Organised crime, exploitation of the environment and of Indigenous communities: linkages and responses
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PROJECT TEAM
Huma Haider
Independent Researcher
Contact: huma@humahaider.com
Huma Haider is an independent research consultant and international lawyer, with over 17 years of experience producing policy relevant research and guidance for international development advisors. She is a former Research Fellow at the GSDRC, International Development Department, University of Birmingham. Her research areas centre on transitional justice in divided societies, coexistence, reconciliation, conflict sensitivity, international humanitarian law, and the role of diaspora and refugee communities in peacebuilding. Her geographic area of focus is the Western Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has also worked as a lawyer in the Prosecutor’s Office of the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Organised criminal groups (OCGs) have infringed upon the territorial rights of Indigenous communities, extracting natural resources from their lands. They have subjected Indigenous peoples to acts of dispossession, land grabbing, forced displacement, as well as to the negative consequences of their extractive activities, which have caused severe environmental deterioration.
Yet, actors involved in environmental crime often operate with impunity. The interplay of corruption and organised crime (OC) often hinders effective prosecution of those who target Indigenous activists and land defenders. In the absence of government protection, Indigenous people have, in some cases, turned to organised criminality themselves, and in other instances developed their own methods of resistance to counter OC.
The linkages between OC, the environment and the welfare of Indigenous communities are salient. While research exists on the effects of OC on the environment and on the relationship between Indigenous people and the environment, there is limited scholarship that brings together these three streams of research to explore relationships between them. As such, this evidence review paper seeks to fill this evidence gap by exploring:
The implications of OC on the environment and Indigenous communities,
Ways to counter OC’s criminal exploitation of the environment and Indigenous communities,
And the implications for policymaking and responses to the issues identified.
The paper will be of interest and value to a range of scholars, practitioners and policymakers, including those working in the fields of OC, environment and climate change, and on vulnerabilities and rights of Indigenous communities and other marginalised groups.
PUBLICATIONS
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Publication anticipated for summer 2026.
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