Eco-crime and green activism

Abstract

‘ Each week at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction. Some are shot by police during protests, others gunned down by hired assassins. As companies go in search of new land to exploit, increasingly people are paying the ultimate price for standing in their way ’ (Global Witness, 2015, p. 1) Introduction The involvement of citizens in environmental activism has been pivotal to the progression and development of environmental policies and regulation (Clifford and Edwards, 2012). Environmental movements are becoming central in the identification, detection, and prevention of environmental crime. Their resources, technologies, data bases, and personnel are increasingly utilized by law enforcement agencies to police, regulate, and prosecute both organized and localised environmental crime. The advent and mobilisation of activist movements for prevention and regulation of organised environmental crime is arguably what Habermas referred to as a style of participatory democracy or more specifically the ‘revival of the public sphere’. Social movements respond to a passive and compliant citizenry by constructing a counter discourse that is harnessed through action, and mobilized as truth (Habermas, 1991). Here, environmental activism, through technology and networks of action, local alliances, as well as appeals to citizens and officials, elevates the social movement to a reliable and reputable status that is inculcated into government and regulatory structures. Environmental activism becomes not mere representative democracy but participatory democracy with both a visible presence and impact. As such, with public and political integration, it becomes a new and important form of environmental governance. The momentum created by environmental movements is, to quote Foucault, a source of mobilised power. He argued that ‘innovation no longer occurs through parties, syndicates, bureaucracies, politicians. It consists of an individual, moral concern’. For Foucault, coordinated and concerned citizens who coalesce and form alliances of collective concern become accepted and relied upon as alternative knowledges or regimes of ‘truth’. Such grassroots endeavors are powerful innovations capable of influencing governing authorities and commercial enterprises (Foucault, 1979, p. 23). As this chapter will discuss, green activists have formed important networks in environmental law enforcement and are increasingly drawn upon by official agencies for intelligence. On the other hand, environmental or green activism has become a threat to corporate and governing elites that seek power and profit through the exploitation of natural resources. It is widely known that environmental activists have long been the targets of corporate spying, police infiltration, and state espionage (Lubbers, 2012). As such, the plight of those seeking to protect and preserve the environment through vocal and direct public action has been both risky and dangerous. The opening quotation attests to the perils of contemporary green activism, but also highlights the intrinsic power and impact of those who resist capitalism and environmental despoliation. The international NGO Global Witness reported that between 2002 and 2013, a total of 908 environmental activists were killed across 35 countries with only ten reported convictions (Lakani, 2014). It concludes that two environmental activists are killed every week, stating: ‘Many of those facing threats are ordinary people opposing land grabs, mining operations and the industrial timber trade, often forced from their homes and severely threatened by environmental devastation’ (Global Witness, 2014, p. 4). This chapter examines the role of environmental activism in preventing, exposing, and regulating eco crime. It seeks to understand the dynamics of the environmental protest movement and why green activists are increasingly the targets of corporate and state intervention, whilst also being relied upon as quasi-state agents of environmental law enforcement. In doing so, this chapter draws on original fieldwork conducted at the Faslane Peace Camp, the world’s longest running anti-nuclear demonstration that has been stationed on the Clyde in Scotland continuously since 1981.