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The study, released during a U.N. meeting of
environment ministers in Nairobi, called for tougher action to
prevent crimes such as illegal logging, fishing, mining, dumping
of toxic waste and trade in rare animals and plants.
"Many criminal networks are making phenomenal profits from
environmental crime," Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations
Environment Program, told Reuters. "It is a financing machine."
An "enormous increase" in environmental crime in recent years is
helping to fund militias and insurgents while depriving
developing nations of billions of dollars in revenues to help
lift citizens from poverty, he said.
The study estimated that environmental crime was worth between
$70 billion and $213 billion a year. By comparison, global
development aid to poor nations totals $135 billion.
It estimated, for instance, that illicit trade in charcoal in
Africa, where wood is a main source of energy, was worth $1.9
billion a year. Islamist al Shabaab insurgents in Somalia made
millions of dollars by taxing charcoal at ports and roadblocks.
And rising wealth in China and other Asian nations is driving
demand for everything from ivory to rhino horn, seen as status
symbols by a rapidly growing middle class.
The report estimated that about 20,000 to 25,000 elephants were
killed in Africa every year, out of a total population of up to
about 650,000. Militias in Democratic Republic of Congo and the
Central African Republic exploited ivory to raise cash.
The report called for stronger environmental laws and
enforcement.
Among some successes, the report cited a drop in deforestation
in Brazil's Amazon to its lowest rate in 2012 since monitoring
began in 1988 because of satellite imaging and targeted police
operations.
(Reporting by Alister Doyle; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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