Environmental crime

The term environmental crime referred infringing acts that violate standards, designed to protect the wider environment. Environmental crime is thus directed against legally protected environmental goods.

International bodies such as G8, EU, Interpol and the environmental program of the United Nations have recognized the following environmental crimes:

• Illegal trade in endangered animal and plant species that violates the Washington Convention of 1973;
• Smuggling of substances that deplete the ozone layer, which is against the Montreal Protocol of 1987;
• And disposal of prohibited trade in hazardous waste, in violation of the Basel Convention of 1989;
• Illegal fishing that violates international fisheries agreements and other controls that regional fisheries regulatory organizations have imposed;
• Illegal logging and the associated trade in stolen timber, in violation of national laws.

Manifestations

Typical cases of environmental crime are the pollution of water, soil and air, the release of radiation and toxins, improper handling of waste and hazardous substances or the threat of vulnerable areas.

The range of actions that are counted on environmental crime, reaches from for minor ( throwing away a soda can in the nature reserve ) up to large-scale, even irreparable damage ( contamination of drinking water in a region, contamination of entire regions by atomic radiation).

Combating environmental crime

At government level, manifestations of environmental crime are tracked using the criminal law and environmental criminal law and misdemeanor law.

For a long time criminal provisions are not included to protect the environment in the core criminal law, but scattered over the Nebenstrafrecht.

This situation has changed in 1980 with the first law to combat environmental crime ( UKG ). Since then, important provisions of environmental criminal law are part of the Criminal Code (section " crimes against the environment," § § 324 ff StGB) and are classified as criminal.

Prior to the commission of acts of polluting the environment ( administrative ) is at right. Here is regulated as to which environmental good (soil, air, etc.) may be handled, what type of use and degree are allowed to load, which require a permit and what are excluded.

At detection and in the prosecution of environmental crime but also other actors play an important role, since many environmental offenses not (immediately) stand out and complete control by the state is not feasible.

Many cases of environmental crime come only through dedicated and persistent research by journalists to light, especially when it comes to crimes of business enterprises, but also in the case of irregularities in the administration.

Equally important is the commitment of different actors of civil society. Not only NGOs such as Greenpeace ensure that environmental crime is detected, denounced and persecuted. Also, community groups and other self- organized groups in particular local area bring environmental crime to the public.