Due to climate change, environmental preservation and defense have become a priority in the UN strategy to reach the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development goals. The Agenda highlights that environmental degradation’s negative impacts are one of the century’s wicked challenges together with environmental depletion. At the Conference of Parties 28 of 2023, UNODC evidenced the need to address environmental crimes to endorse climate change mitigation. For an immediate global response to reach the SDGs, it encouraged a strong justice commitment and cooperation among Member States to fight environmental crimes.
Ahead of time, since 2016, according to the joint strategic report of the EUROPOL and the UNEP “The Rise of Environmental Crime” (2016), violation of the environment is nowadays the fourth largest criminal offense worldwide. This phenomenon has notably increased, and it is expected to expand all over the world in the next years due to the unfolding transnational criminals. Member States and international organizations are urgently working to avoid this crime commitment and to educate people on the consequences of exposure. Indeed, as a transnational crime activity, people and groups of people are benefiting from damaging the ecosystems and their inhabitants.
In the 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report, one of the key messages highlights the strict interconnection between wildlife crimes and organized crime. As this type of crime is one of the activities taken in place by large, organized transnational crime groups, it requires a complex and broader strategy that should intervene on these groups.
With these considerations in mind, the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) are organizing the ninth edition of the Winter School on Environmental Crimes, which will be delivered online, from 17 to 21 November 2025.