Prevention of transnational environmental crime and regulatory pluralism

Transnational environmental crime includes offences such as the illegal taking and trafficking of wildlife and timber, the international dumping of toxic waste and the trade in illicit ozone-depleting substances. Several features distinguish the current regulation of transnational environmental crime (TEC) from the regulation of environmental behaviour at the domestic level. Domestically, there is increasing use of the concepts of responsive regulation and smart regulation, involving regulatory pyramids, combinations of policy instruments and a broad range of regulatory actors (see John Braithwaite, Chapter 7; and Gunningham and Sinclair, Chapter 8, this volume; Gunningham 2009; Pink 2013). However, states have, when dealing with TEC, almost exclusively focused on law enforcement, at the peak of the regulatory pyramid. The exploration of other possible responses to TECat the lower levels of the regulatory pyramid and harnessing actors other than the stateis still in its infancy. This is largely because recognition of the enormous environmental, social and economic consequences of TEC, both for individual countries and at a global scale, is a relatively recent phenomenon.