SANDSTORIES.ORG
A organização SandStories.org, com
sede em Londres, coordenada por Kiran Pereira, autora do livro “Sand Stories:
Surprising Truths about the Global Sand Crisis and the Quest for Sustainable
Solutions”, é reconhecida em muitos países da Europa por trabalhar para criar
consciência sobre a necessidade urgente de gerenciar o consumo de areia como
recurso, com o objetivo de preencher a lacuna entre ciência, política e
indústria, identificando e promovendo soluções potenciais para a iminente crise
da areia.
Em seu site https://www.sandstories.org/, foi publicado em 29/10/2021 o artigo de minha autoria “The global estimated value of illegal sand extraction” https://www.sandstories.org/stories/estimated-annual-value-illegal-sand-extraction-lfr onde faço a divulgação do artigo que foi publicado na Revista Brasileira de Ciências Policiais RBCP-ANP, em setembro de 2021, “A EXTRAÇÃO ILEGAL DE AREIA: o faturamento no Brasil e no mundo” https://periodicos.pf.gov.br/index.php/RBCP/article/view/809.
Luis Fernando Ramadon is a Federal
Police Specialist in Brazil. He has a Master’s degree in Management and
Regulation of Water Resources – (PROFÁGUA/UERJ) and a Postgraduate degree in
Environmental Law
More information available at http://lattes.cnpq.br/5094490404365005
Mining is an economic activity that aims to extract
non-renewable natural resources. As you know, the activity is highly impactful,
and it radically changes the environment in which it is established. However,
it supplies raw materials to all other sectors of the economy and the
foundations for its development are the public interest and public utility.
There is no society without mining and that is why the sector
seeks to obtain sustainable solutions for its development. Of all the mining
activities, one of the most harmful is the extraction of sand. Sand mining in
rivers and lakes causes the occurrence of pollution and it also causes changes
in watercourses, increased siltation, soil erosion and destruction of
conservation areas.
The problem has become so serious that in March 2014, the
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) published the study ‘Sand, rarer than
you think - Sand, rarer than one thinks’, presenting sand extraction as a
problem to be faced, as it represents the largest volume of solid material
exploited globally.
I completed a Professional Master’s Degree in Water Resources
Management and Regulation at the State University of Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
(PROFÁGUA-UERJ) between 2018 and 2020. The topic of my dissertation was the
estimated value of illegal sand extraction. In September 2021, the article
‘ILLEGAL SAND EXTRACTION: revenue in Brazil and in the world’ about this study
was published in the journal ‘Revista Brasileira de Ciências Policiais’, of the
National Police Academy.
My study on the global estimated value of illegal sand extraction
found that it ranged between US$199.88 billion and US$ 349.98 billion each
year. These vast sums seemed to be on par with other global crimes and it
allowed for a direct comparison with the ranking produced by Global Financial
Integrity (GFI), which is a non-profit advisory organization that produces
high-quality analysis of illicit financial flows across the planet.
GFI, in 2017, produced its second-ranking of top global
crimes, launching the Transnational Crime and the Developing World report, with
the objective of evaluating the general size of the criminal markets and the
turnover of transnational crimes distributed in twelve categories: drugs, human
beings, wildlife, pirated goods, fraud and counterfeit coins, human organs,
small arms, diamonds and other gems, oil, timber, fish, art and cultural goods,
and gold.
The data on environmental crimes mentioned in the GFI report
was based on a UNEP-INTERPOL rapid response assessment report titled ‘The Rise
of Environmental Crime – A Growing Threat To Natural Resources Peace,
Development And Security’. However, both the studies on illegal trade and
mining of minerals only consider the extraction of gold, diamond and of
precious stones, and do not include the illegal extraction of sand. Thus,
observing the data from the UNEP-INTERPOL Report: The Rise of Environmental
Crime, the GFI table was updated and adapted by inserting the values calculated
in my studies of global illegal sand extraction.
The
result of this juxtaposition places the crime of illegal sand extraction, among
the top three with the highest Estimated Annual Value in the world, with values
between US $ 199.98 billion and US $ 349.98 billion. The most valuable illicit
trade was the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, estimated at a value of
US$923 billion to $1.13 trillion annually. In second place is Drug Trafficking,
estimated to be worth between US $ 426 billion and US $ 652 billion annually.
Further
Resources:
Masters
dissertation: http://www.accamtas.com.br/p/recursos-hidricos-e-mineracao-um-estudo.html
Article
in the Brazilian Journal of Police Sciences
https://periodicos.pf.gov.br/index.php/RBCP/article/view/809
http://www.accamtas.com.br/p/extracao-ilegal-de-areia-revista.html
#sandmining #sand crisis #transnational
crime #estimated
annual value #Threat
to water and food security #Brazil #River Sand
MiningI
#llegal sand mining #biodiversityloss
