Environmental crimes finance terrorist groups: UNEP

 

Illegal logging and forest crime has an estimated worth of USD30 to USD100 billion annually, or 10 to 30 per cent of the total global timber trade. An estimated 50 to 90 per cent of the wood in some individual tropical countries is suspected to come from illegal sources or has been logged illegally. [Photo/INTERPOL]

Combined estimates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UNEP and INTERPOL place the monetary value of all environmental crime — which includes logging, poaching and trafficking of a wide range of animals, illegal fisheries, illegal mining and dumping of toxic waste—at between $70 and $213 billion each year.

Illegal logging and forest crime has an estimated worth of $30 to $100 billion annually, or 10 to 30 percent of the total global timber trade. An estimated 50 to 90 percent of the wood in some individual tropical countries is suspected to come from illegal sources or has been logged illegally.

With current trends in urbanization and the projected growth of over one billion additional people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, the demand for charcoal is expected to at least triple in the coming three decades. This will generate severe impacts such as large-scale deforestation, pollution and subsequent health problems in slum areas.

The increased charcoal demand will considerably increase the purchasing power of non-State armed groups, including terrorist organizations, and accelerate emissions if left unchallenged.

The overall size of the illicit charcoal export from Somalia has been estimated at $360–$384 million per year, the armed group in East Africa earning up to $56 million of this.

For pulp and paper production, networks of shell companies and plantations are used to funnel illegal timber through plantations, or to ship wood and pulp via legal plantations. These methods effectively bypass many current customs efforts to restrict the import of illegal tropical wood to the United States and the European Union.

The report highlights poaching across many species, including tigers, elephants, rhinos, great apes and Saiga antelopes. It says while more needs to be done, the scale and nature of the illegal trade in wildlife has been recognized and some successes have been scored but the scale and coordination of efforts must be substantially increased and widened.