Organized Environmental Crime

The presentations of this panel offer a wide range of empirical evidence, criminological analysis, and theoretical explorations of the various connections between organized crime and environmental crime.

1. Informality, Organized Crime, and Illegal Mining

Yuliya Zabyelina, Associate professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Alabama

The paper will discuss the nexus between informality and organized crime in the context of illegal mining. It will focus on the exploration of the distinction between artisanal mining and mining committed directly or indirectly by organized criminal groups. Attention will also be dedicated to the harms of illegal mining and existing best practices of prevention of this crime.

2. Illegal Camel Races in Israel

Dina Siegel, Professor of Criminology, Utrecht University

Camel racing is forbidden in Israel. It is, however, organized regularly by Bedouins in the Negev desert. This presentation focuses on actors, responses and criminalization of the phenomenon. It considers how camel races became a symbol of political and cultural identity, and asks whether it is a sport or an organized criminal activity.

3. Organized Crime, Indigenous People and Natural Resources: Borders, Incentives and Relations

Daan van Uhm, Associate professor of Criminology, Utrecht University

This presentation explores the relationship between Indigenous people and organized crime groups vying for control over natural resources in the Darién Gap of East Panama and West Colombia, the Golden Triangle (the area where the borders of Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand meet), and the eastern edge of the Congo basin. By looking at the colonial history and the socioeconomic context of these Indigenous communities, this presentation generates a discussion about the social framing of the Indigenous people as both victims and offenders in the illegal trade in gold, wildlife and timber, particularly considering the types of relationships established with organized crime groups present in their ancestral lands from a green criminological perspective.