Samenvatting

Illegal deforestation is generally not considered as a criminological subject but in this article it is argued that it can easily be considered as such. The central question that is addressed here is how the theme of deforestation, which clearly fits into the new realm of green criminology, relates to more traditional criminological concepts. This question is discussed through various case studies: the Brazilian Amazon (mainly Brazil), Central Africa (mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo), South East Asia (mainly Indonesia), Russian Siberia, and Pakistan's Swat forests. The case studies show that there are actually many victims of deforestation, both human and non-human, and that deforestation is linked to a variety of other crimes and harms as well. It is concluded that even without taking a green criminological perspective, several concepts of criminology apply to illegal deforestation practices: governmental and state crimes, corporate crimes, and various types of organized crime.