Environmental Crime and Collaborative State Intervention

Rob White, Grant Pink, Rob White, Grant Pink

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781137562562
• eBook ISBN: 9781137562579
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology

This book examines the role and practical dynamics of governmental environmental law enforcement agencies and individuals who combat environmental crime. It will inform researchers about the 'real world' experiences of practitioners and provide an intellectual space for practitioners to examine critically what it is they do and why.

Part I

The Role of Collaboration in Combating Environmental Crime

1

Collaboration in Combating Environmental Crime – Making it Matter

Grant Pink and Rob White

Responding to environmental crime involves a wide range of collaborations across many different domains and sectors. This is especially the case when addressing transnational environmental crime and its associated global environmental harms.

This chapter provides an introduction to the why and how of collaborative state intervention as this relates to environmental crime. It begins by identifying key response agencies and stakeholders and acknowledging the increasing need for and use of collaboration in combating environmental crime. It then engages in general consideration of the component parts and various phases of collaboration. This is followed by an examination of collaboration in practice, a discussion that draws upon examples of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal forms of collaboration. The chapter concludes by considering the challenges and opportunities associated with collaboration, and the importance of improving coordination and cooperation to combat environmental crime.

Responding to transnational environmental crime

Environmental crime is typically defined on a continuum ranging from strict legal definitions through to broader harm perspectives (Bricknell, 2010). For example, it can refer to:

[A]n unauthorized act or omission that violates the law and is therefore subject to criminal prosecution and criminal sanction. (Situ and Emmons, 2000: 3)

[A]n act committed with the intent to harm or with a potential to cause harm to ecological and/or biological systems and for the purpose of securing business or personal advantage. (Clifford and Edwards, 1998: 26)

[C]riminal conduct that may have negative consequences for the environment. (UNODC, 2011: 95)

[E]nvironmental harm is a crime. (White, 2011a: 1)

Specific types of environmental crime as described in law include things such as illegal transport and dumping of toxic waste, the illegal transfer of hazardous materials such as ozone-depleting substances, the illegal traffic in radioactive or nuclear substances, the illegal trade in flora and fauna, and illegal fishing and logging. However, within green criminology there is a more expansive definition of environmental crime or harm that includes transgressions that are harmful to humans, environments, and non-human animals, regardless of legality per se; it also includes environment-related harms facilitated by the state, as well as corporations and other powerful actors, insofar as these institutions have the capacity to shape official definitions of environmental crime in ways that allow or condone environmentally harmful practices (White, 2011a).

For the purposes of this book, however, environmental crime is defined primarily in terms of illegal environmental harms (i.e., environmental harms currently defined as unlawful and therefore punishable) rather than including legal environmental harms (i.e., environmental harms currently condoned as lawful but which are nevertheless socially and ecologically harmful). The main focus of the book is also on transnational environmental crime. As defined in conventional legal terms (White, 2011a), this refers to:

• • unauthorised acts or omissions that are against the law and therefore subject to criminal prosecution and criminal sanctions;
• • crimes that involve some kind of cross-border transference and an international or global dimension; and
• • crimes related to pollution (of air, water, and land), crimes against wildlife (including illegal trade in ivory as well as of live animals), and illegal fishing (whales, dolphins, lobster and abalone as well as fish).

These are the key areas of attention for national and international laws relating to environmental matters, and are the main task areas for many of the agencies featured in this book. Some of the major international initiatives that formally specify certain activities as offences include (Forni, 2010):

• • Convention for Prevention of Maritime Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter,
• • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),
• • International Tropical Timber Agreement,
• • Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer,
• • Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer,
• • Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal,
• • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and
• • Kyoto Protocol.

These, too, form part of the international framework within which environmental law enforcement and regulation take place, and shape which agencies undertake specific activities, how they do so, and with whom.

In technical legal terms, transnational environmental crime has been defined as follows:

[T]ransnational environmental crime involves the trading and smuggling of plants, animals, resources and pollutants in violation of prohibition or regulation regimes established by multilateral environmental agreements and/or in contravention of domestic law. (Forni, 2010: 34)

This definition embodies huge complexities of scale, scope, and content. For example, the legal framework governing environmental matters in international law is defined by over 270 multilateral environmental agreements and related instruments (Forni, 2010: 34). The laws and rules guiding action on environmental crime vary greatly at the local, regional, and national levels, and there are overarching conventions and laws that likewise have different legal purchase depending upon how they are translated into action in each specific local jurisdiction.

Responding to environmental crime primarily falls to enforcement and regulatory agencies within government, whether at the national, subnational, or local level. In most parts of the world, the main response agencies are police agencies, customs and border protection agencies, and environmental regulatory agencies. These can be considered the ‘three core agencies’ of environmental law enforcement (Pink, Forthcoming). The mandate, role, and function of response agencies is central to the issue of collaboration as the various agencies have cultural traits, preferences, and in some instances a statutory predilection or requirement that influences their willingness to, and method of, collaborating with others. Equally the different agencies have their own, sometimes overlapping, interest and stakeholder groups that may or may not be a factor in cross-cutting collaboration.

Collaboration and collaborative approaches have increased significantly in recent years, both at domestic and international levels. They have increased within the three core agencies, and between these and other key government response agencies. They are also increasingly involving wider groups of non-government stakeholders and interest groups, for example, academics and research institutions. Together, intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are now playing a growing and significant role in and/or are facilitating collaborative interventions (INTERPOL, 2009; Kangaspunta and Marshall, 2009; White, 2012; Wyatt, 2013; UK Economic and Social Research Council, n.d.).

What is collaboration and what does it look like?

In its most basic sense, collaboration simply refers to people or agencies working together for a shared purpose. However, the meaning and processes pertaining to collaboration as a form of social practice can be complicated and variable. This is due to the different functions and missions of specific agencies, and the varied levels at which collaboration can take place.

Different people may understand the term ‘collaboration’ as meaning different things, depending upon institutional and situational context. For instance, in Australia, there are many diverse agencies engaged in some form of environmental law enforcement. Some of these are engaged in both regulation and enforcement, and individual agencies may be charged with either or both. Agencies dealing with environmental matters work in and across different jurisdictions and deal with a myriad of issues. This is illustrated in Table 1.1 which outlines different tiers of governance involving various bodies engaged in environmental law enforcement.

Each agency, organisation, or network has its own legislatively defined mandate which dictates the...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on Contributors
• List of Abbreviations
• Part I: The Role of Collaboration in Combating Environmental Crime
• Part II: The Role of Institutions in Collaboration
• Part III: The Operational Aspects of Collaboration
• Part IV: The Role of Research in Collaboration
• Index