ABSTRACT

Transnational environmental crime (TEC)—one of the fastest growing areas of cross-border criminal enterprise—is the knowing violation of international prohibition or regulation regimes or of national criminal law by individuals, private actors, and sometimes by public entities for illegal gain. It includes the trafficking of illegally logged timber, the smuggling of endangered species, the black market in ozone-depleting substances, the transboundary dumping of toxic and hazardous waste, and the illegal exploitation of marine living resources. TEC challenges conventional assumptions that criminal activity is managed through hierarchical cartels and mafia-type organizations. Rather, those engaged in this clandestine sphere rely on the operational advantages offered by network structures: that they are flexible, decentralized, “highly resistant to decapitation and more difficult to contain”. The global governance complex for TEC constitutes a form of multilevel governance, characterized by effort across multiple national, regional, and international agencies and sites of authority.