ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the varieties of money laundering that are connected to a range of environmental crimes – especially illegal logging – how much people know about those areas and national and international anti money laundering (AML) control efforts within them. Neither money laundering nor environmental crimes have clear boundaries, nor do practitioners or scholars use the terms consistently. In the EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2013, environmental crimes are not regarded as 'key threats' but as 'emerging threats' and then are categorised as 'threats' but not as 'priority threats'. Action against the financing and proceeds of environmental crimes is affected by the domestic and international political economy considerations surrounding enforcement in the Global South as well as in the financial centres and import markets of the Global North. Finally, 'follow the money' approaches are often attractive in offering the hope for transformations in control, but almost invariably fall short.
