By: Lauren R. Stienstra, Diana P. Horn. Erica A. Lee, Bruce R. Lindsay, William L. Painter, and Elizabeth M. Webster

Before midnight on September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 major hurricane in northwestern Florida in the Big Bend area of the Gulf Coast, later bringing heavy rain and floods to many states in the southern Appalachian region.

President Biden had issued emergency declarations under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288, as amended; 42 U.S.C. §§5121 et seq.) for Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia authorizing Public Assistance (PA) for emergency protective measures to support mass care, and Individual Assistance (IA) for Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Beginning on Sept. 29th, President Biden began issuing major disaster declarations superseding many of these earlier emergency declarations, as follows:

• Florida Hurricane Helene (DR-4828-FL), authorizing IA; PA for emergency protective measures and debris removal; and Hazard Mitigation Assistance;

• North Carolina Tropical Storm Helene (DR-4827-NC), authorizing PA for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and repair and replacement of eligible public and nonprofit facilities, and Hazard Mitigation Assistance;

• South Carolina Hurricane Helene (DR-4829-SC), authorizing IA; PA for emergency protective measures and debris removal; and Hazard Mitigation Assistance;

• Georgia Hurricane Helene (DR-4830-GA), authorizing IA; PA for emergency protective measures and debris removal; and Hazard Mitigation Assistance;

• Virginia Tropical Storm Helene (DR-4831-VA), authorizing IA; PA for emergency protective measures and debris removal; and Hazard Mitigation Assistance; and

• Tennessee Tropical Storm Helene (DR-4832-TN) authorizing IA; PA for emergency protective measures and debris removal; and Hazard Mitigation Assistance

The situation remains dynamic; additional declarations, including for other states and designated areas (counties), or additional forms of assistance may be forthcoming. Existing major disaster declarations and potential major disaster declarations for Hurricane Helene may authorize FEMA to provide a suite of disaster assistance programs, including Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, and Hazard Mitigation Assistance.

Information about state and county disaster assistance authorizations is published in FEMA’s declaration database.

FEMA’s Hurricane Helene webpage provides information on and directions to apply for disaster assistance.

Congressional Research Service, 2024

By Mihir Mysore, Tim Ward, and Tom Dohrmann and David Bibo

Weather and climate disasters are becoming more frequent, wide-ranging, severe, and costly. While consequences for life and health are always at the forefront, one way to measure disaster impact is through estimates of economic impacts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that from 2019 to 2023, the U.S. experienced more than 100 $1 billion disasters, with total costs in excess of $0.5 trillion. This is four times the average number of $1 billion disasters and more than double the costs of any other five-year period since 2000. In 2023 alone, there were 28 $1 billion disasters, the highest number recorded since 1980 (when data became available). And these disasters affected 46 states, almost twice the number of states affected by $1 billion disasters in 2000. Indeed, the number of states experiencing $1 billion disasters has steadily risen year over year since 2000.

More and worsening disasters across a broader swath of the country means more lives and livelihoods placed in harm’s way and more communities likely facing intertwined economic and social consequences. Given current trends, state and local leaders are seeking ways to help their communities recover and rebuild effectively in the wake of disaster, restoring not only infrastructure and homes but economic competitiveness and social well-being. To help inform state and local recovery planning efforts, we examined quantitative and anecdotal evidence from U.S. communities that have demonstrated robust resilience in the face of disasters—what we termed leading recoveries—as well as for communities that experienced lower resilience where we saw lagging recoveries.

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs | September 2024

By: Julia Nagy, Amber Woodburn McNair, and Destiny N. Thomas

Considering the depth, complexity, and sensitivity of the subject matter, readers are encouraged to approach the Toolkit with a willingness to acknowledge potentially uncomfortable feelings, challenge their current perspectives on the subject matter, and remain open to learning new concepts or viewpoints. Although the concepts are tailored to the airport audience, there may be information unfamiliar to the reader that may provoke reflection. Readers may find opportunities to take time to digest the material and reflect on themes, concepts, modules, and case studies that relate to their work.

This research intends to underscore that understanding community context, histories, and trust-building takes time. Developing equitable systems and institutionalizing equity are not simple exercises; they require time, intentionality, and buy-in from stakeholders.

The National Academies Press, 2024

By: Roy E. Wright, Jeff Byard, Craig Colten, Tracey Kijewski-Correa, J. Marshall Shepard, James M. Shultz, Chauncia Willis-Johnson

Experiencing a single disaster - a hurricane, tornado, flood, severe winter storm, or a global pandemic - can wreak havoc on the lives and livelihoods of individuals, families, communities and entire regions. For many people who live in communities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region, the reality of disaster is starker. Endemic socioeconomic and health disparities have made many living in Gulf of Mexico communities particularly vulnerable to the effects of weather-climate hazards. Prolonged disaster recovery and increasing disaster risk is an enduring reality for many living in Gulf of Mexico communities. Between 2020 and 2021, seven major hurricanes and a severe winter storm affected communities across the region. As a backdrop to these acute weather events, the global COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding, producing a complex and unprecedented public health and socioeconomic crisis.

Traditionally, the impacts of disasters are quantified individually and often in economic terms of property damage and loss. In this case, each of these major events occurring in the Gulf of Mexico during this time period subsequently earned the moniker of "billion-dollar" disaster. However, this characterization does not reflect the non-financial human toll and disparate effects caused by multiple disruptive events that increase underlying physical and social vulnerabilities, reduce adaptive capacities and ultimately make communities more sensitive to the effects of future disruptive events. This report explores the interconnections, impacts, and lessons learned of compounding disasters that impair resilience, response, and recovery efforts. While Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities, 2020-2021 focuses on the Gulf of Mexico region, its findings apply to any region that has similar vulnerabilities and that is frequently at risk for disasters.

National Academies Press, 2024

May Contain Markup

Edited by Jeanne Williams

Animal Rights and Welfare: The book discusses the ethical treatment of animals, focusing on their rights and welfare, and includes various perspectives on the subject.

Animals in Research: It covers the debate over the use of animals in scientific experiments, highlighting arguments for and against animal research.

The Movement in Transition: The document examines the evolution of the animal rights movement, its impact on public policy, and its future prospects.

References: The book includes a comprehensive bibliography with books, pamphlets, and articles on animal rights and welfare.

H.W. Wilson, 1991, 168 pages

May Contain Markup

By Ralph R. Acampora

Interspecies Ethics: The book explores the ethical relationships between humans and animals, emphasizing the importance of understanding and compassion across species boundaries.

Philosophical Synthesis: It aims to bridge Anglo-American animal ethics with European traditions like phenomenology and existentialism,creating a dialogue between these philosophical approaches.

Somatic Experience: The author highlights the significance of bodily experiences in forming ethical relationships with animals, suggesting that our physical interactions with animals shape our moral understanding.

Transhuman Morality: The book proposes that it is possible to incorporate animals into a broader, transhuman form of morality, moving beyond anthropocentric views.

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019, 201 pages

Edited by Marian Stamp Dawkins & Morris Gosling

Introduction: The document discusses the ethical considerations in animal behavior research, emphasizing the responsibility of scientists to minimize animal suffering and support conservation efforts.

Guidelines: It includes updated guidelines for the use of animals in research, focusing on reducing the number of animals used, assessingpain, and ensuring proper care and housing.

Ethical Issues: Specific ethical issues are addressed, such as the use ofanimals in studies of predation, aggression, and infanticide, and theimportance of minimizing suffering in field experiments.

References: The document contains numerous references to other works and guidelines related to animal welfare and research ethics.

Academic Press, 1992, 64 pages

By Christian Nellemann, Rune Henriksen, Arnold Kreilhuber, Davyth Stewart , Maria Kotsovou, Patricia Raxter, Elizabeth Mrema & Sam Barrat

Environmental Crime Growth: Environmental crimes are expanding rapidly, with an estimated annual value of $91-258 billion, growing 2-3 times faster than the global economy.

Impact on Ecosystems: These crimes endanger entire ecosystems,wildlife populations, and sustainable livelihoods, causing significant environmental and economic damage.

Transnational Organized Crime: Criminal networks are increasingly involved in environmental crimes,shifting focus from traditional crime to illegal activities like hazardous waste trafficking and illegal logging.

Need for Coordinated Response: Effective combat against environmental crimes requires coordinated international efforts,significant donor support, and cross-agency collaboration.

United Nations Environment Programme, 2016, 104 pages

By The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Overall criminalization of activities that harm the environment

• No single international legal instrument comprehensively protects the environment, criminalizes all behaviours that harm the environment, nor defines crimes that affect the environment. The legal protection of the environment is a complicated patchwork of international and regional agreements ratified and transposed to varying degrees into national legislative frameworks. Such complex and unharmonized regulations create a landscape where criminal and/or economic interests can take advantage of loopholes and gaps in legislation and its enforcement as well as a landscape conducive to criminal infiltration of legitimate sectors.

• Today, many countries make use of the law and criminal penalties to protect the environment, although with some differences across environmental areas. In most countries in the world, prison sentences can be imposed for violating laws regulating deforestation and logging, mining, air pollution, noise pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, fishing, waste, and wildlife. A high rate of criminalization of harmful behaviours exists across these nine environmental areas. Wildlife and waste are the areas where most countries have at least one related criminal offence in their national legislation. Soil and noise pollution are the areas where the fewest countries have criminal provisions.

• The level of protection afforded to the environment is related to the conditions of each country. For example, all the countries of Southern Africa regard fences related to air pollution, deforestation and logging, mining, waste and wildlife as criminal acts. In contrast, no countries among the small island states of Micronesia regard violations of deforestation and logging legislation as a crime, perhaps because

Activities that harm the environment considered as serious crime

• At least 85% of United Nations Member States criminalize offences against wildlife and at least 45% punish some of these offences with four years or more in prison, which constitutes a serious crime under the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). For example, in Eastern Africa, 12 out of 18 countries regard wildlife offences as serious crimes, with the potential for long prison sentences, while illegal fishing is considered most grave in Oceania, where 43% of the countries regard it as a serious crime.

• Waste offences are taken even more seriously, with almost half of the countries regarding these offences as serious crimes, including half the African countries (perhaps due to the Bamako Convention) and 62% of countries in Western Europe. Waste offences is also an area where the liability of legal persons (such as corporations) is recognized in over three-quarters of countries.

• Africa and the Americas have the highest proportions of countries with criminal offences related to all nine environmental areas analysed, while Africa and Asia have the highest average percentage of Member States with penalties meeting the serious crime definition across the nine crimes (30 percent respectively). Where there are no criminal offences, countries typically use the administration of fences (see Figure 1).

• The highest average percentage of Member States with penalties meeting the serious crime definition are in Africa and Asia, indicating not that legislation there may be ‘weak’, as is commonly stated, but that there is a lack of enforcement of the legislation. etc.

Vienna: UNODC, 2024. 41p.

By  Alastair MacBeath | Amanda Whitfort

  Wildlife crimes are regularly perceived as technical breaches of conservation regulations rather than as serious criminal offences that directly impact the species and the ecosystem from which they were removed. When such crimes have been prosecuted in court, the animal victims are habitually marginalized from consideration in sentencing decisions, as jurisdictions largely recognize animals only as legal property to be either confiscated or returned to their owners. However, the need for sentencing that considers the extent of the harm caused or likely to have been caused to the environment or species is gaining support. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit identifies problems in deterring wildlife crime offences due to lenient sentences and encourages courts to consider the level of harm caused or likely to have been caused by the offence when determining the necessary penalty. This aim is to end the common perception that environmental crime is low risk and high reward. Academics and civil society organizations, largely working independently, have approached this problem by adapting victim impact statements (which have been used in prosecutions of other types of crime) for use in environmental crimes to represent the needs of species. Victim impact statements have been previously used in cases where the victims come from vulnerable groups, including the families of murdered people, women who have been trafficked and children who have been forced to work as child soldiers or labourers. Their use has therefore given these victims a voice to inform a court of the harm they have suffered, which can be considered by a judge during sentencing. This can help provide closure to the victim or to lay the foundations for restorative justice. As the animal and species victims of environmental crime are at a fundamental disadvantage because of their inability to speak, these ‘species victim impact statements’ are designed to give them a similar voice to inform presiding judges of the harm caused to them by wildlife and environmental crimes from a variety of perspectives. These range from an animal rights perspective due to the impact on individual animals from the pain and suffering associated with such crimes; to impacts at the species level relating to habitat destruction and population declines; and up to the environmental level due to damage to ecosystems. Furthermore, there is a precedent for the use of such statements in the sphere of environmental crime, with many jurisdictions accepting them in court to detail the harms associated with pollution offences. Such an approach would not only act as a deterrent against offending but would also address the interests of the species subjected to the illegal trade and repair the damage to the ecosystems caused by their removal.  

  This is an innovative approach that introduces ecocentric concerns into anthropocentric legal systems. It has grown into an effective body of practice, leading to increased sentences for environmental crimes in the countries where academics and civil society organizations promoting this tactic are operating, namely Hong Kong SAR, South Africa and Zambia. These successes prove that this concept can be scaled up to increase the number of jurisdictions using these tools, and can help to increase the effectiveness of the judiciary in deterring perpetrators of environmental crimes. This ‘community tool’ report is based on the concept created by the Hong Kong University Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) Initiative, which was started by Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort in 2015. The initiative is a collaboration between the University of Hong Kong’s Law Faculty and Conservation Forensics Laboratory and Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden. It also incorporates the work of other individuals and organizations who have developed similar tools, namely Professor Ray Jansen, a founding member and Africa Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group in South Africa, and the civil society organization Wildlife Crime Prevention, working in Zambia. This guide is the result of an analysis of academic reports and semi-structured interviews with those who have successfully used species victim impact statements in the jurisdictions in which they operate. It is designed to aid conservationists, civil society organizations and other interested parties responding to the illegal wildlife trade by explaining the background to species victim impact statements and their associated challenges, providing examples of their successful use in practice and offering guidance on how they can be developed and used in court.   

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime , 2024. 27p.

By Steven Broad

  Trade in wild animals and plants occurs in most countries of the world and involves a wide range of species and commodities. Over the past 50 years in particular, a considerable array of policy and legislative measures have been introduced to both address trade-related conservation harms and enhance wildlife resource use sustainability, largely by exerting conditionality on access and commerce. Nevertheless, wildlife trade remains a major element of the overexploitation of wild species, the second most significant driver of global biodiversity loss after land-use change. A 2019 World Bank review of the costs of this trade concluded that when financial and economic values are combined, illegal logging, fishing and other forms of wildlife trade have an estimated full global economic value of between US$1 trillion and US$2 trillion per year. One of the key reasons that efforts to counter wildlife overexploitation struggle to succeed, is the emergence of criminal activities that circumvent regulatory measures and drive significant levels of illegal wildlife trade. Such wildlife trafficking varies greatly in scale and impact from country to country and between different wildlife commodity sectors. In some cases, criminal activity runs through the whole trade chain: from poaching or illegal harvest, through wildlife smuggling, to black market sale of prohibited goods to consumers. In other cases, crime is focused on a particular step along the trade chain, such as illegal timber harvest, with resulting products later being infiltrated into ostensibly legal markets.  

  Wildlife trafficking has profoundly negative environmental and human impacts, threatening wild species and undermining their ecological roles, their value to human livelihoods and potentially contributing to the climate crisis through harm to ecosystem functionality.4 The criminality driving poaching, smuggling and sale of wildlife in contravention of local, national and international laws and treaties is a significant global security challenge, often converging with other sectors of the illicit economy. Five decades of increasing international cooperation between governments, the private sector and civil society to address the challenge of wildlife trafficking has to some extent moderated its potential impact, but overall, the environmental, economic and social harms arising from such crime persist. Significant investment by national governments, multilateral institutions and other funding agencies is being made to tackle this challenge. A 2016 World Bank analysis (currently being updated) documented US$1.3 billion of international donor funding between 2010 and 2016 to tackle illegal wildlife trade, in addition to substantial national investments domestically.5 Key questions for those making such investment decisions include: knowing where the most significant problems are; whether interventions implemented at national, regional and global levels are effective in reducing criminal and environmental harm; and whether, overall, the problem is getting better or worse. This paper aims to address the question of how the significance of such wildlife crime can be measured at a national level within the context of a global index of organized crime.6 It begins by considering issues of definition, i.e. what activities fall within the scope of wildlife crime, across both flora and fauna markets highlighted in the crime index. This is followed by a review of past and present efforts to measure these crime areas. Finally, the paper looks ahead to consider how methods of measuring wildlife crime might be enhanced in future and how such efforts may need to evolve as the market itself changes over time  

Geneva:  Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 2024.  31p.

By Jodie Wrigley

While scholarly debate continues about possible causal links between climate events and violent extremism, the evidence suggests that these events make communities more vulnerable to recruitment, provide fertile ground for anti-democracy sentiment, and erode trust in institutions and governments. It is recognised that many of these challenges play out in and leverage the on- and offline public sphere. Strategic communication, therefore, is an essential tool to utilise in this space to help prevent and counter violent extremism. This Policy Brief provides a starting point to explore further the potential nexus between climate events, violent extremism, and strategic communication. It explores a whole-of-society view of the potential strategic communication challenge and what actions practitioners could implement now to help address or minimise this existing or potential emerging threat . For the latest updated statistics on wildlife crime visit the World Animal Foundation website.

The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - ICCT, 2024. 30p.

By Billy Kyte | Giulia Roncon

With the aim to support individuals in building resilient communities working to prevent, counter, and limit the damage of environmental crime, this handbook documents the challenges faced by defenders working in the environmental crime field and provides guidance to support their resilience.

The first section of the handbook analyzes definitional understandings of environmental crime and explores the impacts and harms it can perpetuate. The second section assesses the risks and challenges commonly faced by environmental defenders, including an assessment of their needs, and explores emergent regional issues that may play a part in such vulnerabilities. The final section presents a repository of best practices and tools that can help stakeholders to access available resources and to mitigate the potential risks they face.

The handbook draws from consultations involving nearly 100 prominent figures from civil society and media across Africa and Asia. Whilst findings are therefore geographically specific to some extent, our work confirms that the challenges experienced by environmental defenders in these regions were replicated globally as well. Although each country and regional context is different, the handbook outlines strategies that could be broadly implemented to support the community of stakeholders dedicated to tackling environmental crime worldwide.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). 2023.

By Faith Honor , Amanda Shaverand Devin Thorne

The trafficking of pangolins and their scales drives corruption, undermines the rule of law, creates public health risks, and even threatens local and regional security. Additionally, the illicit pangolin trade may have even played a role in onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Critically, the trade—and all of its related challenges—appears to be growing: between 2015 and 2019, 253 tonnes2 of pangolin scales were confiscated, and the annual quantity of pangolin scales seized increased by nearly 400%. To expose the logistics of how these scales are trafficked internationally, Tipping the Scales uses publicly available seizure data and investigative case studies. The global plight of pangolins is increasingly well-known, but less understood are the opaque supply chains that enable pangolin trafficking. To trace this illicit system from consolidation hubs in West and Central Africa to China’s consumer markets, Tipping the Scales analyses 899 pangolin seizures. Drawing on C4ADS’ Wildlife Seizure Database, law enforcement partner seizure data, official government documents, corporate data, and expert interviews, the report details how traffickers nest their activities within licit systems of trade and commerce. To disrupt this trade, C4ADS identifies opportunities for intervention and capacity building.

In Section I, the report finds that pangolin scale traffickers have co-opted bushmeat supply chains and legal breeding programs for their illicit activities. Bushmeat scale trafficking supply chains are particularly prominent in Central and West Africa; 72% of African scale seizures over the last five years have come from those regions. Growing demand for pangolin meat and scales has made pangolins a dual-transaction good3 that relies on transport networks between rural areas and urban and coastal distribution hubs. Further, the report finds that pangolin breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa obscure the lines between poaching, conservation, and science. In Section II, the report finds that bulk pangolin scale shipments often exit the continent through coastal countries in Central and West Africa. While 70% of intercontinental trafficking instances tied to Africa rely on the air transport sector, 81% of the total weight of pangolin scales are trafficked intercontinentally via the maritime transport sector. China and Hong Kong are the trade’s most prominent destinations. Since 2015, 42% of the 195 tonnes of pangolin scales seized throughout Asia originated in Africa and were seized in or bound for China or Hong Kong. In Section III, the report finds that there are more than 1,000 companies, hospitals, and other entities participating in China’s legal market for medicinal pangolin products. In this market, which allows companies to privately stockpile pangolin scales, traffickers exploit lax regulations to sell scales from Africa and Asia. Government-reported pangolin scale consumption quotas, geo-tagged company data, and seizures suggest that Guangdong and Hunan provinces have relatively high levels of exposure to both the legal pangolin market and pangolin trafficking. Based on these findings, Tipping the Scales makes 10 recommendations to increase detection of and improve enforcement against transnational criminal networks operating in Africa and Asia (see page 58).

Washington, D: C4ADS, 2020. 60p.

By Insight Crime

This present study on Bolivia was led by InSight Crime. The findings and analysis are based on one year of open-source and fieldwork investigation in the cities of La Paz and Santa Cruz, and desk research, phone, and face-to-face interviews with environmental experts, government and security officials, members of local communities, academics, and others.1 The report provides a snapshot of the complex web of actors (state and non-state) and relationships fueling environmental crime in the Bolivian Amazon. Rather than just diagnosing the issue, the study aims to raise new dialogue and intervention opportunities regarding environmental crime in the region. This study addresses long-standing issues of securing land rights to traditional communities in the Amazon, many of which currently face new forms of land grabbing and land trafficking, notably by export companies extracting natural resources. It also includes ideas for reforming and strengthening structurally weak and corruption prone public institutions in the Bolivian Amazon, notably those related to land, environmental, and security issues. Finally, the report also sheds light on the transnational and cross-border dynamics of environmental crime in Bolivia in activities such as wildlife trafficking and illegal mercury trafficking for river-gold mining and illegal logging exports. The complexity of increasingly globalized supply chains initiating in or cutting through the Bolivian Amazon call for more and stronger regional and international cooperation to dismantle environmental crime and protect the forest and its people

Washington, DC: Insight Crime, 2024. 73p.

By Scottish Government

When a wildlife crime is suspected, the first step is for it to be reported to the police (or detected by the police), and then recorded. Further steps may include investigation to assess whether the recorded crime should be part of a case submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and then a decision on whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to be prosecuted. Ultimately a court case may result in a conviction or acquittal. All these stages may be supported by relevant scientific evidence and intelligence.

This report presents statistics relating to 2021-22 for the various stages described above. Although these sets of statistics are related, direct comparisons between them cannot be made due to differences in data sources, timing and the bases on which statistics were collated. For example, several recorded crimes may be included in one COPFS case (involving multiple sources of scientific evidence), and subsequent criminal proceedings may occur in a different year.

Edinburgh: Scottish Government, 2024. 38p., app.

By Willis Okumu

Lake Victoria in East Africa is a convergence point for a range of environmental crimes perpetrated by actors who exploit the lake for profit. Fishermen use the water mass not only to legally draw their livelihood but also to profit from overexploitation of the environment through practices such as illegal fishing and sand harvesting. Lack of a unified registration regime for small boats has enabled their use in these illegal activities. A clash in operational mandates of security forces from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania impedes regional efforts to combat these and other crimes.

Key points • Lake Victoria in East Africa is the site of various environmental crimes such as illegal fishing, sand and charcoal harvesting and timber smuggling. • A range of players, including fishermen and state officials, collude in committing these crimes for profit. • Environmental crimes in the lake are facilitated by a lack of cooperation between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, whose enforcement units operate under different mandates.

Policy Brief, Issue 29. ENACT Africa. 2024, 14pg

By David Pérez Esparza

This thesis aims to explain why, against the background of a fairly global crime drop, violence and crime increased in Mexico in the mid-2000s. Since most classical hypotheses from criminological research are unable to account satisfactorily for these trends, this study tests the explanatory power of a situational hypothesis as the main independent variable (i.e. the role of opportunity). In particular, this involves testing whether the rise in violence can be explained by an increase in the availability of illegal weapons in Mexico resulting from policy changes and rises in gun production in the bordering U.S. To conduct this study, the thesis develops and implements an ad hoc analytic strategy (composed of six steps) that helps to examine each gun market (i.e. pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns) both in the supply (U.S.) and in the illegal demand for firearms (Mexico). Following this market approach, the study finds that patterns of gun production in the U.S. temporally and spatially coincide with the patterns of gun confiscation (and violent crime) in Mexico. More specifically, analyses suggest that changes in illegal gun availability (across time and space) provide a better explanation for the observed difference in state-level homicide in Mexico than traditional hypotheses. The thesis presents additional analyses in favour of the situational hypothesis (through triangulation) and reports the findings of novel interviews with law enforcement officers with experience on gun trafficking in the U.S.-Mexico context. The study concludes by reviewing the key findings concerning the illicit markets between Mexico and the U.S., their theoretical and policy implications, as well as possible avenues for future research . 

UCL (University College London). , 2019. 389p.  

By Caroline Delgado ,  Farah Hegazi and Anniek Barnhoorn

  The Latin American Regional Working Group was initiated by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Colombia office and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in 2022. The working group comprises 20 climate and environmental experts from 10 Latin American countries. This report presents the collective perspective of the working group on the pressing issues surrounding climate and environmental justice, as well as food security, that affect the region as a whole, but whose impact is most strongly felt at the local level. The report is accompanied by a brief interview series of 4 working group members, addressing the challenges of environmental security in the region from their individual perspectives.  Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a region of unparalleled ecological diversity, encompassing tropical rainforests, arid deserts, and expansive coastlines, making it particularly susceptible to the far-reaching impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. Beyond its diverse and unique natural landscapes, Latin America faces a complex web of climatic and environmental challenges that transcend national borders. From the melting glaciers of the Andes Mountains, which threaten water security for millions, to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, which jeopardizes biodiversity and global carbon sequestration, the region grapples with issues that have far-reaching implications for both local communities and the international community. Projections for how climate change will affect Latin America indicate that temperatures are expected to increase across the region and rainfall patterns are expected to change. Extreme events such as droughts and floods are also predicted to increase in frequency and intensity. In a region heavily dependent on agriculture, changes to temperature and precipitation patterns will have negative implications for food production and security. Crop yields are expected to decrease, increas ing food insecurity and malnutrition in the region. Furthermore, the projected degradation of forests from droughts and temperature increases is expected to reduce the availability of forest products. At the same time, Latin America is expected to meet part of the growing global demand for food, livestock and timber, which risks exacerbating environmental degradation linked to inadequate land management practices associated with the expansion of large-scale agriculture. Of particular concern is the way climate and environmental challenges intersect with social inequalities and political instability. This region endures various forms of violence, from armed conflicts to rampant criminal violence on par with armed conflicts. The region stands out as one of the world’s most violent. According to UNODC figures from 2023, LAC accounts for 29% of global homicides, in a region with 8% of the world’s population. The region is home to 8 of the 10 most homicidal countries and 15 of the most lethal countries. Seven of the top 10 cities by homicide rate are in LAC.  LAC is also the region with the highest number of environmental conflicts and a hotspot for environmental crime. Many of these conflicts are linked to the legal and illegal extraction of natural resources, which often intersects with other criminal economies, such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and contraband smuggling. A multitude of nonstate armed groups, including gangs, cartels, smuggling networks, militias, and vigilante groups, are among the main perpetrators of this violence. According to some sources, mining companies at times voluntarily cooperate with illegal armed groups, who in exchange provide security against other groups. Consequently, Latin America is one of the most dangerous regions for environmental defenders, with 75 percent of all global assassinations of human rights advocates that occurred between 2015 and 2019 taking place in LAC.  In 2022, 20 percent of assassinations of human rights defenders occurred in the Amazon region.9 Communities and environmental defenders in areas where extractive activities take place frequently have been subjected to gross human rights violations, with such attacks on the rise across LAC. In addition to killings, death threats, arbitrary arrests, sexual assaults, militarized policing, judicial harassment, intimidation, beatings, and other forms of violence are used to silence the complaints of local communities and thwart their attempts to use legal means of protest against extractive projects. Environmental defenders have also been repressed and criminalized by the governments that should be protecting them. Criminal violence, including environmental crime, is largely concentrated in rural areas with poor state presence and strong illicit economies and in the poor neighbourhoods of cities. As such, the main victims of violence are the socio-economically poor and disadvantaged, including ethnic minorities such as indigenous and afro-descendant populations, gender minorities, women, and subsistence farmers. Around half of all homicide victims are between 15 and 29 years old. Violence against social leaders, including environmental and human rights defenders, also tends to disproportionately affect low-income people and ethnic minorities. Furthermore, current extractive violence is largely fed by the prejudices and legacy of earlier racial and class conflicts.....

Stockholm, SIPRI, 2024. and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Calle 71 nº 11-90 | Bogotá-Colombia 2024. 25p.

By Maurice Ogbonnaya

Although Nigeria’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector has considerable developmental potential, it is undermined by the criminal consortia profiteering from it at the expense of vulnerable populations. In Nigeria’s North West, North Central and, to some extent, South West regions, criminal collaboration in the illegal mining of gold between ‘Nigerians in high positions of authority’ and foreign corporations deprives the state of legitimate earnings. It also drives rural banditry and violent local conflicts. The Nigerian state will need to deal with the illegal mining networks that fuel rural banditry and violence both in the North West region and across the country.

ENACT Africa, 2020. 12p.