On 14 May 2024 many attendees were lucky enough to attend a fascinating webinar on organised environmental crime and the role that women play. Titled ‘Decarbonising Organised Crime: The Role that Women and Girls Play in Accomplishing this Goal’ the event was a virtual side event to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.  

Opening remarks 

President Siew Yong Gnanalingam opened the webinar stating that we seek to inform how civil society, including women and girls, can join public organisations and communities in the fight against climate crisis and organised environmental crime. 

Since December 2023 organised environmental crime has become the third most lucrative industry for trans-national organised online groups generating billions of US dollars and leading to the destabilisation of economies and communities. It poses a major threat to the environment and the lives of millions around the world who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.  

President Siew Yong thanked our speakers for sharing their time and knowledge as they offer their insights on how organised environmental crime has affected the environment, communities and women and girls and how creative solutions can help to address this huge challenge. 

Deforestation and waste burning 

Stefano Betti, International Security and Criminal Policy Expert offered some interesting figures in his presentation, such as the fact that at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in 2023, President Lula of Brazil noted that deforestation in Amazon decreased 40% in the previous eight months.  Clearing or even disturbing forests releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and contributes to global warming. We cannot fight the climate crisis if we fail to stop deforestation.  

Stefano is particularly knowledgeable about how organised crime contributes to carbon emissions.  He explained the term ‘narco-deforestation’ as profits from drug trafficking being used to buy up tropical forests, removing trees and turning the areas into agricultural land, threatening biodiversity and rural and indigenous livelihoods. 

He talked about how illegal waste burning is harming impoverished communities struggling to make a living. He cited the headline making incident in 2022 of inhabitants of a village near Bucharest in Romania setting fire to many items including electrical components, computers and tyres looking for metal objects they could sell as scrap metal.  As well as the danger to life that the fire posed, the burning seriously impacted local air quality.  

Confiscation of criminal assets 

Stefano called for governments to engage in more rigorous law enforcement action to combat illegal activities, specifically regarding carbon emissions. He feels that much more can be done, particularly in using policy as tools in a smarter way.  As an example, he talked about criminal asset recovery where action is aimed at seizing and confiscating criminal property. 

Stefano said it is estimated that 2% of criminal assets are confiscated by EU Member States and if this figure could be increased by just a few more percentages much could be done to support green initiatives and turn lands seized from organised crime into sustainable practices.  

At present many countries get rid of illicit seized objects through incineration and this releases tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Stefano shared three creative solutions where seized counterfeit items have been re-used for positive humanitarian purposes:  

• In the Philippines, counterfeit DVDs were recycled to be used as roofing materials including wall and floor tiles 
• In Europe, counterfeit sports shoes were used as flooring for childrens’ playgrounds 
• In South Africa, counterfeit tobacco was used as fertiliser 

Though this sounds like an ideal solution, big brands are concerned about their brand value and reputation if goods imitating their brands are in circulation. 

Wrapping up his presentation Stefano stated that it would be a mistake to dismiss these approaches as something that only wealthy countries can do and there is a genuine window of opportunity for some countries to adapt legal frameworks. 

Women Environmental Defenders 

Professor Verena Winiwarter, previously Professor of Environmental History at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vienna talked about Women Environmental Defenders (WEDs) who use a variety of strategies and work with networks to help tackle the climate crisis. She said that many of these women experience violence and danger, including being raped, beaten, shot and killed to prevent them exposing and shutting down illicit practices and environmental dangers. The professor shared some data that illustrated the number and locations of murdered WEDs.  

Professor Winiwarter briefly spoke about some of these women including: 

• Ushigua Santi – who is protesting against fracking in Ecuador’s Amazon and has experienced severe physical aggression 
• Cannon – an anti-fracking advocate in the Alaskan Arctic who has been subjected to cultural and ecological violence 

She debated whether some WEDs did not experience violence due to reasons of ethnicity, education and other background factors, citing as an example Zuzana Čaputová, Slovak politician, lawyer and environmental activist, who fought illegal dumps in the Slovak Republic but has not experienced direct violence.  

Professor Winiwarter said that some WEDs adopt “bodies in protest” as a strategy to ensure their voices are heard by rendering visible and eliciting emotion in response to visceral, embodied scars.  

Women are more susceptible 

Moving onto why women are more affected by the climate crisis Professor Winiwarter stated that in the heatwave in August 2003 in France the overall excess mortality rate for women was 75% higher than for men. Even when equal ages are considered, from the age of 55, there is still a female excess mortality of about 15%. 

Due to their physiology women are more susceptible to toxic chemicals as they have a higher fat ratio and this means that women retain toxic chemicals, stored in fat deposits, in their bodies for longer. Environmental crime activities like illegal mining, waste dumping and using illegal pesticides affects women to a greater extent than men. Rapid physiological changes such as pregnancy and menopause also increases women’s vulnerability to damage from toxic chemicals.  

Youth perspective 

Shaleen Wanjiru, Soroptimist International United Nations Youth Representative Designate in Nairobi provided a perspective from a younger person’s perspective. She reflected how floods in her home country of Kenya are causing major upheaval with many women being affected by ongoing floods in Kenya. Having recently visited her old school she was deeply concerned to see that a large portion of the school was damaged by floods. This endangers lives and puts the education of children and young people on hold.  Shaleen voiced her concerns about how environmental crime such as illegal logging has far reaching consequences for ecosystems and natural resources.  

In her words “the future hangs in the balance” for young people who are experiencing a huge emotional rollercoaster as they see species and habitats pushed to the brink. Shaleen said she fears she won’t reach 40, partly because of the loss of lives in floods and other climate crisis issues.  Like many other young people, she feels betrayed by governments and policy makers whose inactivity makes them feel abandoned.  Shaleen stressed the need for all member states, academia and civil society to take urgent action to address environmental challenges to protect lives and preserve cultural heritage.  

Concluding remarks 

The Revd Dr Liberato Bautista, President of Conference of Nongovernmental Organisationsin Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO) gave the concluding remarks.  He stressed the importance of addressing ecocide to inform policy, national discourse and the international setting that civil society operates in.  Dr Bautista said that in the fight against organised environmental crime the urgent task is not just to heal the human body but also the body politic. He feels that civil society organisations have a huge role to play and must have access to the substantive agenda at the UN.   

In concluding he made two thought provoking points: 

• If the war on poverty is truly a war – the third world war, we must question why it is not funded like other wars today? 
• In the upcoming Summit of the Future (22 to 23 September 2024) we must address the issue of human security being coupled with an understanding of planet security – we cannot imagine a future for humanity if the climate crisis and organised environmental crime continue.  

We would like to thank our co-sponsors in this event:  

African Action on Aids 

The Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice 

Conference of Nongovernmental Organisations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO) 

Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations and to other International Organisations, Vienna 

Zonta International