A report by Unep and Interpol shows that the value of global environmental crime is 26 per cent larger than previous estimates.
Today, the value stands at $91-258 billion (Sh9.2 – 26.1 trillion) compared to $70-213 billion (Sh7.0 -21.5 trillion) in 2014.
The report dubbed The Rise of Environmental Crime says the money is generated from the illegal exploitation of natural resources, rebel groups, terrorist networks and international criminal cartels.
In the last decade, for example, the report poachers killed an average of 3,000 elephants per year in Tanzania.
That is an annual street market value for ivory traffickers of $10.5 million (Sh1.06 billion), an amount that is five times greater than the entire national budget if Tanzania’s wildlife division.
The report finds that weak laws and poorly funded security forces are enabling international criminal networks and armed rebels to profit from a trade that fuels conflicts, devastates ecosystems and is threatening species with extinction.
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: “Interpol and UNEP have joined forces to bring to the attention of the world the sheer scale of environmental crime. The vast sums of money generated from these crimes keep sophisticated international criminal gangs in business, and fuel insecurity around the world.”
“The result is not only devastating to the environment and local economies, but to all those who are menaced by these criminal enterprises. The world needs to come together now to take strong national and international action to bring environmental crime to an end,” Steiner added.
Interpol boss Jürgen Stock said environmental crime is growing at an alarming pace.
“The complexity of this type of criminality requires a multi-sector response underpinned by collaboration across borders.”
The report recommends strong action, legislation and sanctions at the national and international level, including measures targeted at disrupting overseas tax havens.
It also proposes an increase in financial support commensurate with the serious threat that environmental crime poses to sustainable development.
The host of this year’s World Environment Day, the Government of Angola, has joined the fight, promising to shut down its domestic trade in illegal ivory, toughen border controls and restore its elephant population through conservation measures.
More than one quarter of the world’s elephant population has been killed in a decade.
Some of world’s most vulnerable wildlife, like rhinos and elephants, are being killed at a rate that has grown by more than 25 per cent every year in the last decade.
