Organized Crime, Indigenous People and Natural Resources: Borders, Incentives and Relations

• In Event: Green Criminology VII: Issues of Indigeneity

Abstract

This presentation explores the relationship between Indigenous people and organized crime groups vying for control over natural resources. From a southern green criminological perspective, the presentation considers how organized crime groups trading in natural resources value Indigenous knowledge. It also examines the continued victimization of Indigenous people in relation to environmental harm and the tension between Indigenous peoples’ ecocentric values and the economic incentives presented to them for exploiting nature. By looking at the history of the coloniality and the socioeconomic context of these Indigenous communities, this presentation generates a discussion about the social framing of the Indigenous people as both victims and offenders in the illegal trade in natural resources, particularly considering the types of relationships established with dominant criminal groups present in their ancestral lands.

Author

• Daan Van Uhm, Utrecht University