The Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources

Abstract

This essay discusses the involvement of organized crime in natural resource exploitation and trade. This is accomplished by examining case studies from different tropical regions in the world: Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and DR Congo), Southeast Asia (Indonesia), and Latin America (Brazilian Amazon). In doing so, a new or additional meaning is given to the economic concept of a resource curse. This contribution shows that such a recourse curse can be a crime curse, too.