INTRODUCTION

Transnational environmental crime is one of the many reasons why our planet is in peril. Such crimes include the dumping of toxic waste, the pollution of land, air, and water, and the illegal trade of plants and animals, in ways that cross borders and, in many instances, have a global dimension. A more expansive definition of transnational environmental crime also extends to “harms.” These include:

• transgressions that are harmful to humans, environments, and nonhuman animals, regardless of legality per se (i.e., harm occurs whether or not the activity is legal or illegal); and

• environment-related harms that are facilitated by the state, corporations, and other powerful actors, insofar as these institutions have the capacity to shape official definitions of environmental crime in ways that allow or condone environmentally harmful practices.

The definition of transnational environmental crime is, therefore, contentious and ambiguous. This depends upon who is defining the harm, and to what criteria – for example, legal versus ecological, criminal justice versus environmental justice – is used in determining the nature of the harms so described (see Beirne & South, 2007; White, 2008).