In Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory and across other parts of the Amazon Basin, illegal gold mining has metastasized into a transnational criminal enterprise. What starts with illegal deforestation and mercury poisoning ends with laundered gold flowing into global supply chains. The trade finances organized crime, corrupt officials, and crosses borders via shell companies into Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela, before being sold on to refiners, jewelers and tech manufacturers around the world.

Over the past few years Brazilian authorities have uncovered a vast network of fraudulent permits and financial front men linking Amazonian gold to buyers in Europe and the Middle East. And since 2023, coordinated action involving more than 4,000 security operations has reduced illegal mining in Yanomami land by more than 90%. Yet local officials concede that the criminal networks driving the trade remain firmly entrenched, adapt quickly, and expand their reach faster than enforcement can keep up.

Efforts to forge a new global protocol to tackle these kinds of complex environmental crimes have gathered momentum over the past decade, especially since the 2015 Doha Declaration. In October 2024, the U.N. launched an intergovernmental process to explore new protocols under the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) targeting environmental crime.

Championed by Brazil, France and Peru, opportunities are emerging to unify fragmented global efforts and spur stronger state action. These developments reflect mounting international recognition that offenses such as illegal logging, illicit mining, wildlife trafficking, unregulated fishing, and the dumping of hazardous waste are not merely conservation concerns. They undermine public security, corrode the rule of law, destabilize economies, and thwart climate and biodiversity goals.

While awareness of the dimensions of environmental crime is rising, forging consensus on a protocol is not straightforward. Definitions of environmental crime are fragmented, shaped by diverse geographies, diverging political and economic priorities, and varying institutional capacities. Some countries emphasize forest loss, others wildlife, and still others pollution or illegal extraction of commodities. The result is a legal patchwork: national laws and regional accords addressing slices of the problem, but no comprehensive international instrument to tie them together. That leaves enforcement efforts piecemeal, and criminals with wide margins to maneuver.

Most experts agree on the scale of the problem. The Financial Action Task Force estimates that environmental crimes generate as much as $280 billion annually, making it more lucrative than arms trafficking and people smuggling. A new UNTOC protocol could help bridge gaps by harmonizing legal definitions, setting out shared enforcement principles, and bolstering transnational cooperation. But the political path to such a deal remains strewn with obstacles, from resource disparities to rising geopolitical friction.

Latin America offers a vivid case study in the complexity of environmental crime. The Amazon Basin, stretching across eight countries, is a haven for illegal loggers, gold miners and wildlife traffickers. These activities are frequently intertwined with narcotics, money laundering and public sector corruption. But there are glimmers of progress in cross-border activities. In 2023, Amazonian leaders signed the Belém Declaration, committing to coordinate environmental governance via the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization and boost joint enforcement. Brazil also launched an International Police Cooperation Center in Manaus to improve cross-border intelligence against environmental crime. Last year, the Brazilian federal police launched Operation Green Justice on the tri-border area with Colombia and Peru.

Sub-Saharan Africa grapples with many of the same illicit flows as in the Americas. Wildlife trafficking is rampant, with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda serving as both source and transit hubs for elephant ivory, pangolin scales and other contraband heading to markets in Asia and the Middle East.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is another acute problem. Nigeria, for example, loses an estimated $70 million annually to foreign industrial fleets. In response, African states are increasingly investing in satellite tracking and maritime patrols, and expanding cooperation through regional bodies such as the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea, as well as global enforcement partnerships like Interpol’s Environmental Security Program. But progress remains uneven, hampered by underfunded enforcement agencies and endemic corruption.

While featuring many similarities, environmental crime takes on a different hue in the Asia-Pacific region. Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations are frequent destinations for electronic waste exported illegally from wealthier countries. The influx of toxic materials poses both ecological and public health threats. Meanwhile, illegal and unregulated fishing across the Pacific (including in Latin American waters) — often by distant-water fleets from China, Taiwan and elsewhere — is rapidly depleting marine biodiversity and undermining coastal livelihoods. In response, countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines have deployed satellite monitoring systems, supported by NGOs and international donors, to track illegal vessels. But enforcement gaps persist across vast and underpatrolled seas.

Europe, by contrast, is focusing on tightening its legal apparatus. The European Union revised its Environmental Crimes Directive in 2023 to cover “ecocide”-scale harms and mandate stiffer penalties by 2026. Authorities have also ramped up financial oversight to dismantle the illicit financial flows underpinning illicit waste trafficking — a growing criminal market. Through the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats, EU member states coordinate investigations, share intelligence, and fund capacity building. Later this month, the Council of Europe is expected to approve the long-anticipated Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, replacing a 1998 accord and aiming to bring coherence to member-state legislation.

View more of Mongabay’s coverage of environmental crime here.

In the United States, environmental crime enforcement has traditionally involved close coordination between environmental regulators, prosecutors and financial watchdogs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have taken the lead in prosecuting hazardous waste violations, timber theft and wildlife crimes. Meanwhile, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network  (FinCEN) recently ramped up efforts to trace illicit financial flows tied to environmental offenses, particularly through real-estate and shell companies.

For all their differences in scope and ambition, regional efforts point to an emerging consensus: environmental crime is no longer local, nor low-level. It is transnational, technologically savvy, and increasingly audacious, fueled by global markets and enabled by weak governance. Confronting it will require more than goodwill and patrol boats.

A dedicated UNTOC protocol won’t solve everything, but it would mark a critical step toward harmonizing laws, closing enforcement gaps, and raising the cost for environmental offenders. The real test, as ever, lies in whether governments can translate momentum into agreement, especially in an era of rising geopolitical friction and fraying multilateralism.

Robert Muggah is an expert on security, cities, climate action and digital transformation. He is chief innovation officer for the Rio de Janeiro-based Igarapé Institute, an independent “think and do tank” that he co-founded, which is focused on the areas of public, climate and digital security and their consequences for democracy.

Banner image: A truck carries logs in Rondônia, Brazil. Image courtesy of Vicente Sampaio/Imaflora.

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