Handbook of Transnational Environmental Crime, edited by Lorraine Elliott and William H. Schaedla, published by Edward Elgar, 2016, 552 pp., £135, hardcover.

• Author: John M. Sellar
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12190
• Published date: 01 April 2017
• Date: 01 April 2017

Book Reviews

Handbook of Transnational

Environmental Crime,

edited by Lorraine Elliott and

William H. Schaedla,

published by Edward Elgar,

2016, 552 pp., £135,

hardcover.

Environmental crime, and par-

ticularly wildlife trafficking, has

become something of a flavour of

the month in recent years. Any

number of politicians, diplomats,

heads of intergovernmental and

nongovernmental organizations,

researchers, the media and even

Hollywood celebrities and major

sports stars, have jumped upon the

bandwagon of saving species or

conserving the climate.

Regrettably, a few so-called re-

searchers have published question-

able results or conclusions, some of

which have played right into the

hands of those seeking to communi-

cate ever-increasingly alarmist mes-

sages to the general public; usually

motivated by specific agendas of

either lobbying against trade or

attracting more donations to their

organization’s bank balance. Conse-

quently, the general public’s under-

standing of environmental crime

ranges from non-existent, through

misinformed, to confused.

But, more importantly, the under-

standing among those whose job

it is to combat ‘crime’, be they

customs, police or regulatory body

official, may be similarly lacking.

And inaccurate information, data

or statements bring with them the

very real risk of crying wolf. For

instance, if anti-terrorist agencies

are encouraged to focus on illicit

trade in ivory, only to find that

the claimed involvement of ‘ter-

rorist’groups in such activities

is very questionable, it does little

to help should their support be

required, genuinely, in due

course.

The editors of this publication

deserve to be commended, there-

fore, for encouraging a large num-

ber of contributors (28 in all) to

try and provide an objective and

reasoned overview, across some 27

chapters, to not only dispel some of

the myths and questionable claims

but also seeking to address the basic

issue as to what is meant, or should

be meant, by the term ‘environmen-

tal crime’. To a very significant

degree, the editors achieve what

one presumes they intended, as the

reader undoubtedly emerges with a

comprehensive appreciation of this

subject and the current approaches

on combating, prosecuting, pre-

venting, deterring and reducing

environmental crime. That, in itself,

is praiseworthy. This is not, how-

ever, a book that the average reader

will find hard to put down. Indeed,

some readers may struggle to get

through it, either as a whole or

specific chapters.

In particular, one has to feel sorry

for the authors tasked with

addressing crimes such as those

linked to carbon emissions or

ozone depleting substances. Get-

ting one’s head around the rele-

vant treaties and their complex

provisions is a difficult enough

undertaking for those inclined to

find this field interesting and com-

pelling, without imagining how

hard it must be to encourage the

average customs officer to give it

more attention. This strikes at the

very heart of responding to ‘crime’

that impacts upon the planet, its

atmosphere or its fauna and flora

inhabitants. These crimes, as the

book points out, may be regarded

as ‘victimless’and, thus, not imme-

diately viewed by the mainstream

law enforcement and policing com-

munities as being of their concern.

In a similar vein, activities which

harm the environment may not

readily be seen by revenue-gather-

ing customs authorities as incorpo-

rating deliberate tax and duty

evasion.

Further, several contributors call

into question whether some, if not

many, of the activities that involve

illicit trade or infraction of con-

vention and treaty provisions

deserve, in strictly legal terms, to

actually be described as crime.

One or two authors perhaps get

too bogged down in such legalistic

discussions.

Bringing contributors together to

summarize not only the provisions

of such diverse matters as the Con-

vention on International Trade in

Endangered Species (CITES), the

Basel Convention, the Montreal

Protocol, illegal, unreported and

unregulated (IUU) fishing and il-

legal logging, but also to describe

how criminals exploit shortcom-

ings in multilateral environmental

agreements, and then illustrate the

challenges faced by the law enforce-

ment community in bringing

offenders to justice, was a worthy

goal. The majority of the chapter

authors get the ball in the net; some

more impressively than others.

Most of the authors are from aca-

demia, and it shows in the manner

in which information is provided

and commented upon. There are a

few authors who are described by

the editors as ‘practitioners’. This

term can cover a multitude of sins

and the writing styles differ greatly.

A very few are individuals who

apparently truly understand law

enforcement, presumably through

hands-on experience, and that

comes across clearly. One simply

has to read the chapters on fisheries

crime and CITES to see vastly dif-

ferent approaches, and this is

ª2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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RECIEL 26 (1) 2017. ISSN 2050-0386 DOI: 10.1111/reel.12190

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