Wildlife Justice Commission Report also includes illegal sand mining as environmental crime
A case study in the WJC report illustrated diversion of commodities such as pangolin scales. Photo: iStock New evidence on the convergence of wildlife crime in tandem with other forms of organised crime has been found in a new report by nonprofit Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) working to dismantle organised crime.
The commission members have observed close links of wildlife trade with protection rackets, extortion, murder, money laundering, illicit drugs, tax evasion and corruption.
The report Convergence of wildlife crime with other forms of organised crime: A 2023 Review, is a follow-up to the first report published in 2021, which mentioned 12 case studies linking wildlife trafficking with human trafficking, fraud, migrant smuggling, illicit drugs, corruption and money laundering.
However, it is the first time that it noted sand-mining as a form of environmental crime.
Read more: These satellite images of Indian rivers highlight environmental impacts of sand mining
Sand, a raw material and second-most-used resource in the world, is used to make concrete, asphalt and glass. About 40-50 billion tonnes of sand resources are exploited each year, but their extraction is managed and governed poorly in many countries, the report stated.
The sand is extracted from rivers, coastal or marine ecosystems and has enormous environmental impacts — mining causes erosion and directly affects communities and their livelihoods. Indiscriminate extraction negatively impacts aquifers, reduces protection against storm surges, shrinks deltas, freshwater and marine fisheries, land-use changes and biodiversity.
Despite the scale of the issue, no global treaties governing sand extraction are in effect and the environmental damage is reportedly perpetuated by illegal sand-mining operation, organised and operated by violent sand mafias, the document stated.
The report further recognised 35 people in India, including five journalists and activists and 13 government officials, who were killed by sand mafia from January 2019 until March 2022 for opposing illegal sand mining.
Sand-mining killings from Indonesia, Kenya, Gambia, South Africa and Mexico were also reported. In addition to the 12 case studies from 2021, the report puts on record three cases from Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America.
The first case study illustrated the diversion of commodities such as pangolin scales, illegal sand mining, protection rackets and elephant ivory in Southeast Asia and Africa. The second case from Africa involved an embedded convergence between corruption, rhino poaching and money laundering.
Read more: Lickable toads and magic mushrooms: Wildlife traded on the dark web is the kind that gets you high
The third study from Central America represented transactional convergence between drug trafficking networks and seafood businesses involving sea cucumber and sharks closely linked to smuggling of illicit drugs, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.
Wildlife crime is a cross-cutting criminal activity that cannot be tackled in isolation from other crimes, Olivia Swaak-Goldman, executive director for WJC, said in a press statement.
“Crime convergence should be further studied and integrated as part of the approach to tackle wildlife crime and organised crime more broadly. An improved understanding of this intersection can help identify more strategic policy and law enforcement responses to address it,” Swaak-Goldman said.
Wildlife trafficking has grown to become a “more serious and profitable crime” in recent decades and increasing evidence of links between organised crime networks and wildlife crime is observed where the crimes are committed in conjunction with other forms of organised crime, the report said.
The paper aimed to highlight the convergence typologies and strategies to inform and support law enforcement and policy makers to crack on the forms of transnational organised crime.
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