ABSTRACT
The chapter suggests that the more clear-cut violations of domestic and, even, international environmental law, are not ecocidal in nature. Transnational environmental crime (TEC) can no longer be considered as a tangential threat to environmental security. Entire communities are often affected when resources are ransacked or permanently ruined by illegal loggers, miners, fishermen, and others. Often, the criminals involved are also trading in arms, drugs, and humans at the same time. The foreign investors from various organized criminal groups benefit at the expense of impoverished poachers, hazardous waste handlers, enslaved fishermen, and others caught up in the brutal trades of TEC. Efforts to break the complex links between poverty, markets for associated products, and criminal expertise are most welcome and Interpol and other organizations involved in the broader global governance context are playing an increasingly visible role. It is important to remember that environmental security is challenged by an array of actors and international economic and social structures.
