“ITALY LEADS ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES’ FIGHT” LEGAMBIENTE’ S REPORT

In 2016 we spotted and notified 143 environmental crimes’ cases, 13 environmental disasters’, 6 obstacle control’s, 5 unintentional crimes against environment, 3 failed recovery’s and 3 death or injuries’ aggravating as environmental crimes’ consequence. The Region with the environmental notified crimes’ highest number is Campania (70), Sardegna reported (126). Puglia has the arrests’ record (14), Calabria, instead, requisitions’ one (43).

This is the evaluation included in Legambiente’s dossier outlined two years after 68/2015 environmental crimes law’s approval, the measure including environmental crimes in the Penal Code, showed today in Roma during the conference: “Law about environmental crimes. Application’s outcomes and perspectives of a civility’s reform to safeguard ambient, health and honest companies”.

Environmental crimes law “Inflicted more bangs to criminal organizations’ interests than the participation about political mafia’s rigged game, we’ve been talking about for weeks”, commented Minister of Justice Andrea Orlando. The theme is “antique” as underlined by On. Ermete Realacci, House of the Representative Environment Committee’s President: “We talked about this already twenty years ago, but the one who talked about was considered ‘dorky’. Whether who reported, or talked, or investigated”. ”Terra dei fuochi, Ilva, Eternit. Only few agonizing current events determining in these years a strong public opinion and policy’ attention upon a problem to deal with utmost urgency”, underlined in return Senate’s President Petro Grasso”. N. 68 law’s approval “represented a very important break”.

Today, instead, Italy is “environmental crimes fight’s leader, and it’s the first longer chain’s ring, to be built with ambient supervisions’ increasing’ target to safeguard ambient, health and honest companies”, stated Legambiente’s General Director Stefano Ciafani.

Law fosters sharp work on many deals: malfunctioning purifiers’ requisition, illegal waste traffic (first environmental crime inserted in Italian law approved in 2001), previous pollution and recovery’s lack, illegal fishing (in Taranto), unbleached industrial drains’ (Chieti), resulting materials’ unlawful extraction from mines o rivers. Specifically, we had 133 confiscated assets for about 15 euro millions’ value and fines reached 574 environmental crimes – more than one and a half each day – of which 173 concerned specifically the latest crimes (30% of total).

This work doesn’t stop here: “Unfortunately there are many deals still opened, I’m talking about illegal urbanization and territory’s overbuilding, connected phenomenon with hydro geological risk”, underlined Legambiente’s President, Rossella Muroni. Legambiente highlights deploying new actions’ requirements to make more sharp repressive and preventive environmental crimes law’s action: for example, a training’ operation for all the sector’s operators, a nationwide guidelines’ definition to guarantee an uniform law’s application and an only nationwide mode to make fines merging to be paid by the ones making the lesser ticket crimes according to environmental Code’ Sixth bis part. Furthermore, the environmental organization remembers reminds that we have still to ratify the bill about crimes against protected animals and plants and to complete definition’s practice about implementation decrees to make the 132/2016 law operational, reforming environmental protection’s Agencies’ national system.