(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Alan Hope/
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Book of Isaiah 5:20
Environmental crimes are defined as illegal acts directly harming the environment, including, but not limited to, the illegal wildlife trade, smuggling of ozone depleting substances, dumping and illicit trade in hazardous waste, illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, and illegal logging.
Beyond their immediate impacts on nature itself, environmental crimes are affecting the resource base of local communities, resulting in theft of the sovereign natural capital, while a sustainable development, livelihood, good governance and the rule of law are all being threatened.
Characterized by transnational trafficking, a criminal supply chain and links with other such facilitating and accommodating crimes as fraud, document falsification, money laundering and corruption, environmental crimes have long become an international security issue.
Overshadowed by the drug and human trafficking, as well as the illegal trade of firearms, and perceived as 'victimless, the environmental crimes were failing to prompt the required law-enforcement response on the international and even regional levels for a long while.
Nonetheless, crimes against the environment, the consequences of which span environmental, economic, social and security issues, have, in the past decade, become the most of any serious international criminal activity affecting the global community.
Terrorists too?
Being trans-boundary by their very nature, environmental crimes, incorporating organized networks, porous borders, irregular migration, money laundering, corruption and the exploitation of disadvantaged communities, had gradually become one of the prime sources of financing for criminal and terrorist organizations.
These types of crimes, generating globally a yearly turnover of more than $250B, were assimilated by the criminal syndicates and terrorist groups actively seeking to diversify their operations and increase control on a much wider range of commodities. Environmental felons are just as ruthless as any other, using intimidation, human rights abuse, impunity, murder and violence as essential tools of their tradecraft.
What about the officials?
In line with the criminals' perception of the environmental crimes, individuals in corporate or official positions of authority and power view these types of crimes as an 'easy option for the 'pursuit of [their own] happiness. These officials participate in the criminal activities utilizing the institutionalized corruption tools, such as 'turning a blind eye, protectionism, document forger and logistical support, cocooned with the familiar bureaucracies, weak legislation and poor enforcement activities. Far more serious, and yet just as common, is the complicit, long-term involvement of individuals from the police, army, government and intergovernmental organizations, which prevents the true cost and extent assessment of the crimes and limit the option for countermeasures.
Where do animals come into the picture?
The greatest practitioner of nonviolence, Mohandas (Mahatma 'Great Soul) Gandhi, had stated, 'The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. These words are even more appropriate today, in light of the ongoing global cruel mistreatment and abuse of the Earth's fauna and right-out barbarous way of dealing with its flora.
Why bother?
As such, we dedicate a series of articles, with the intention of raising the awareness and hopes of bringing the culpable parties to justice, addressing the case study of the environmental crimes committed in a single country (Armenia).
The study will be concentrated on a documented series of meticulously calculated inhumane crimes, fueled and motivated mostly by greed rather than the common sense and committed in full disregard of the crime's outcomes and impacts on the environment and the society.
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