservation, and science. In Section II, the report finds that bulk pangolin scale shipments often exit the continent through coastal countries in Central and West Africa. While 70% of intercontinental trafficking instances tied to Africa rely on the air transport sector, 81% of the total weight of pangolin scales are trafficked intercontinentally via the maritime transport sector. China and Hong Kong are the trade’s most prominent destinations. Since 2015, 42% of the 195 tonnes of pangolin scales seized throughout Asia originated in Africa and were seized in or bound for China or Hong Kong. In Section III, the report finds that there are more than 1,000 companies, hospitals, and other entities participating in China’s legal market for medicinal pangolin products. In this market, which allows companies to privately stockpile pangolin scales, traffickers exploit lax regulations to sell scales from Africa and Asia. Government-reported pangolin scale consumption quotas, geo-tagged company data, and seizures suggest that Guangdong and Hunan provinces have relatively high levels of exposure to both the legal pangolin market and pangolin trafficking. Based on these findings, Tipping the Scales makes 10 recommendations to increase detection of and improve enforcement against transnational criminal networks operating in Africa and Asia (see page 58).

Washington, D: C4ADS, 2020. 60p.

By Insight Crime

This present study on Bolivia was led by InSight Crime. The findings and analysis are based on one year of open-source and fieldwork investigation in the cities of La Paz and Santa Cruz, and desk research, phone, and face-to-face interviews with environmental experts, government and security officials, members of local communities, academics, and others.1 The report provides a snapshot of the complex web of actors (state and non-state) and relationships fueling environmental crime in the Bolivian Amazon. Rather than just diagnosing the issue, the study aims to raise new dialogue and intervention opportunities regarding environmental crime in the region. This study addresses long-standing issues of securing land rights to traditional communities in the Amazon, many of which currently face new forms of land grabbing and land trafficking, notably by export companies extracting natural resources. It also includes ideas for reforming and strengthening structurally weak and corruption prone public institutions in the Bolivian Amazon, notably those related to land, environmental, and security issues. Finally, the report also sheds light on the transnational and cross-border dynamics of environmental crime in Bolivia in activities such as wildlife trafficking and illegal mercury trafficking for river-gold mining and illegal logging exports. The complexity of increasingly globalized supply chains initiating in or cutting through the Bolivian Amazon call for more and stronger regional and international cooperation to dismantle environmental crime and protect the forest and its people

Washington, DC: Insight Crime, 2024. 73p.

By Scottish Government

When a wildlife crime is suspected, the first step is for it to be reported to the police (or detected by the police), and then recorded. Further steps may include investigation to assess whether the recorded crime should be part of a case submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and then a decision on whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to be prosecuted. Ultimately a court case may result in a conviction or acquittal. All these stages may be supported by relevant scientific evidence and intelligence.

This report presents statistics relating to 2021-22 for the various stages described above. Although these sets of statistics are related, direct comparisons between them cannot be made due to differences in data sources, timing and the bases on which statistics were collated. For example, several recorded crimes may be included in one COPFS case (involving multiple sources of scientific evidence), and subsequent criminal proceedings may occur in a different year.

Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2024. 38p., app.

By Willis Okumu

Lake Victoria in East Africa is a convergence point for a range of environmental crimes perpetrated by actors who exploit the lake for profit. Fishermen use the water mass not only to legally draw their livelihood but also to profit from overexploitation of the environment through practices such as illegal fishing and sand harvesting. Lack of a unified registration regime for small boats has enabled their use in these illegal activities. A clash in operational mandates of security forces from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania impedes regional efforts to combat these and other crimes.

Key points • Lake Victoria in East Africa is the site of various environmental crimes such as illegal fishing, sand and charcoal harvesting and timber smuggling. • A range of players, including fishermen and state officials, collude in committing these crimes for profit. • Environmental crimes in the lake are facilitated by a lack of cooperation between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, whose enforcement units operate under different mandates.

Policy Brief, Issue 29. ENACT Africa. 2024, 14pg

By Maurice Ogbonnaya

Although Nigeria’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector has considerable developmental potential, it is undermined by the criminal consortia profiteering from it at the expense of vulnerable populations. In Nigeria’s North West, North Central and, to some extent, South West regions, criminal collaboration in the illegal mining of gold between ‘Nigerians in high positions of authority’ and foreign corporations deprives the state of legitimate earnings. It also drives rural banditry and violent local conflicts. The Nigerian state will need to deal with the illegal mining networks that fuel rural banditry and violence both in the North West region and across the country.

ENACT Africa, 2020. 12p.

By ENACT

The illicit exploitation of mineral resources has long-term impacts on the environment, including formation of sinkholes, and contamination of the soil, groundwater and surface water. It also results in soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, health risks and even deaths. However, it is not regarded as environmental crime in Central Africa. This Policy Brief draws attention to the environmental harms caused by illegal mining in the region and explores how national and regional responses to the challenge can address the environmental fallouts.

Key points

• The environmental impacts of illegal mining in Central Africa negatively affect human and animal habitats, as well as the lives of indigenous communities.

• Illegal mining in the region is not regarded as an environmental crime.

• Various obstacles impede attempts to address illegal mining, including gaps in the criminalization of such mining and non-stringent penalties.

• Both state and non-state actors are involved in illegal mining, undermining state authority and regulatory capabilities.

• There are no regional mechanisms to counter illegal mining.

ENACT Africa, 2024. 12p.

By The Environmental Investigation Agency

A thriving online illegal trade in the swim bladders of endangered totoaba fish is helping to drive the vaquita porpoise to the brink of extinction.

Vaquita are the most endangered marine mammal on the planet and exist only in a small area of Mexico’s Gulf of California. It is estimated as few as 10 individuals remain, with the population devastated in the past decade as a result of being caught in illegal gillnets set to capture totoabas.

Totoaba swim bladders – known as maws – are in high demand in China and, increasingly, in other Asian countries as a symbol of wealth and for their purported, but unproven, medicinal value.

London: EIA, 2024. 20p.

By Bakytbek Tokubek uulu, Louisa Musing, Amy Woolloff, Kanaat Musuraliev, Sanjar Kurmanov, Stephanie von Meibom S

Central Asia boasts a remarkable array of ecosystems, harbouring a diverse range of animals, plants and fungi, from majestic Saker falcons to the slow Steppe Tortoises alongside the unique Saiga antelope and various wild species of Bovidae, including Argali Mountain sheep and Siberian Ibex and plants like liquorice root that is used in herbal remedies and teas globally. While the assessment primarily focuses on the trade in animal and plant species listed in CITES Appendices, it also encompasses information on nationally protected but non-CITES-listed species.

The report, part of a trio of Central Asia publications, identifies several species that frequently appear in country seizure records, indicating the need for regional collaboration to combat illegal trade.

Notably, the Saiga Antelope emerges as the most frequently reported species in seizure records from government agencies in Kazakhstan, with smaller records in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The Saker Falcon also features prominently in seizure records from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, with additional reports of live falcons seized upon import to the UAE from Tajikistan. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have seized several thousand live specimens of the Steppe Tortoise.

Beyond providing a comprehensive overview of wild species trade, the study aims to identify common challenges and propose solutions to assist national agencies in coordinating efforts to combat illegal trade while effectively managing and regulating legal wild species trade.

Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC, 2024. 90p.

By Nicholas Farrelly | Alice Dawkins | Patrick Deegan

  The streets and beaches of Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s infamous party town, are under-discussed areas in the global effort against transnational organized crime. Sihanoukville is known to most readers as a gambling hub and shabby tourist hotspot. But these pre-pandemic clichés do little to explain the role of a city that washes millions – if not billions – of dollars worth of funds from across Cambodia, South East Asia and beyond. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Sihanoukville’s sinister underbelly of criminality has tilted into public view, thanks to thorough local and regional reporting on the city’s underground criminal enterprises and their interconnected interests in wildlife trafficking, human trafficking and contraband. Spotlighting Sihanoukville, therefore, offers a case study to readers on pressing trends in pandemic-era criminal methods, and a perspective on how a cautious China seeks to stamp out the overseas criminal activity of its citizens in a high-priority Belt and Road partnership. This report interprets Sihanoukville’s hub status for transnational organized crime in four areas. The first section explores Sihanoukville's role in the global supply chain of illicit environmental commodities. While few environmental commodities are sourced from Sihanoukville, forest products from other regions of Cambodia have found their way to the port before being trafficked onwards. Sihanoukville is also a destination for wildlife products from abroad (largely, Africa), with ivory and pangolin scales having been sourced for the local market or for sale and onward transport to consumers – primarily in China. Analysis of the ivory trade in Cambodia highlights Sihanoukville’s relevance to the global supply chain of illicit environmental commodities. Section two examines the recent features of Sihanoukville’s criminal landscape. The emergence of new forms of criminality, including online scams, highlights the underlying themes in this report: the attractiveness of Sihanoukville for criminal enterprise, the adaptability and changing nature of criminality, and the relative impunity that criminal enterprises enjoy. Section three analyzes the features of Sihanoukville’s political economy that have led to the city’s status as a dynamic and enduring hub for a myriad of interconnected criminal activities. A deep seaport paired with a large Special Economic Zone (SEZ) enables international trade and the movement of goods with limited oversight. Large-scale real estate developments facilitate capital flight and money-laundering activities. As section four explores, these factors, in combination with elite capture and weak local enforcement, have made Sihanoukville a safe haven for criminal enterprises

The report concludes by outlining policy implications from this research. We conclude that the Chinese government’s serious interest in cleaning up the overseas image of Chinese corporations, especially in strategic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) locations, means that a window of opportunity exists to nest environmental-crime enforcement within existing and robust Sino-Cambodian counter-crime efforts.   

Geneva, SWIT:  The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime , 2022.  35p.

By Sone Nkoke

Cameroon harbours important populations of both the Critically Endangered Forest Elephant and the Endangered Savannah Elephant. However, well-documented evidence shows that elephant numbers have plummeted due to a variety of factors, especially poaching and illegal trade in ivory. The actors driving this scourge are also varied, ranging from low-level opportunistic poachers to non-state heavily armed militia groups supplying local ivory traders, carvers, domestic black markets, and Asian-run, African-based transnational crime syndicates operating along illegal trade chains that link Cameroon with neighbouring Central and West African countries to distant end-use consumers primarily in Asia, especially Viet Nam and China. 

Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC International, 2024. 108p.

By Mouhamadou Kane and Lucia Bird Ruiz Benitez de Lugo

  In West Africa, communities increasingly engage in illicit economies to cope with the severe impacts of climate change. However, the environmental impacts of illicit economies magnify the harms of climate change. This report explores these interlinked phenomena in communities peripheral to Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park and proposes responses. Recommendations Local communities have a major role to play in any measures to address the interlinked challenges of illicit economies and climate change. Moreover, their exclusion has impacts beyond conservation and climate change, threatening the legitimacy of the state. Such measures should seek to: l Strengthen the social compact between communities and local governance authorities. l Address corruption in the management of national parks and protected spaces. l Mitigate the negative impacts of securitising protection in national parks. l Support community resilience to climate change impacts through adaptation projects and/or climate resilient livelihoods. l Advance policies to provide feasible pathways to formalise artisanal gold mining.

OCWAR-T Research Report 11

OCWAR-T Organised Crime: West African Response to Trafficking . 2023. 28p.  

By Orrin H. Pilkey , Norma J. Longo , William J. Neal , Nelson G. Rangel-Buitrago , & 2 more

In a time of accelerating sea level rise and increasingly intensifying storms, the world’s sandy beaches and dunes have never been more crucial to protecting coastal environments. Yet, in order to meet the demands of large-scale construction projects, sand mining is stripping beaches and dunes, destroying environments, and exploiting labor in the process. The authors of Vanishing Sands track the devastating impact of legal and illegal sand mining over the past twenty years, ranging from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to South America and the eastern United States. They show how sand mining has reached crisis levels: beach, dune, and river ecosystems are in danger of being lost forever, while organized crime groups use deadly force to protect their illegal mining operations. Calling for immediate and widespread resistance to sand mining, the authors demonstrate that its cessation is paramount for saving not only beaches, dunes, and associated environments but also lives and tourism economies everywhere.

Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023. 265p.