Criminal networks operating outside the law do not adhere to environmental and safety regulations like regular business ventures. As such they do not only fail to avoid negative impacts, but exacerbate them. Driven by profit alone, criminal activities include illegal poaching, overexploitation and trafficking of natural species and materials, which threatens biodiversity and increases risk by removing natural means of protection from extreme weather. Furthermore, organized crime corrupts societies by recruiting people into criminal activities and persuading governments not to act in the interests of the wider population.
Organized crime
Related Cases
2021/2022
On 14 August 2021, Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake with an epicentre in the Canal du Sud (120 km west of the capital, Port-au-Prince). The earthquake killed over 2,200 people and injured more than 12,000.
Lagos faces increasingly severe annual flooding, exacerbated by sea level rise and subsidence. In 2021, floods again submerged vehicles and houses, displacing thousands from their homes.
The vaquita is a species of porpoise on the brink of extinction with less than 10 individuals estimated to be left in the wild. Although not commercially targeted, the vaquita is collateral damage in an ongoing conflict between fishers, government and international illegal trade.
