THE THREAT OF TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME TO ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY OF SERBIA

Korać Srđan (Istraživač saradnik u Institutu za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd), srdjan@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

The paper discusses the factors relating to environmental crime that could provide opportunities in Serbia for cooperation of transnational and local organised crime entities. The analysis focuses on illegal trade in endangered species and illegal trafficking and disposal of hazardous waste as most profitable types of environmental crime in Serbia. The increasing demand in rich societies for illicit ecosystem goods, low risk of detection of environmental crime, inefficient control policy of organised crime and low level of environmental awareness, all reduce the risks for organised crime groups and generate enormous criminal profits. The author concludes that the emergence of environment-related criminal business in Serbia may pose serious and long-term threat to the environmental aspect of human security, and it ought to be urgently included in the security policy agenda.

Keywords: transnational crime, organised crime, environmental crime, human security, environmental security, control policy, Serbia