FRIPRO-Fri prosjektstøtte

Environmental crimes in combination with large-scale corruption have a hugely destructive impact on ecosystems and the climate and undermine the rights of communities, local populations, and indigenous peoples. Crimes like illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing), illegal mining, waste trafficking, and climate and pollution crimes are causing great harm to the environment, the climate, and the people. But events in the current armed conflict also demonstrate that crime against ecosystems pose a severe threat to the international community as well. Establishing criminal responsibility for these kinds of crimes involves immense challenges for national and international law enforcement agencies due to the high complexity of these crimes and their connection with networks of transnational organized crime. A new approach in addressing the immense complexity of such crimes against ecosystems is the integration of new technologies such as AI, satellites, etc. into the system of criminal investigation and prosecution. This project is premised on the idea that an effective system of crime control for crimes against ecosystems can only be realized by the synchronized interplay of different fragmented disciplines and actors. ECO-CRIM-NET will overcome the fragmentation and bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines and regions to gain new knowledge about the design and modus operandi of crimes against ecosystems and on how these crimes can be addressed by legal means with the support of new technologies. In taking the “Realpolitik”-approach, this project leaves the purely legalistic dimension by integrating computer science, political science, sociology, biology, anthropology, and criminology into the project and will therefore present a new and unique approach for the development of new models of crime control by integrating new technologies into the monitoring, investigation, and prosecution of crimes against ecosystems.