ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN:

Adriana Abdenur, Brodie Ferguson, Ilona Szabo de Carvalho, Melina Risso and Robert Muggah

STRATEGIC PAPER 47AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME

IN THE AMAZON BASIN:

A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE

a think and do tank

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

Index

Abstract �� 1

Introduction �� 2

Threats to the Amazon Basin �� 3

Typology of environmental crime �� 9

Conclusions �� 16

References �� 17

Annex 1: Dimensions of Illegality �� 17

Cover photo: Wilson Dias/Agência Brasil

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME

IN THE AMAZON BASIN:

A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Igarape Institute

Abstract

There is considerable conceptual and practical ambiguity around the

dimensions and drivers of environmental crime in the Amazon Basin�

Some issues, such as deforestation, have featured prominently in

the news media as well as in academic and policy research� Yet, the

literature is less developed in relation to other environmental crimes

such as land invasion, small-scale clearance for agriculture and

ranching, illegal mining, illegal wildlife trafﬁcking, and the construction of

informal roads and infrastructure that support these and other unlawful

activities� Drawing on a multi-disciplinary review of the literature and

key informant interviews, this paper introduces a preliminary typology

intended to account for the diverse categories of environmental crime

and their extensive impacts across the countries of the Amazon basin�

The aim is to provide a general framework that helps advance future

research on these issues, while simultaneously providing greater clarity

to policy makers, law enforcement agencies, civil society actors, and

companies interested in curbing environmental crime�

1 The contributors to this paper include Adriana Abdenur, Brodie Ferguson, Ilona Szabo de Carvalho,

Melina Risso, and Robert Muggah� Credit is also due to several expert reviewers including Camilla Aguiar,

Daniel Rico, Izabella Teixeira, Gabriela Cabral, Natalie Unterstell, Rafael Benke, Steven Dudley, and Stewart

Davyth�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Introduction

The Amazon basin is at risk� In Brazil, after

nearly a decade of decelerating deforestation

during the mid-2000s and early 2010s, the

rate of forest clearance and degradation has

surged once again� The Brazilian National

Institute of Space Studies (INPE) reported an

85 percent increase in deforestation in the

Amazon from 2018 to 2019, and by mid-

2020, deforestation had already risen a further

34 percent over 2019 levels� Government

authorities in countries such as Brazil, Bolivia,

Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname

and Venezuela often explain the phenomenon

as resulting from individuals and small-

scale actors pursuing livelihood strategies�

However, extensive research by environmental

campaigners

has shown that environmental

degradation in the region is more often the

result of well-organized activities carried out by

a wide variety of actors, both legal and illegal,

at multiple scales�

There are several ways in which different types

of illegal or illicit human activities lead to vast

socio-environmental harm in the Amazon�

Yet despite decades of study, the knowledge

base is fragmented and dispersed� For the

most part, research has focused on speciﬁc

modalities such as land invasion, clearing

of forest for agriculture and ranching, illegal

mining, illegal wildlife trafﬁcking in isolation of

one another� There has been no clear effort

to adopt a comprehensive approach that

accounts for multiple forms of environmental

crime� As a result, knowledge about the

drivers, the dynamics, and the impacts of the

activities driving deforestation in the Amazon

across multiple domains remains fragmented

and often unavailable to researchers and

decision-makers�

2 See, for example, https://imazon�org�br/en/slide/environmental-laws/ and Rajao et al (2020)�

Still missing from the debate on environmental

crime is a general framework or typology

that accommodates the vast array of

human activities causing extensive socio

environmental harm� Such a framework

is important not only in guiding future

research on this topic, but also in providing

conceptual clarity to policy makers, law

enforcement agencies, civil society actors,

and private groups committed to curbing the

environmental and societal harms underway

in the Amazon basin� By clarifying discrete

categories of environmental crime, scholars,

policy-makers and practitioners can better

distinguish the differences, similarities, and

interconnections between activities and actors

contributing to widespread damage in the

region� In turn, such an exercise can help

advance applied research and the design

of more effective responses for curbing and

preventing environmental crime�

This paper proposes a preliminary framework

to understand the scope and scale of

environmental crime in the Amazon basin� First,

it provides a review of the state of deforestation

across the Amazon basin including the

principle drivers and key responses from a

wide range of actors� Second, the paper

proposes a typology of the main categories

of environmental crime that contribute to

widespread socio-environmental damage in

the region� Finally, the paper reviews several

potential applications for the typology, both

for research purposes and for enhancing

environmental law enforcement in the Amazon�

The typology will be used to guide a multi-year

environment crime mapping project overseen

by the Igarape Institute and partners such as

Interpol and InSight Crime�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Threats to the

Amazon Basin

Despite having been populated by indigenous

communities for thousands of years --

communities that deeply affected the rainforest

ecology -- the Amazon Basin has historically

been viewed by government leaders and

policymakers as a vast, empty space whose

development requires encouraging people

to settle the land, and clearing it of original

vegetation (Becker 1991)� As a result, there

is a long history of systematic environmental

destruction in the region -- as well as

socioeconomic harm -- that dates back

to the colonial era� This legacy extended

to the establishment of political borders

in the nineteenth century and the rubber

boom of the 1900s, and multiple waves of

urbanization� More systematic occupation

and forest clearing intensiﬁed starting in the

mid-twentieth century with the construction

of major infrastructure projects, such as

roads, bridges, and hydropower dams� Over

the past twenty years, the expansion of the

agribusiness frontier into the Amazon has

created new pressures on the environment and

local communities�

Deforestation and forest

degradation

Covering over 670 million hectares, the

Amazon basin encompasses the largest

rainforest in the world -- more than 40% of all

such vegetation -- and is the source of 20%

of the global water supply� It supports multiple

ecosystems and houses at least 10% of the

planet’s known biodiversity� It is also one of

the biggest carbon sinks; some 90-140 billion

metric tons of carbon are stored in Amazon

rainforests� The region encompasses parts

of eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,

Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and

Venezuela, plus French Guyana, which is an

overseas territory of France� Although parts of

the basin remain heavily forested, the region

also includes major cities as well as smaller

towns and scattered settlements� Overall, the

basin has an estimated population of 34 million

(WWF 2020)�

However, the Amazon is also the site of

unmatched deforestation and degradation�

According to some estimates, more than a

quarter of the Amazon biome will be without

trees by 2030 if the current rate of deforestation

persists (WWF 2020)� This scenario is alarming

not only due to the vast socio-environmental

impact caused by deforestation, but also

because of the resulting greenhouse gas

emissions from deforestation and associated

activities, such as forest ﬁres� In 2019, satellites

that detect heat signatures in Brazil issued

more than 109,000 ﬁre alerts in the single

week from August 13-20, representing a

nearly two-fold increase in ﬁres over the prior

year� Such wildﬁres released an estimated 392

million metric tons of carbon dioxide in Brazil

in 2019 alone (Davidson 2020)� Activities such

as urbanization and waste generation are

likewise important drivers of observed methane

emissions in the Amazon� As a result, the

rainforest is now believed to be releasing more

carbon than it absorbs�

Although Amazon deforestation rates

decreased over the past decade, there

has been an especially sharp uptick in

deforestation rates in recent years, with

sharp increases in both 2019 and 2020� With

the largest share of the basin in its territory,

Brazil is responsible for approximately half of

the deforestation in the region� In 2019, for

example, Brazil lost at least 770,000 hectares

(the equivalent of 12,187 square kilometers) of

native vegetation in the Amazon (MapBiomas

2020)� Andean countries -- especially Bolivia

and Peru -- have also registered a signiﬁcant

rise in their rates of deforestation, especially in

their forested Amazonian regions�

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ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Deforestation continues to be a major concern

elsewhere in the region� Colombia experienced a

surge in deforestation following the signing of the

2016 peace agreement between the Colombian

government and the Revolutionary Armed

Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla� Specialists

have argued that, during the conﬂict, the FARC

controlled many of the country’s protected areas,

and that their presence in those places served

as a deterrent to deforestation -- a barrier to

natural resource extraction that was lifted once

the peace deal was struck (Prem, Saavedra and

Vargas 2020)� Peru experienced record levels of

deforestation with the expansion of illegal gold

mining in its Amazon provinces (MAAP 2019)�

Illegal extraction is also believed to be driving

deforestation in Venezuela, although reliable data

are not consistently available (Romero 2019)�

Most deforestation hotspots in the Amazon

basin cluster in places where infrastructure is

built, especially near large transport corridors

(such as the massive BR-230, known as

Transamazônica, which was inaugurated in the

1970s) that allow access into areas that were

previously off-limits due to dense vegetation and

remoteness� Deforestation is also rife around

major energy projects such as hydroelectric

dams and reservoirs (Barber et al 2014)� There

are literally hundreds of dams across Brazil,

including 80 large structures developed over

the past half century� Especially since the early

2000s, however, as Brazil’s agribusiness frontier

shifted north, the Amazon basin has seen a rise

in deforestation related to cattle ranching and

agriculture (IBGE 2015)�

Recent reports indicate that deforestation rates

in the Amazon basin are increasing within the

context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as groups

and criminal networks feel emboldened by the

lack of state attention and ofﬁcial discourses

promoting land invasions in the Amazon

(Kimbrough, 2019)� In turn, deforestation

facilitates the spread of the pandemic in the

region as more groups move deeper into forested

areas, some of them carrying the disease and

exposing vulnerable local populations, including

indigenous communities and other traditional

forest peoples (ISA 2020)�

Socio-environmental

impacts of human activity

The destruction of the Amazon biome has

widespread consequences, not only for local

communities but also -- due to the importance

of the rainforest to the climate system -- more

broadly for South America and beyond (see

Makhijani 2019, Salles and Esteves 2019)�

Deforestation causes changes to the region’s

water cycle in ways that are associated

with increased ﬂoods and droughts (Souza

et al 2019)� In addition to greenhouse gas

emissions, deforestation can lead to loss

of nutrients in the soil that derive from the

breakdown of tree leaves, as well as increased

ﬂooding due to inadequate water absorption

by trees� Biodiversity is also affected in

signiﬁcant ways� The number of species

drops precipitously, and the entire ecosystem

is affected� According to one study, the

combined effects of climate and deforestation

could cause a drop of up to 58% in Amazon

tree species richness (Gomes, Vieira, Salomão

and Steege 2019)� Even “selective logging,”

through which a relatively small number of

trees is felled, negatively impacts a broad

gamut of Amazon species, including insects

(França et al 2017)�

The economic costs of this destruction

are considerable� According to a study by

economists and agricultural engineers, Amazon

deforestation would lead to a fall in rainwater

and agricultural losses of USD$422 million,

as well as other social and economic losses

resulting in as much as a USD$3�5 trillion loss

over thirty years� Conversely, the economic

beneﬁt of leaving the Amazon rainforest in its

2019 state would be USD$8�2 billion annually

(Strand et al 2018)� These ﬁgures indicate that

long-term costs far outweigh the short-term

beneﬁts that may accrue from deforestation�

There is, in fact, very little medium to long-term

economic beneﬁt from continued deforestation�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Amazon deforestation affects livelihoods

and income-generation activities, especially

for traditional peoples of the forest, such as

indigenous, quilombola (Afro-descendant),

and ﬁshing communities along the rivers of

the basin� Tree felling negatively impacts soil

nutrition, damaging local agricultural practices,

and pollution and contamination affect ﬁshing

catches, also enhancing food insecurity (Tregidgo

et al 2020)� Deforestation causes negative

health impacts, including the emergence and

re-emergence of human infectious diseases,

such as malaria, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow

fever, even as increased malnutrition makes local

populations less resilient to disease (Ellwanger,

2020)� In illegal mining hotspots, mercury levels

are extremely high not only among ﬁsh and

other animal species, but also within the human

population (Gonzalez, Arain and Fernandez 2019)�

Where explosives, machinery and dredging boats

are used for illegal mining, these activities cause

lasting damage to riverbeds, with consequences

for the health and livelihoods of communities even

hundreds of kilometers downriver (RAISG 2014)�

Human activities entailing widespread

environmental destruction in the Amazon also

generate social tension, crime and violence�

Many environmental crimes fuel other types of

criminal activities, such as arms trafﬁcking, people

smuggling, child slavery, and sexual exploitation

and forced prostitution (Watts 2017)� There is also

a strong association of violent crime, including

homicides, with areas where environmental

crimes and deforestation are rampant� Many of

the most violent cities in Latin America, including

Altamira and Novo Progresso (both in the

Brazilian state of Pará, a major environmental

crime hotspot), are economies largely based

on environmental crime� These activities are

also strongly associated with violent attacks on

environmental defenders (Human Rights Watch

2019, Muggah and Franciotti 2019, Global

Witness 2018)� Disputes over natural resources

may also fuel armed conﬂict in the Amazon, such

those involving Colombian guerrilla groups or

Venezuelan networks (Rendon 2020)�

The environmental criminals

While not all environmentally harmful activities,

including deforestation, are illegal, the vast

majority of the tree-cutting taking place in

the Amazon is carried out illegally� A 2020

report indicates that as much as 99 percent

of deforestation in Brazil results from illegal

activities (MapBiomas 2020)� The legal status

of a particular activity depends on the legal

deﬁnitions of what constitutes environmental

crime, and this varies across countries� In

Colombia, for instance, land grabbing is

considered an environmental crime, whereas

in Brazil it is a crime against property, albeit

one that typically entails environmental crimes

such as illegal deforestation (Orozco 2015)�

This means, among other things, that penalties

range from small ﬁnes to imprisonment� Yet

owing to weak enforcement, the vast majority

of penalties are ignored (Insight Crime 2020)�

The legal status of human activities in the

Amazon basin can also change over time�

An activity that was legal ﬁve years ago can

become an illegal activity when a law or decree

is passed, and vice versa� This is the case with

land grabbing in Brazil, which is often practiced

with a sense of impunity owing to the repeated

amnesties that have been granted to offenders

(Brito and Barreto 2020)� In some places, there

is also great ambiguity in the legal status of

certain activities, some of which are deemed

to be “irregular” (for instance, a legalized gold

digging cooperative whose license has expired)

-- a legal limbo that reﬂects the sometimes ﬂuid

categorization of such activities in the region�

Disputes over these legal boundaries are at the

heart of many major political struggles in and

over the Amazon, including recent efforts by

the government of Jair Bolsonaro to legalize

gold digging (Fernandes and Uribe 2020)�

There are also distinctions in the legality of

actors involved in these activities, and complex

ways in which legal and illegal actors are

intertwined� In many areas of the Amazon,

criminal networks -- groups of individuals

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ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

who organize themselves and specialize in

one or more of these activities -- ﬁnance,

organize, and execute actions that lead to

widespread socio-environmental damage�

They are frequently ﬁnanced with resources

generated through legal businesses, and their

actions are facilitated by corrupt government

ofﬁcials, including law enforcement actors,

notary clerks, and politicians (Human Rights

Watch 2019)� The proceedings from these

activities are typically laundered, whether

locally or abroad, through a variety of methods

that range from purchase of farms to mixing

of illegally sourced gold with legally extracted

gold that is exported as far as India and UAE�

These groups also adopt the use of new

technologies, from social networks and crypto

currencies to drones and satellite technologies,

so as to facilitate their activities and evade law

enforcement�

However, otherwise legal actors are also

involved in activities that cause widespread

deforestation and other socio-environmental

impacts� Economic sectors such as energy

and infrastructure contribute towards

deforestation both directly and indirectly�

The need to open up space for installations,

transportation and logistics leads to loss of

forest cover, and there are frequent examples

of environmental crimes committed by major

infrastructure projects� For instance, the region’s

largest hydroelectric dam project, Belo Monte

(in the Brazilian state of Pará) stands accused

of causing far more environmental damage

than was originally foreseen, and authorized, in

its development plans; environmental experts

have also noted that environmental impact

assessments are crucial yet inadequate (Ritter et

al 2017, Muggah 2015)� At the same time, such

large-scale initiatives may cause further socio-

environmental damage insofar as they attract

large numbers of migrants, who may be left

without adequate sources of income once short-

term employment dries up (Kolhepp 2002)�

The lack of a continuous and constructive

state role, especially with respect to the

provision of public services, is especially

glaring in border areas, small towns and

settlements in the interior, as well as in the

marginalized peripheries of large Amazon cities�

However, the extent of socio-environmental

damage across much of the Amazon in

recent decades is not simply the result of the

historically weak presence of the state� In fact,

much deforestation in the Amazon has been

proactively encouraged by the state in order to

incorporate forested areas, and their inhabitants,

into the extractivist economic model� This vision

of the Amazon as a vast empty land that must

be occupied in order to be developed, and that

posits a hard dichotomy between development

and preservation of the forest, dates back to

at least the mid-20th century but has found

continuity among governments of different

political orientations� The failure of Amazon

states to develop sustainable and inclusive

visions for their rainforests, based on the valuing

of local knowledge, has fuelled criminal activity

and contributed towards socio environmental

harm in the region (Abramovay 2019)�

External actors also shape human activities

in the Amazon� Especially since the 2000s,

rising demand -- both nationally and from

abroad -- has encouraged economic

activities whose perverse dimensions result

in the destruction of the Amazon biome and

harm to its populations, such as extensive

agriculture and ranching� Growing demand

for beef, particularly from China, increases

the incentives for actors based in the Amazon

basin to destroy tree cover in order to

open up land for beef, soybeans and other

grains (Faleiros 2019)� Recent increases in

the global price of gold, especially against

the backdrop of local currency declines in

many of the Amazon countries, have been

shown to fuel a “new gold rush” in the region

(Salomon 2020)� The range of actors involved

in socio-environmentally harmful activities

in the Amazon thus varies in terms of legal

status, type of activity, mode of organization,

geographic reach, and size�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Responses from state and

non-state actors

Despite the incentives introduced and sustained

by some political and economic interests to

ramp-up deforestation and degradation in

the Amazon, there are several examples of

interventions that have yielded positive results

to limit environmental destruction� Even Brazil,

where deforestation and forest ﬁres reached

record levels in 2019 and 2020, was once

touted as a “success story” in ﬁghting illegal

deforestation in the mid-2010s� In a comparison

of the data from 2013 to the average for

the period 1996-2005, a group of scientists

detected a 70% drop in Brazil’s deforestation

rates, along with a reduction of over two-thirds

of the emissions resulting from deforestation

(Correa 2014)�

At least three developments led to the signiﬁcant

decrease in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

in the 2000s and 2010s� First, a series of new

protected areas were created starting in the mid-

1999s, including indigenous lands and sustainable

use units, which were then expanded in the

2000s� The Federal Prosecution Service (MPF)

adopted a more assertive posture, ﬁling suits that

reinforced the execution of laws and strengthened

forest monitoring systems� Second, the private

sector implemented a number of innovations

against illegal deforestation� Starting in 2006,

signatories of the Soy Moratorium committed

to refrain from purchasing grains produced in

recently deforested areas of the Amazon� The

beef sector followed suit, starting in 2009� Third,

as payment for ecosystem services programs

(e�g� carbon markets) gained traction globally,

subnational governments became more proactive�

Amazon state and city governments promoted

new ways to curb tree clearing and called on

the federal government to be more proactive�

These factors were reinforced by international

cooperation agreements, such as that between

Brazil and Norway, that created new incentives for

developing countries to curb emissions through

innovative ﬁnancing (Calixto 2016)�

Notwithstanding measures to curb illegal

deforestation, some political, economic, and

criminal actors adapted to the policy changes,

exploiting loopholes to circumvent monitoring

-- especially as state oversight receded from

2016 onward� The reversal in deforestation is also

associated with rollbacks in the role of the state

and the dismantling of governance structures

and agencies responsible for monitoring and

responding to climate change, environmental

protection, and the well-being of traditional forest

populations, especially indigenous peoples

(Vick 2020)� In order to drive deforestation rates

downward, scientists and activists have called

for additional measures, such as the collection

of a rural tax; the closure of markets to illegally

produced beef; limiting credit to law-abiding

actors; innovation through the adoption of new

technologies and more effective operations by

law enforcement; and the adoption of sustainable

methods that incorporate knowledge of the

forest (Calixto 2016, Abramovay 2019, Zero

Deforestation Working Group 2017)�

Yet environmental crimes are still relegated to

secondary status by the Amazon basin’s states

and other stakeholders� Law enforcement,

criminal justice and military institutions across

the region basin focus heavily on illegal drug

trafﬁcking, which reinforces the widespread

impunity in environmental crimes� Environmental

task forces are few and far between, and when

they do exist, they tend to focus narrowly on

one or two types of environmental crime, such

as illegal logging and wildlife trafﬁcking, at the

expense of other activities� When cases are

prosecuted -- which is rare -- convicted offenders

are let off with small ﬁnes� This impunity helps to

fuel the cycle of land invasions, forest clearing,

and the establishment of activities that further

pollute and contaminate the biome (Human

Rights Watch 2019)�

As a result, law enforcement actions against

environmental crimes in the Amazon are

inconsistent and reactive instead of preventive�

In some parts of the region, such as border

posts featuring a more permanent presence

of military or police forces, operations may be

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ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

more effectively carried out� In general, however,

investigative capacity and coordination among

public entities is weak, and operations tend

to focus on the individual or groups hired to

carry out activities rather than the networks of

actors involved� Despite recommendations by

international organizations such as UNODC and

Interpol to focus on ﬂows of illicit ﬁnancing for such

activities (Interpol 2015), law enforcement in the

Amazon basin tends to criminalize the individuals

executing the plans rather than those that

orchestrate them� Finally, legal changes can render

such operations moot, for instance when agencies

such as Brazil’s IBAMA are forbidden to destroy

gold diggers’ equipment, which leads to the

immediate resumption of illegal activities as soon

as law enforcement leaves the area of operation

(Ministério Público Federal 2020)�

Throughout the countries of the Amazon basin,

legal safeguards exist to ensure that private

sector actors properly assess, account for,

and mitigate the socio-environmental impacts

of their operations� A good example of this

is the requirement that companies carry out

environmental impact assessments, though

enforcement remains weak� There is also a wide

range of voluntary efforts by public, private, and

civil society organizations to promote transparency

in supply chains involving Amazon-sourced

products, though there is little evidence that

such initiatives are having their intended impacts�

A report by Imazon analysed the overlay of

meat-packing plants of large companies with

incidents of deforestation, risk of deforestation

and embargos, and identiﬁed signiﬁcant risks that

are not being mitigated (Imazon 2018)� In the last

year alone, some 251 global investors with $17�7

trillion in assets have called on companies to

meet their commodity supply chain deforestation

commitments or risk losing access to international

markets (Kimbrough 2020)�

A recurring challenge relates to coordinating

environment crime prevention measures and

maximising cooperation between government

3 See, for example, the LEAP Programme, a recent collaborative initiative between UNODC, INTERPOL and

RHIPTO to support law enforcement in reducing tropical deforestation�

agencies and in partnership with private and

non-state partners� Even at the domestic level,

government bodies seldom collaborate effectively

in addressing environmental crimes� Despite

some innovations, such as the creation of an

Amazon Task Force in Brazil (Ministério Público

Federal 2020b), weak political will to boost forest

conservation efforts in the Amazon has impeded

more effective joint action among prosecutors

and other actors in law enforcement� There is also

insufﬁcient collaboration between government

bodies and non-governmental bodies, even as

the number of organizations based in the Amazon

states engaged in the effort to curb deforestation

has grown�

At the international level, the resurgence of the

discourse of national sovereignty, which has

historically been strong in the region, has meant

that regional initiatives such as the Amazon

Treaty Cooperation Organization (ATCO) exist

mostly on paper� With the exception of periodic

regional meetings, there are still comparatively few

dedicated efforts to promote joint efforts to tackle

environmental crime� For its part, the Organization

of American States (OAS) has a mission in

Colombia to support the peace process and has

worked on speciﬁc issues such as sustainable

transboundary water management (OAS 2005),

but does not address security or environmental

issues in the Amazon systematically�

Some international organizations have focused on

building the capacity of regional law enforcement,

criminal justice systems and customs agencies�

For example, Interpol has an ofﬁce in Buenos

Aires, but its small staff working on environmental

crimes (especially forestry issues) that provide

support to the region’s states on law enforcement

yet cannot cover the entire region, nor address

in detail all types of activities leading to large-

scale deforestation� UN entities such as UNODC,

despite important advances in strengthening

customs capacity

, have come under criticism

from far-right nationalist politicians and pundits�

Joint operations across international borders,

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

In this section, we present a typology of

activities which, though not illegal in and

of themselves, are commonly associated

with multiple dimensions of illegality and

socio-environmental harm in the Amazon

basin� Activities are categorized according

to economic sectors based on the primary

economic motive for participating in the activity�

To facilitate more standardized comparisons

by sector and activity, we include the activities’

corresponding codes in the North American

Industry Classiﬁcation System (NAICS) as

well as the Brazilian National Classiﬁcation of

Economic Activities (CNAE) (IBGE 2007, US

Ofﬁce of Management and Budget 2017)�

Likewise, we assess impacts on natural

capital and ecosystem services according

to the Common International Classiﬁcation

of Ecosystem Services (CICES) and social

impacts within the framework of the United

Nations Sustainable Development Goals

(Haines-Young and Potschin 2018, United

Nations 2015)�

An activity such as small-scale gold mining, for

example, is commonly associated with multiple

social and environmental impacts, including

loss of biomass, contamination of soils and

waterways, interpersonal violence, and land

tenure violations� Such mining may be legal or

illegal in a given jurisdiction based on existing

legislation, whether the miner has obtained

proper permits, and whether any negative

impacts have been properly assessed and

mitigated� We use the framework presented

in Annex 1 to examine the various dimensions

of illegality around any given activity in Table 1�

The illegality framework builds upon elements

presented in Forest Trends’ (2018) assessment

of illegal forest conversion globally, as well as a

desk review of existing environmental legislation

in the countries of the Amazon basin�

Typology of

environmental crime

and even across national borders, are exceptions

rather than the rule� Given the transnational nature

of many environmental crimes, these gaps in

coordination and cooperation undermine the

effectiveness of most responses�

These gaps and weaknesses have been laid

bare by a broader crisis of multilateralism,

including attempts to weaken or undermine

the Paris Climate Agreement and other

international regimes to protect the

environment, such as biodiversity treaties�

Non-compliance by national governments,

including Brazil -- even as subnational

states seek new leading roles in addressing

sustainability -- represents another hurdle in

cooperation for climate action in the Amazon�

Ultimately, the fragmented nature of responses

to environmental crime across the Amazon

basin is exacerbated by a lack of conceptual

clarity about what constitutes such crimes

to begin with� Greater conceptual clarity is

needed not only so that research on these

activities, their drivers and their impacts can

advance, but also so that stakeholders may

overcome the “silo effect” and shape more

effective collaboration�

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Category

Sector

(NAICS/

CNAE)

Economic

Activity

Example(s) of Illegality Actor(s)

Ecosystem

Impacts (CICES)

Societal

Impacts

(SDGs)

Potential Indicator(s)

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

The combined framework thus goes beyond

the concept of “environmental crime” to

encompass a broad range of organized human

activities that are changing the landscape,

societies, and climate of the Amazon basin�

Some of these activities take place primarily in

rural areas, whereas others are more common

in urban or peri-urban areas� The participants

involved can range from isolated individual

actors to highly organized legal and illegal

organizations at different geographical scales�

Activities are organized according to several

broad categories detailed below�

Land speculation

The ﬁrst category refers to modes of

occupation of rural land, including illegal

land grabbing -- which often takes place in

public or collectively owned land, such as

protected areas, indigenous reserves, and

community held lands� Across much of the

Amazon, current systems of land ownership

are extremely complex, often characterized

by conﬂicting interests over land tenure and

land use� When land is invaded by individuals

or small groups of squatters in search of a

subsistence livelihood, these invasions tend to

have limited impact and scale, typically under

three hectares (Madeiro 2019)� In contrast,

large-scale land invasions are often carried

out in highly organized fashion and require

equipment such as chainsaws, fertilizers and

seeds, all of which in turn demand substantial

resources� The organized criminal groups that

specialize in land invasions generally feature

local leaders, but ﬁnancing for these activities

is not necessarily local� In many cases, the

funding comes from individuals and businesses

based in metropolitan areas inside and outside

a given country� In 2019, Operation Ojuara, led

by the Brazilian Federal Police against large

organized land invasions in the northern state

of Acre, found that one illegal group received

funding from a prominent businessman in

Minas Gerais, in the Southeast of Brazil�

Another operation, Operação Máﬁa da Tora,

carried out in 2017, discovered that groups

in the state of Rondônia were ﬁnanced by

residents of Santa Catarina, in the south of the

country (Madeiro 2019)�

In some cases, land invaders then sell

extraction rights to illegal loggers, using the

revenues to fund the conversion of forest into

pasture and agricultural ﬁelds� The low cost

of legalizing medium and large properties

in Brazil, many of them created through

land invasions, creates further incentives for

subsequent land invasions (Imazon 2018)�

Insecure property rights are among the main

challenges in curbing deforestation caused

by land invasions (Oliveira 2008)� The land

legalization process across much of the

Amazon is rife with fraudulent documents

and false registrations� This is especially true

of indigenous and other protected lands,

as well as “undesignated” lands (areas that

lack formal legal designation)� According to

one study, 23% of the Brazilian Amazon is

composed of public lands that have been

illegally registered as private (Azevedo-Ramos

and Moutinho 2018)� There is also evidence of

widespread collusion between land grabbers,

notaries, politicians and actors within the state

(Ministério Público Federal 2018)� Political

groups in the capital cities actively lobby to

provide amnesty for land invaders in the region�

Those who lead land invasions often end up

becoming powerful political actors, capable

of inﬂuencing mayors and congressmen, and

sometimes are able to pressure monitoring

agencies to appoint their allies to key posts

in order to guarantee the impunity of these

crimes (Madeiro 2019)�

While part of the land that is invaded becomes

the site of income-generating activities, such

as ranching or agriculture, land also has a

symbolic value, conferring social status to

property owners� This is reﬂected in the fact

much of the land in the Amazon that is invaded

is then allowed to lie fallow for many years,

indicating widespread land speculation that is

often independent of other income-generating

activities, and that may be led by people who

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

do not even reside in the Amazon region�

According to one survey, almost a quarter of

all land deforested between 1988 and 2014 in

the Brazilian Amazon was simply abandoned

(MapBiomas 2020)� Sometimes the invasion of

a plot of land is carried out by one person or

by a group, while the trees are cut down by a

different group� Elsewhere, the land becomes

the object of speculation and is often sold to

individuals who do not reside in the Amazon�

Agriculture, livestock and

forestry

The agriculture, livestock and forestry category

encompasses agriculture (both industrial and

small-scale), ranching, logging, and drug

cultivation -- activities that are common in

invaded lands that do not remain fallow� Except

for logging, these activities frequently follow

forest ﬁres that are set in the invaded land to

clear space for these activities� They are driven

by unsustainable consumption, both from

within the Amazon states and from outside the

region� Over the past decade, as demand for

Amazon commodities such as beef and soy

has grown (especially from Asia and Europe),

transnational agribusiness conglomerates

based in South America and outside the region

have invested more heavily in Amazon land,

sometimes without appropriate monitoring of

supply chains� The cultivation of soybeans --

now the top export for both Brazil and Bolivia

-- has expanded rapidly, especially as the

opening of roads in the Amazon, such as BR-

163, cheapens transportation of the grains�

Cattle ranchers in Brazil and Bolivia have been

razing forest to meet beef demand in China

(Faleiros 2019)� A 2019 report showed that

Brazil’s annual beef exports, estimated at 1�4

million tonnes, generate 65,000 to 75,000

hectares of deforestation each year, most of

it (52%) in the Amazon� Of this total, 22,000

hectares were attributed to exports to China

(Trase 2019)� Despite pressure to make the

supply chains more transparent, practices

such as “cattle laundering” have spread as

meat companies fail to properly ensure that

they are not buying cattle from farms involved

in illegal deforestation�

Wildlife hunting and trade

Wildlife activities in the Amazon include trade

in protected or endangered species as well

as traditional hunting and ﬁshing, and they are

carried out by a broad gamut of actors and

involve a variety of species� Wildlife trafﬁcking

has become a multi-billion dollar industry;

according to one estimate, this type of illegal

trade extracts 38 million animals (excluding

ﬁsh and invertebrates) annually in Brazil alone

(Schleeter 2015)� Many trafﬁcking groups are

European, North American and Asian and

collaborate with local suppliers� Some of the

key species being trafﬁcked within and from

the Amazon are birds, reptiles, and mammals�

In parts of the Amazon basin, wild species

are often trapped by indigenous people, who

are then encouraged to sell the animals or

their parts� The wildlife is then transferred

to brokers, via boatmen, farmers and truck

drivers, who pass it on to trafﬁckers with

connections to major groups operating both

within the region and internationally� Some of

this wildlife is exported to Europe, Asia, and

North America -- where high proﬁts are made

-- through key harbors and airports, while

some is consumed locally� There are reports

of wildlife trafﬁcking being masked as scientiﬁc

or conservation efforts, with falsiﬁcation of

certiﬁcates attesting that the animals were

born in captivity, which permits them to be

imported or exported� Wildlife trafﬁcking can

have far-reaching environmental and societal

ripple effects, potentially leading to ecosystem

collapse (Ibid�)�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Energy and mining

The Amazon features sizeable potential for

mineral assets, namely iron ore, gold, copper,

tin, nickel, bauxite, and manganese (Santos

2002)� Mining has taken place in the region for

centuries at different scales using a variety of

extraction methods, but rising metals prices

have led to epidemic levels of illegal extraction

in the Amazon basin� The activity is carried out

by several different types of actors, operating

at different scales and with very different

impacts� These are by and large separate

productive chains, although in some areas

there are overlaps between the categories

(Abdenur et al� 2019)�

The rapid expansion of gold digging seen

in the Amazon during the 2010s is in part

a result of the rise in global gold prices� In

November 2019, for example, one ounce of

the mineral sold for USD$1,464, around six

times the price of the previous decade� Soaring

gold prices create additional incentives for

gold prospecting and mining in the Amazon,

especially through methods that can rapidly

expand extraction� According to ofﬁcial

estimates, 30 tonnes of gold per year are

produced in the Tapajós River basin alone,

generating R$4�5 billion in non-declared gains

-- ﬁnancial returns that are six times the size

of those obtained through legal gold mining

in the same region (Ministério Público Federal

2019)� In some places, gold diggers form

cooperatives that often operate within a grey

area between formal and informal, sometimes

transitioning between these broad legal

categories as permits are granted or expire

(Coelho et al 2017)� In contrast, organized

illegal mining is carried out by highly structured

and hierarchical groups, with extensive

planning and division of labor�

There is also large-scale industrial mining

carried out by major companies, some of

which may act illegally� The proﬁtability of

Amazon mining means that the region’s

governments often provide major tax incentives

for large-scale projects as part of broader

development schemes� These projects can

extrapolate limits set through environmental

laws, causing widespread illegal deforestation

and contamination� In Peru, for example,

several companies have been investigated by

the country’s national justice system for their

links to illegal mining in Madre de Dios, Cusco

and Puno; for crimes such as the purchase

of gold of illegal origin; the use of shell

companies; questionable ﬁnancial transactions;

and laundering of money and assets�

In addition to causing deforestation, illegal

mining can be highly contaminating and

polluting, particularly when mercury is used

to separate the mineral from the soil� Mercury

and other toxic materials have a strong effect

on the quality of food supply and on human

health, since it accumulates throughout the

food chain� In Colombia, alarming levels of

mercury used in illegal mining has been found

in water sources used for human consumption

(Díaz-Arriada 2014)� At the same time, money

laundering for illegal gold mining has become

more sophisticated� Monitoring of gold’s origins

is difﬁcult, and outdated legislation (including

allowing hand-written receipts) makes it easy

to cheat the system� Another increasing trend

is the involvement of illegal armed groups,

especially guerrillas and paramilitary groups

based in Colombia and Venezuela, in illegal

gold mining� In the last few years, illegally

mined gold has displaced cocaine trafﬁcking

as a key funding source for some of these

groups (Global Initiative Against Transnational

Organized Crime 2016)�

Utilities

The category refers to the development of

energy infrastructure projects, which often

takes place without appropriate permissions

and/or mitigation strategies� The abundance of

water in the Amazon has made it an attractive

region for major electric power generation

projects, and some of the region’s states

depend heavily on hydropower� For instance,

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

it provides around two-thirds of Brazil’s

electricity; around 31�6% of the hydropower

generated in 2019 went to the industrial

sector, including major mining operations in the

Amazon and elsewhere (another 4�7% went to

agribusiness)�

Amazon states have historically opted to build

large-scale energy infrastructure projects in

the Amazon, in part due to the simplistic view

of the rainforest as a vast “empty” space�

Such dams destroy rainforest and inundate

forested areas with river water, changing river

courses and making them less navigable� They

alter water chemistry and affect ﬁsh passage,

also endangering species whose habitats

are vulnerable to fragmentation� Numerous

dams are under construction in the Amazon

Basin� The largest is the Belo Monte dam in

the Brazilian state of Pará, the third largest

in the world, which has greatly surpassed its

expected environmental impact in the Xingu

River region�

The Belo Monte dam, which cost USD$9�5

billion to build and became fully operational

in 2019, has experienced reduced seasonal

ﬂows in the Xingu River due to climate change

and upstream deforestation� Thousands of

indigenous and other traditional communities

were forced to abandon their homes and

lifestyles, with ﬁshing no longer a viable means

of subsistence� Other large dams are under

construction, and yet more are planned (for

instance at Jirau, in the Brazilian state of

Rondonia), with dozens more planned in the

Andes, especially in Ecuador and Peru� The

Brazilian government is planning to build more

than 60 large dams in the Amazon over the

next 20 years�

Roads and construction

Roads and other forms of infrastructure

development have a long history of enabling

environmental degradation in what had been

previously inaccessible regions of the Amazon�

Barber et al� (2014) found that 95 percent

of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

occurred on land less than 5 kilometers from

a road or navigable river� Some roads may

be constructed entirely illegally, for example,

in order to access areas for illegal logging,

while others may be properly planned

and authorized, yet fail to mitigate socio-

environmental impacts� While roads cause

deforestation directly through the opening

up of space, their most signiﬁcant impact

results from making forested areas accessible

to settling and economic activity� More than

50,000 kilometers (30,000) miles of roads

were built in the Amazon in just three years

(Ahmed, Souza Jr, Ribeiro and Ewers 2013)� A

study of 75 planned road projects found that

those planned roads -- which would add up

to 12,000 kilometers of roadway in Colombia,

Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil -- have not

been assessed for environmental or economic

impacts� Seventeen of those projects are

in violation of environmental regulations or

indigenous rights (Vilela et al 2020)�

At the same time, urbanization continues at a

rapid pace in many parts of the Amazon� Of

the 19 Brazilian cities that the latest census

indicates have doubled in population from

2000-2010, 10 are in the Amazon� Altogether,

the region’s population climbed 23 percent

from 2000 to 2010, while Brazil as a whole

grew just 12 percent (Romero 2012)� New

immigrants typically settle on the outskirts of

cities where they may clear forested land in

order to build their dwellings� The emergence

and rapid expansion of small and medium

sized cities, as well as the mushrooming of

small settlements -- especially along rivers

and roads -- frequently entails environmental

damage and societal impacts (Sathler, Monte-

Mór and Carvalho 2009)�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Conclusions

The typology is intended to provide conceptual

clarity that can assist in future research, law

enforcement practices, and policymaking

around human activities in the Amazon with

widespread environmental and societal

impacts� With respect to research, there is

clearly a need to unpack the entire cycle of

activity in each of the types of illegal activity --

ﬁnancing, organization, execution -- as well as

their links to money laundering and corruption�

In addition, the links between illegal activities

and legal ones must be clariﬁed through case

studies and comparative research� Although

the framework offers a comprehensive, holistic

view of destructive criminal activities in the

Amazon Basin, more ﬁne-grained research is

needed to cover their variation and complexity

across different settings in the region�

The potential overlaps across categories, criminal

activities, and impacts merits further investigation�

For instance, in medium or large scale wildcat

mining sites, other criminal activities -- including

the trafﬁcking of weapons, people smuggling,

and illegal gambling -- are commonplace and

that drug trafﬁcking networks invest in illegal

extraction� Such overlaps are likely to vary widely

across the Amazon, according to the local

context, law enforcement, and capacity of the

actors involved� There is also a need to examine

the complex interactions between legal and illegal

activities, as well as the way in changing legal

boundaries, including the gray zone referred to as

“irregular” activities, contribute to violent disputes�

The typology can also support law

enforcement, criminal justice and customs

actors to better understand the drivers of

deforestation and thus to develop more

effective and targeted strategies� This is

particularly important because so much law

enforcement in the Amazon basin remains

narrowly focused on speciﬁc activities

such as illegal trafﬁcking, to the detriment

of other environmental crimes� By better

understanding the full cast of actors involved

in these practices, including legal actors such

as companies, as well as the dynamics and

impacts of these activities, law enforcement

can better map, analyze, and act to curb

hotspots of environmental crime, whether in

urban areas or heavily forested ones�

Finally, by shedding light on the broad range

of activities that are leading to vast socio-

environmental damage in the Amazon, the

typology can also help guide policymakers,

practitioners and campaigners identify major

gaps and weaknesses in law and practice

and and prioritize investment� A more fulsome

treatment of environment crime can support a

comprehensive approach to law enforcement,

forest conservation, and sustainable

development in the Amazon basin� With

respect to local and national actors, having a

better grasp of the full range of activities driving

deforestation in the region can help improve

coordination among law enforcement agents at

the federal, state and municipal levels�

But the typology is also useful for international

cooperation arrangements, whether bilateral

or multilateral� Many of the illegal activities

identiﬁed in the typology tend to cluster near

international borders and feature transnational

dynamics� Hence, it offers a point of departure

for knowledge exchange and the design

of collaborative solutions for curbing and

preventing environmentally harmful activities in

the Amazon, as well as the design of a more

sustainable vision for the region�

IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE | STRATEGIC PAPER 47 | AUGUST 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

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ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

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ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN THE AMAZON BASIN: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action

Annex 1: Dimensions of Illegality

Category Activity

Zoning, Planning and

Policy

Failure to ensure new laws and/or regulations are consistent with existing legal frameworks and

are constitutional�

Failure to implement inclusive and transparent processes for land planning and development�

Manipulating the zoning process in order to open up areas for exploitation, such as in HCVAs

and/or indigenous lands�

Failing to conﬁrm pre-existing rights when granting ownership or usufruct rights�

Intentional occupation of and claim to public, private, or indigenous owned land (land grabbing)�

Licenses, Permits and

Authorizations

Fraud in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), including assessment, mitigation,

monitoring and reporting�

Failure to ensure fair and transparent licensing and permitting processes that minimize conﬂicts of

interest�

Fraud in surveys of harvest volume and/or value (e�g�, timber)�

Misrepresentation of concession boundaries, including APPs and HCVAs�

Providing false information to communities and/or use of coercion over consent�

Operations

Clearing or harvesting in authorized areas but without proper licenses�

Clearing or harvesting endangered species, in APPs, HCVAs or other off-limit areas�

Clearing or harvesting beyond the legal or authorized maximum�

Use of machinery or pollutants without proper licenses�

Illegal use of ﬁre (arson)�

Finance

Tax fraud and/or false or misleading ﬁnancial reports�

Misrepresentation during audits and certiﬁcations�

Improper transfer pricing between jurisdictions�

Underpayment of taxes, royalties, or fees�

Money laundering�

Monitoring and

Enforcement

Failing to inspect, monitor, and/or indict offenders�

Manipulating evidence, witnesses, or court processes�

Violating judicial independence�

Failure to set penalties commensurate with the severity of the crime�

Failure to enforce penalties�