Environmental crime is an illegal act which directly harms the environment. International bodies such as the G8, Interpol, European Union, United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute have recognised the following environmental crimes:
- Illegal wildlife trade in endangered species in contravention to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES);
- Smuggling of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) in contravention to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer;
- Dumping and illicit trade in hazardous waste in contravention of the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Other Wastes and their Disposal;
- Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in contravention to controls imposed by various regional fisheries management organisations;
- Illegal logging and the associated trade in stolen timber in violation of national laws.
Costs
International criminal gangs and militant groups profit from the plunder of natural resources and these illegal profits are soaring. Terrorism and even civil wars are consequences of environmental crime. According to UNEP and Interpol,
in June 2016 the value of environmental crime is 26 per cent larger
than previous estimates, at US$91–258 billion, compared to US$70–213
billion in 2014, outstripping illegal trade in small arms. More than half of this amount can be attributed to illegal logging and deforestation.
Prosecution by ICC
On September 2016 it was announced that the International Criminal Court located in The Hague will prosecute government and individuals for environmental crimes.
According to the Case Selection Criteria announced in Policy Paper on
Case Selection and Prioritisation by ICC on 15 September 2016, the
Office will give particular consideration to prosecuting Rome Statute
crimes that are committed by means of, or that result in, "inter alia,
the destruction of the environment, the illegal exploitation of natural resources or the illegal dispossession of land".
Environmental crime by country
United States
Abandoned
or little used areas are common dumping places in America -especially
railroads. Over $10 million a year are used to remove illegal dumping
from polluting towns and the environment. A small organization, CSXT
Police Environment Crimes Unit, has been started to stop railroad
dumping specifically.
Ever since the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Criminal Enforcement was founded in 1982, there has been a steady increase in prosecuted environmental crimes. This includes the prosecution of companies that have illegally dumped or caused oil spills.
On a federal level, while the EPA oversees the investigations, the
prosecutions are typically brought by the U.S. Department of Justice,
through its Environmental Crimes Section, and/or through one of the 94
U.S. Attorney's Office across the country.
Nigeria
In
Nigeria, the establishment of environmental agencies began in 1988 after
an incident of dumping of toxic materials in the country by
international waste traders (the infamous Koko incident). Presently, agencies such as the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency
are empowered by Nigerian law to regulate the environment sector. This
agency works with other organs of the government such as customs,
police, military intelligence, etc., and has successfully seized
illegally trafficked wildlife products and prosecuted a number persons,
including non-nationals.
Enforcement
The effective enforcement of environmental laws
is vital to any protection regimes that are designed to protect the
environment. In the early days of environmental legislation, violations
carried largely insignificant civil fines
and penalties. Initial environmental laws and regulations had little or
no deterrent effect on corporations, individuals, or governments to
comply with environmental laws. Indeed, a major source of failure of US
environmental protection legislation was the civil character of federal
enforcement actions. Their chief sanction was fines, which many
corporations took in stride as a cost of doing business. Environmental
criminal law covers narrower ground. Its core consists of the criminal
provisions of eight federal statutes passed mainly in the 1970s and
amended in the last two decades.
In many cases, particularly corporations found it more
cost-effective to continue to pollute more than the law allowed and
simply pay any associate fines if indeed the corporation was actually
found and convicted of violating environmental laws or regulations.
Perversely, corporations actually had a disincentive to comply with
environmental laws or regulations as compliance generally raised their
operational costs which meant that many corporations obeying the
environmental laws, whether out of a sense of legal duty or public
obligation, were disadvantaged and lost a competitive edge
and consequently suffered in the marketplace to competitors who
disregarded environmental laws and regulations. As a result of weak
environmental legislation and continued adverse public opinion regarding
the management of the environment, many governments established various
environmental enforcement regimes that dramatically increased the legal
powers of environmental investigators. The inclusion of criminal
sanctions, significant increases in fines coupled with possible
imprisonment of corporate officers changed the face of environmental law
enforcement. For example, between 1983 and 1990 the US Department of Justice
secured $57,358,404.00 in criminal penalties and obtained sentences of
imprisonment for 55% of defendants charged with environmental offences.
Enforcing environmental laws and regulations is an important
ingredient in protecting the environment and reducing environmental
harm. This is generally achieved by various environmental law
enforcement agencies operating at an International, Regional, National,
State and Local level. For instance, to some extent environmental law
enforcement agencies operate only at an international level whereas
others only operate at the local level. Furthermore, environmental law
enforcement agencies utilise various enforcement methods to ensure
compliance to environmental legislation. In some cases enforcement
agencies rely on coercive powers to demand compliance to environmental
laws, generally labelled “command and control” strategies, while others
rely on conciliatory and educational strategies to persuade individuals,
organisations and governments to comply with environmental laws and
regulations. Moreover, it has increased the need for cooperation between
different policing institutions.
Environmental law enforcement agencies and police services do not
operate in a vacuum; the legislative instruments that political systems
implement govern their activities and responsibilities within society.
However, ostensibly it is the legislative instruments implemented by
governments that determine many of the strategies utilised by police
services in protecting the environment. Generally these International,
Regional, National and State legislative instruments are designed to
ensure industries, individuals, and governments comply with the various
environmental obligations embedded in national statutes and laws. There
are also international legal instruments and treaties that also affect
the way that sovereign states deal with environmental issues.
Environmental criminology
Environmental criminology examines the notions of crimes, offences
and injurious behaviours against the environment and starts to examine
the role that societies including corporations, governments and
communities play in generating environmental harms. Criminology is now
starting to recognise the impact of humans on the environment and how
law enforcement agencies and the judiciary measure harm to the
environment and attribute sanctions to the offenders.
