Environmental Crime Now Ranks Third Most Profitable Criminal Industry After Drug Trafficking

Environmental Crime Now Ranks Third Most Profitable Criminal Industry After Drug Trafficking

At the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, Interpol-Environmental Crime showcased the operational impact of Project Gaia. This initiative connects national police forces across the Americas, Asia, and Africa to track down the criminal networks involved in illegal mining, deforestation, wildlife trafficking, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and waste pollution.

The Federal Environment Ministry (BMUKN) and INTERPOL are convening high-level decision-makers from both the Global South and North, as well as representatives from international organizations, NGOs, and companies with global supply chains. The goal of this collaboration is to address environmental crime as a complex challenge. This includes considerations of environmental protection, nature conservation, and security, the rule of law, sustainable development, economic resilience, and fair markets.

In the first year of the joint GAIA project, the partner countries reported over 500 investigations and identified 262 criminal entities. Their analytical efforts and global notice systems uncovered an additional 503 entities, including trafficking routes, hotspots, and criminal methods. Building on these results, the partner countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa will receive continued support through operational actions, forensic assistance, capacity-building, and analytics. The Federal Environment Ministry is allocating an additional 1.5 million euros to expand the project further.

Environmental crime is now estimated to be the third most profitable criminal industry, following drug trafficking and counterfeiting, generating illegal profits in the billions. These revenues not only fund other criminal activities but also contribute to conflicts and destabilize entire regions. For this reason, the BMUKN is intensifying its efforts in this area and systematically expanding its cooperation with INTERPOL. Since 2024, BMUKN and INTERPOL have collaborated on the GAIA project.

This initiative aims to strengthen law enforcement agencies in countries particularly affected by environmental crime, enhance the sharing of criminal intelligence, and support operational efforts to combat it. WWF is also part of the consortium and works to protect environmental defenders and other civil society actors who play a crucial role in exposing environmental crime.