Legambiente has presented the first positive results of the eco-crimes law. The word environment has finally entered the penal code, but further measures are said to be lacking. An editorial by the president of Legambiente.
Italy needs good laws to protect and promote the environment, also because, when they are passed, it is the facts that demonstrate their effectiveness. This is what is happening with the eco-crimes law (Law no. 68 of 2015), which introduced crimes against the environment into the penal code — a law that Legambiente fought hard for over twenty-one years, calling for a civilising reform to be passed in the name of the polluted people. Nearly a year and a half after it came into force, the measure is beginning to bear significant fruit, demonstrating the full effectiveness of the new sanctioning system.
The initial data released by Legambiente in the dossier Ecogiustizia è fatta and the report Ecomafia 2016 — which highlighted how, thanks to the new law, there has been a decline in environmental crimes and an increase in arrests — are now accompanied by data from the Ministry of Justice and from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the waste cycle, chaired by Alessandro Bratti, which in recent days presented a report on the monitoring of the law's implementation. The report revealed that 76 investigations are currently under way into environmental crimes; the most frequently charged offence (47 cases) is environmental pollution, while environmental disaster has been charged in at least 5 cases, in Turin, Perugia, L'Aquila, Rome and Cagliari. Of the 76 ongoing investigations, 26 are against persons unknown. Reports are spread across the entire Italian territory, with a prevalence in the South and on the islands.
These positive figures demonstrate the importance and necessity of useful, well-crafted environmental legislation for the country. The eco-crimes law has provided law enforcement and the judiciary with an effective operational tool to stop eco-criminals, who until now have polluted the environment in which we live by counting on impunity. As we have said on numerous occasions, this is a revolutionary law that has brought the word environment into the penal code by introducing new crimes. In addition to environmental pollution and environmental disaster, the measure provides for four further crimes (death or injury as a consequence of the crime of environmental pollution, trafficking and abandonment of highly radioactive material, obstruction of oversight and failure to carry out remediation), a long series of aggravating circumstances (including those relating to the ecomafia or corrupt public officials), highly stringent measures such as the confiscation of assets as applied to mafia members, and severe penalties targeting corporate legal liability.
A useful, functioning law, capable of guaranteeing eco-justice for the polluted people, for the environment and for citizens' health, stopping and punishing those whom former prosecutor Pier Luigi Vigna called "the thieves of the future". Now, however, a major information and training drive for magistrates and law enforcement on the new criminal instruments available to those who work to protect the environment, public health and honest entrepreneurs will be essential. These reflections and proposals accompany the data in the Ecogiustizia è fatta dossier, attached to the report presented to the Ecomafia Commission.
Taking stock is important, but it is equally vital to look ahead, because many other complementary measures are still missing that would strengthen this legislative reform process — starting with the passage of the bill introducing crimes against fauna and flora (presented just a few days ago). Following the passage of the eco-crimes law, the Government and Parliament had committed to resuming the shelved amendments that dealt precisely with crimes against fauna and flora. A promise that has been kept, but one that must now be followed by action and swift passage.
In Italy over the last seven years, from 2009 to 2015, 20 violations against wild fauna were recorded every day, 16.5 people were reported and almost 7 seizures were carried out. Poaching and the illegal trade in protected animal species are among the most widespread crimes against animals in Italy. For this reason, we call for urgent and effective attention to safeguarding this essential component of biodiversity, starting with the alignment of legislative protection in the area of crimes against fauna, which today fall only under so-called "minor offences". We therefore call on Parliament to introduce crimes against fauna into the penal code. With this law, poachers and eco-criminals will no longer get away with it, and it will be possible to strike effectively at those who, until now, kill wolves, ibises or bears every day with impunity and strip nature from the environment in which we live by counting on going unpunished.