Call for Contributions – Freedom From Fear Magazine: Special Issue: Environmental Crimes and Technology: Innovations, Risks, and Solutions

Environmental crimes - from illegal mining and logging to wildlife trafficking and pollution - are among the fastest-growing forms of transnational crime. They damage ecosystems, distort markets, undermine sustainable development, and threaten global security. Frequently, these offences are facilitated by organized criminal networks and accompanied by corruption and illicit financial flows.

Technology is rapidly reshaping this landscape. Criminal groups leverage digital platforms, encrypted communications, and financial innovations to expand their reach, conceal illicit profits, and exploit new vulnerabilities. At the same time, innovations such as artificial intelligence, satellite monitoring, blockchain, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and digital forensics are providing powerful tools for prevention, detection, and prosecution.

This special issue of Freedom From Fear (F3) - produced by UNICRI in collaboration with Ghent University, the School of Advanced Studies, and Source International - will explore the complex relationship between technology and environmental crime. It will highlight both the challenges posed by digital tools and the innovative solutions emerging to strengthen justice and sustainability.

Suggested themes include

Contributions may focus on one or more of the following areas:

• Detection and Monitoring: Use of AI, geospatial tools, and OSINT to detect and document environmental crimes and ecosystem damage.

• Traceability and Supply Chains: Digital systems to track commodity flows, prevent fraud and commingling, and integrate anti-corruption safeguards.

• Financial Crime and Corruption: Tools to follow illicit financial flows, strengthen transparency, and connect environmental evidence with AML and asset recovery processes.

• Evidence and Litigation: Protocols for lawful collection, chain of custody, and translating scientific data into court-ready cases and innovative remedies.

• Cross-Border Cooperation: Platforms for international data sharing among customs, law enforcement, and NGOs, and standardized legal/technical frameworks to overcome jurisdictional gaps.

• Climate and Biodiversity Nexus: Technologies to monitor deforestation, habitat destruction, and loss and damage, with links to human rights and sustainable development.

• Security Links: Intersections with organized crime, cybercrime, and conflict financing.

• Community-led Practices and Ethics: Participatory documentation, defender protection, culturally sensitive approaches, and accessible, low-cost solutions.

• Safeguards and Risks: Addressing data integrity, privacy, and security concerns while mitigating bias, disinformation, and misuse of technology.

• Capacity-building and Institutional Innovation: Training, specialized courts, and interdisciplinary networks to bridge legal, technological, and scientific expertise.

Submission Guidelines

• Length: maximum 8,000 characters (including spaces)

• Abstract: maximum 200 words

• Short biography: maximum 100 words

• Language: English

• Deadline: 30 November 2025

• Editorial standards: United Nations Editorial Manual

All submissions will be reviewed by the Freedom From Fear editorial board. Selection will be based on relevance, originality, and editorial balance.

Output
The special issue will be published online as open access in Freedom From Fear in early 2026. Selected contributions will also be highlighted during a virtual launch event with policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.

We encourage contributions from experts, practitioners, and researchers across all sectors. Your perspective matters - help shape the global conversation on technology and environmental crime.

For submissions or inquiries, please contact unicri.publicinfo(at)un.org, with "Proposed article for F3 Magazine - Environmental Crimes" in the subject line.