The author highlights that trade in endangered species is one of the most pernicious forms of transnational environmental crime, involving several layers of participants and facilitated by systemic corruption. The CITES permits states to take pre-emptory actions to curtail this trade, yet it persists. The intervention of INTERPOL in the trade reflects the difficulties states experience in CITES enforcement, but the author questions whether it is an effective approach to this transnational environmental crime. He summarizes, analyzes and evaluates the current role of INTERPOL’s Project Predator (focused on Asian large cats) and Project Wisdom (focused on elephants and rhinoceros), two ongoing efforts to curb illegal wildlife trade. While there are many challenges to the success of these projects, the author suggests these are a necessary spoke in the evolving wheel of global environmental governance.

This chapter introduces the reflection in the book and the work of the ESG Workgroup on the Representations and Rights of the Environment (ESGRREW), with its intercultural and interdisciplinary process of Research & Dialogue: a critical appraisal of how humankind conceive its relationship with the environment, towards a clear vision of how to apprehend it in law and governance. The reflection takes heed of the change in vision in different fields of knowledge and the message of Indigenous peoples with other critical voices regarding humankind’s present predicament. It champions social and environmental justice, and highlights the crisis of representations and perception of our world. Rekindling the conscience of diversity of languages, cultures and modes of knowing and being, it advocates a wide and relational approach, considering lived experience. It contends that we need to remove ‘barriers to understanding’, create and nurture a common space towards a ‘new common sense’. Reconnecting with other legal traditions will contribute to rethinking legal frameworks and practices for a new legal consciousness.

This chapter describes the threats posed by the abundance of marine plastic pollution and links it to broader concerns about climate change, biodiversity conservation, and human health. While evidence remains inconclusive there are indications that microplastic pollution in the oceans, in particular, poses grave threats, and this presents not only collective action problems but environmental justice concerns as well. Responding to the crisis generated by the nexus of these issues is a form of collective adaptation that the international community cannot ignore, moving toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Will the climate, biodiversity, and health agendas adapt to the presence of the microplastic pollution issue? Some policy suggestions are discussed along with pertinent knowledge gaps and future marine concerns.