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Harnessing Third Parties for Transnational Environmental Crime Prevention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2013

Julie Ayling*
Affiliation:
Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), Australian National University, Canberra (Australia). Email: julie.ayling@anu.edu.au.

Abstract

Because transnational environmental crime (TEC) can result in the demise of an environmental resource or irreversible damage to the environment and has implications for national and global security, its prevention is a critical issue. Deterrence through law enforcement can go only a limited distance towards preventing TEC. However, there is a huge potential for third parties to be active participants, alongside governmental authorities, in crafting and implementing strategies for TEC prevention. This article explores the ways in which states can catalyze third parties – non-state, non-offending actors – to contribute their own capacities towards the pursuit of preventive outcomes. It draws together concepts and theories from policing studies, criminology and regulatory studies to highlight changing relationships between the state and non-state actors with respect to crime control, and applies them to TEC. Examples and illustrations used in the article relate mainly to efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade. The article concludes that a more systematic approach to TEC prevention involving third parties is needed, and that this requires dedicated strategic analysis and planning on the part of states, working individually and together.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

1 For a recent account of the security implications of the illegal wildlife trade, see Ratchford, M., Allgood, B. & Todd, P., Criminal Nature: The Global Security Implications of the Illegal Wildlife Trade (International Fund for Animal Welfare, 2013), available at: http://www.ifaw.org/sites/default/files/IFAW-Criminal-Nature-global-security-illegal-wildlife-trade.pdf.Google Scholar

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16 The role of third parties and how they can be harnessed by the state for crime control has been considered in relation to other areas of illegal activity, such as the trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs. See, e.g., Cherney, A., O’Reilly, J. & Grabosky, P., ‘Networks and Meta-Regulation: Strategies Aimed at Governing Illicit Synthetic Drugs’ (2006) 16(4) Policing and Society, pp. 370–85.Google Scholar

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28 See, e.g., ASEAN Chiefs of Police Conference (ASEANAPOL) and its partnership with INTERPOL, available at: http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News-media-releases/2011/PR047.

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63 16 U.S.C. §1540 (g). Relevant non-discretionary government duties are provided for in 16 U.S.C. §1533.

64 An often cited application of this provision is the Flying Fox case, Booth v. Bosworth [2001] FCA 1453. The applicant for the injunction in question was employed by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (Australia), and also did voluntary work for the North Queensland Conservation Council and the Magnetic Island Nature Care Association. She had also cared for orphaned flying foxes. Her standing was accepted by the court with little debate.

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68 In South Africa, poaching activities can be reported through the general Crimestop number provided by the government. Third parties often provide hotlines too. For example, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (a statutory entity which reports to the relevant minister through its board) provides several contact numbers for the reporting of different kinds of poaching. Similarly, the Kenya Wildlife Conservation Forum (KWCF), part of the NGO, East African Wild Life Society (EAWLS), has recently established a hotline for reporting wildlife crimes in response to the upsurge in elephant and rhinoceros poaching: see http://www.eawildlife.org/the-news/eawlsnews/184-wildlife-crime-hotline-goes-live.

69 Since Dec. 2012, Kruger National Park in South Africa has been using a Seeker II unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, loaned to the SANParks by its South African manufacturer, to patrol for poachers, particularly of rhinoceros. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya used an internet campaign to raise money for its own drone and currently has the parts on order: see Kariuki, J., ‘Ol Pejeta Deploys Drone against Rhino Poachers’, Business Daily, 23 Jan. 2013, available at: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com.Google Scholar

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76 Vandenburgh dubs this type of private regulation through contract ‘the new Wal-Mart effect’: Vandenburgh, M.P., ‘The New Wal-Mart Effect’ (2007) 54(4) UCLA Law Review, pp. 913–70Google Scholar. IKEA, for example, imposes minimum standards on its wood product suppliers and regularly audits them with the aim of ensuring that those products come from sustainably managed forests. Non-compliant suppliers are required to immediately implement corrective action. IKEA and the WWF also work together on projects to increase the availability of FSC certified wood and reduce illegal logging in countries such as Russia, Cambodia and Romania: see http://www.ikea.com/ms/img/newsroom/wlw/FACTSforestryFINAL20jan.pdf. This show of environmental concern on the part of large purchasers originated as a defensive response to targeted activist campaigns designed to embarrass and shame them and their suppliers. However, the acceptance of responsibility for the environmental practices of suppliers has now become a business norm: Vogel, n. 73 above, at p. 79.

77 Grabosky, n. 44 above, at pp. 536–7.

78 Vogel, n. 73 above, at pp. 76–8.

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85 Ayling, Grabosky & Shearing, n. 18 above.

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89 Brewer, n. 45 above, at pp. 6, 229 (for example). Brewer is concerned with crime on the waterfront and the relations that exist between the various actors that have an input into the operations of ports, but his conclusions about social capital are relevant to any context where the state attempts to harness the capacities of non-state actors for crime control.

90 Ibid., pp. 228–54.

91 Trust is not essential for criminal cooperation, which can occur in the absence of initial trust or in the presence of outright mistrust: von Lampe, K. & Johansen, P.O., ‘Organized Crime and Trust: On the Conceptualization and Empirical Relevance of Trust in the Context of Criminal Networks’ (2003) 6(2) Global Crime, pp. 159–84, at 177–80.Google Scholar