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.

Criminology usually focuses on the human experience. The relatively few criminological publications that do pay attention to animals, are very often written from an anthropocentric perspective in which animals are portrayed as passive objects and in terms of their usefulness to humans. Is this a satisfactory situation? Some criminologists would answer this question with a sincere ‘no’.
For example Beirne and Cazaux have pleaded for a non speciesist criminology, meaning a criminology that does not take other than the human species for granted. This is not a plea for an entire new criminology, but an appeal for more attention on negative outcomes of human behaviour regarding animal welfare. In this article some examples of research options are described.

Many species are threatened with extinction today. Certain animal species are becoming scarce and thus more valuable. Illegally traded animals and animal products are exported by relatively poor countries. These easily provide exporting papers that demonstrate that animals are bred in captivity, when in reality they are caught in the wild. In general illegally traded animals originate from South and Central America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Europe is a major importer. Since illegal trade in animals is booming business, it is not uncommon for illegal traders in exotic animals to be associated with other forms of organised crime. Due to a relatively low risk of prosecution and high profits to be made, the trade in rare species has become very attractive.