The stories and figures of environmental crime, commented on by the president of Legambiente following the publication of the Ecomafia 2016 report.
In 2015, 76 crimes against the environment were committed in Italy every day: more than 3 every hour. Although still very high, the figure is down on the previous year, marking a reversal of the trend attributable to the introduction of the law on environmental crimes into the penal code, approved in May 2015, and to more effective enforcement action.
The state of environmental crime in Italy — in numbers and in stories — is laid out in the Legambiente Ecomafia report, which was presented on Wednesday 6 July in Rome. It is a balance sheet of lights and shadows, with some illicit activities on the rise and others in decline, at a time when the first fruits of more effective — and finally worthy of a civilised country that genuinely punishes polluters — repressive action are beginning to be harvested. In the first eight months since the law came into force, 947 eco-crimes were contested, with 1,185 reports filed by law enforcement agencies and harbour master's offices and the seizure of 229 assets worth a total of 24 million euros.
Overall, the ecomafia business is in decline, with an estimated 19.1 billion euros for 2015, almost three billion less than the previous year (22 billion). Illegally built properties number 18,000 and infringements in the cement and waste cycle are falling. On the other hand, however, offences in the agri-food supply chain are growing, as are crimes against animals and, above all, fires, with a surge approaching 49 per cent. Blazes burned through more than 37,000 hectares, and more than 56 per cent were concentrated in the four regions with a traditional mafia presence.
In these regions — Calabria, Campania, Puglia and Sicily — the incidence of offences is in fact growing, for a total of 13,388 cases, equal to 48.3 per cent of the national total (in 2014 the incidence was 44.6 per cent).
This year too the Ecomafia Report tells us the ugly side of Italy, still marked by so many environmental illegalities, but in this 2016 edition we can read some interesting phenomena that give reason for hope. Figures and data, partly in decline, that demonstrate what effects a more effective and robust regulatory framework — such as the new eco-crimes legislation — can trigger, one capable of aiding prevention as well as the repression of criminal phenomena.
Prevention is the good coin that drives out the bad: it is necessary to create jobs, strands of economic and productive development in the most at-risk territories, and to support the hundreds and hundreds of cooperatives and businesses that, even in the south, are trying to reverse course by focusing on environmental quality and legality. And in preventing the ecomafias, alongside the commitment of local communities and individual citizens, a constant state presence is important — a state that must be credible and deliver ever firmer responses, because when the state is absent, organised crime advances easily, invading territories, the environment and local communities. When the state is present, on the other hand, the ecomafiosi can hardly steal and kill our future.
But there is still work to be done to combat the ecomafias, given that organised crime still counts 326 (registered) clans and corruption remains a rampant phenomenon — so much so that the ecomafias are present in northern Italy too. Not to mention that organised crime continues to exert pressure in woodland and agricultural areas, as well as in the illegal market for timber, pellets and biodiversity. For this reason, Legambiente today reiterated the importance of continuing to strengthen the regulatory framework with ad hoc laws that also protect the agri-food supply chain and cultural heritage, and of establishing a large environmental police force spread across the territory.
There is an urgent need for a law on crimes against animals, for a measure to simplify the demolition of eco-eyesores, for one against agro-mafias, and for the creation of a large environmental police force increasingly structured across the territory, drawing on the best experience accumulated by the Carabinieri and the Corpo forestale dello Stato over recent decades.