Technologies vs environmental crimes

The world faces a major new wave of environmental crimes, touching traditional but also unexpected sectors: deforestation and illegal mining, water theft and illegal fishing, financial crimes that finance poaching, waste trafficking and much more. Environmental police forces, NGOs and international organisations, however, now have the technological tools at their disposal to tackle these crimes; drones, interconnected sensors, apps but also, and above all, an increasingly important use of satellites, which not only make investigations easier, but also make it possible to see what was once invisible. Technology alone, however, is not enough; a series of political, social and economic measures are needed for it to be truly effective.

The event will discuss the role of technologies such as satellite data from the Copernicus project or drones for monitoring in the fight against global environmental crimes, with case studies from Europe, Central America and Southeast Asia.