The first National Environmental Crime Conference

By Dr Hervé Borrion (UCL CSCS) and Dr Michael Emes (UCL CAIS)

Feedback Report for £500 awarded to Dr Hervé Borrion (UCL Centre for Security and Crime Science) and Dr Michael Emes (UCL Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems) under the Bridging the Gaps Open Programme.

Use of Funding

The £500 supplied by the BTG fund was used to the support the preparation of the first NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME CONFERENCE, an event aimed at bridging the gaps between the fields of security and environment. The £500 supplied by the BTG fund was supplemented by £5000 sponsorship from the Environment Agency, the UCL Futures fund, and departmental contributions from the JDI and CSCS to support the interaction cover the costs of hosting the conference at the British Library.

Report

The conference was conducted as the first ‘NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME CONFERENCE,’ held on 7th October 2008, British Library, London.

Environmental crime and eco-security are issues on the agenda of national and local governments. These emerging threats are a growing global problem which have a direct impact on the environment. This conference was the first step in the UK to reduce the threat that eco-crime poses to national and local communities, for example to the sustainability of future waste management schemes and legislations.

The conference brought together academic expertise with practitioners and policy-makers to discuss a range of current and future eco-crime problems such as wildlife crime, industrial pollution and illegal waste disposal. It attempted to raise awareness with key stakeholders, better define the problem, and began to explore remedial and preventative actions. In particular, the problem was examined by bringing together an interdisciplinary effort using crime science, environmental engineering and systems engineering approaches.

The conference was organised by UCL Centre for Security and Crime Science in partnership with the UCL Environment Institute, the UCL Centre for Law and the Environment and the UCL Centre for Advanced Instrumentations Systems, and was supported by the UK Environment Agency.

The Conference was considered an outstanding success. It attracted approximately 100 attendees and was opened by UCL’s Provost Macolm Grant. Key speakers came from the Environment Agency, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the National Wildlife Crime Unit, Association of Chief Police Officers, Macauley Institute, Bangor University and UCL.

The conference fulfilled its objective of placing UCL at the forefront of the ‘environmental crime’ initiative and helping bring together UCL academics to engage with key stakeholders outside UCL and to begin creating interdisciplinary teams with the expertise needed to develop robust solutions to the problems articulated at the event.

In terms of outcomes and future opportunities, the conference has received strong government backing with the Environment Agency agreeing to sponsor a second conference next year.

The conference has acted as a catalyst enabling UCL to be seen as a pioneer in this field whilst strengthening its image as London’s Global University. In the long-term we hope the conference can become THE national event in this field contributing to a positive impact for London’s built environment, pollution levels, the well-being of Londoners, municipal costs and ecological diversity.