Political ecologies of green-collar crime: understanding illegal trades in European wildlife

Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is commonly identified as one of the drivers of global biodiversity loss and has gained increasing attention from national governments, conservation NGOs, international institutions and the private sector. We argue that analyses of drivers and dynamics of IWT within Europe must evaluate the overlooked interconnections between legal and illegal trades. In this brief commentary, we develop a new conceptual lens that brings together cutting-edge theories of political ecology and green criminology. We apply this to the European IWT context, to deconstruct the power dynamics and inequalities that underlie environmental harms caused by green-collar crime. We use the dynamics of illegal trade in brown bears, eels and songbirds as illustrative examples, and consider three cross-cutting issues that shape the trade: consumption, uncertain scientific knowledge and legislative frameworks.