Environmental Engineering Reference
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land grabbing, and development initiatives like trainings for community leaders or
policy dialogues between civil society and the public prosecution office. A HRBA is
reflected in research on the criminalization of environmental and human right defend-
ers, as well as in a study of the legal framework for the exercise of ethnic and territorial
rights.
6.7 CONCLUSION
This chapter has shown that several criminological concepts and a HRBA can be
applied to the issue of conflict and natural resource exploitation. Criminological con-
cepts, such as governmental crime, corporate crime, organized crime and combinations
of these concepts, can highlight key aspects of the processes at work in the exploitation
of natural resources in the LAR project's two focus areas.
From a green criminological perspective, it is not crime but harm, both social and
environmental, that is the point of departure. Green criminological concepts are per-
fectly suited to conflicts over natural resource exploitation in a number of different
ways. Social or human harm can be established by identifying the possible victims of
(conflicts over) natural resource exploitation. The environmental or ecological harm
can be directly assessed, for example, at the loss of (rain) forest and terrestrial or
aquatic biodiversity, or at the levels of pollution. As victims are often not recognised
in such a way and hardly have access to the criminal justice system, research results
can contribute to local populations being acknowledged as victims of illegal or oth-
erwise harmful natural resource exploitation. Moreover, LAR can also contribute to
empowering communities by not only identifying harm, but also establishing which
human rights are being violated, how communities can claim them, and how states
can respect, protect and fulfil them.
When the (theoretical) concepts of green criminology and the human rights based
approach are combined, it can have various policy implications and results. Reducing
social harm in this case means increasing access to the criminal justice system and
improving the rule of law. Improving the rule of law through increased access to the
criminal justice system clearly belongs to the general objectives of the human rights
approach. If both could be improved, this would fit under the headings of devel-
opment and good governance. Reducing environmental harm in this case refers to
reducing the environmental impact of land-use change in bio-diverse areas in South
America, and stimulating less environmentally harmful and more sustainable land
use that respects human rights. This is particularly true in the Brazilian case, where
much rainforest is cut for timber and agriculture (mainly soy, but also cattle). This
not only affects terrestrial, but aquatic biodiversity as well, as pesticides that are
used in agriculture affect the water quality and water life in the Tapajós and Amazon
rivers.
Increased knowledge of the phenomenon of harmful natural resource exploita-
tion and the different players involved makes it easier to intervene (more) effectively.
Although increased and more just and effective law enforcement could be an option
in some cases, harm reduction and crime reduction policies should aim at limiting or
removing the (legal or corporate) structures that allowand facilitate exploited resources
to be traded (seemingly) legally.
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