A U.N. and Interpol report found that environmental crimes, including illegal logging and animal poaching, were used to fund armed conflicts around the world.
The report also stated that environmental crime numbers were on the rise. The money gathered from these activities - totaling between $70 and $213 billion per year - was then funneled to private armies and insurgencies in various countries.
The money produced by environmental crime diverted funds that developing countries could have used to improve their quality of life, the report stated. The current budget for development aid for these countries is pegged at $135 billion.
Researchers from U.N and Interpol discussed the results of their investigation in a meeting with environmental ministers held in Nairobi.
The study estimated that the illegal trading of charcoal in Africa was worth $1.9 billion per year. Wood was the main fuel used in the region. Islamist Shabaab insurgents camping in Somalia were reported to have made millions of dollars by imposing tax on charcoal trading on roadblocks and ports.
In addition, there was an increase in the demand for ivory, especially in China and other Asian countries. In Africa, the report revealed that there were about 20,000 to 25,000 elephants killed every year out of the total population, estimated to be about 650,000. Private armies in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo were said to be active in the illegal trading of ivory.
After presenting the findings of the report, the authors called for stricter laws governing such activities. They explained that tougher procedures should be imposed to decrease the acts of illegal logging, fishing, toxic dumping, poaching, and mining.
"Many criminal networks are making phenomenal profits from environmental crime," Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Program, told Reuters. "It is a financing machine."
The report cited a case in the Amazon, where deforestation rates decreased after heightened police operations and satellite imaging began in 1988.
