Harms and the illegal wildlife trade: political ecology, green criminology and the European eel

This paper integrates political ecology and green criminology to examine the critical endangerment of the European eel. Using a harms based approach our research suggests that the identification of organised crime networks as the central perpetrators of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and of IWT itself as the main threat to eels, neglects a myriad of practices—many of which are related to legal businesses and activities—that significantly contribute to the endangerment of the species. We suggest that, in order to better protect the European eel, we need more holistic conservation measures that go beyond a focus on fisheries and IWT.