Hungry for More: Examining How Cultures of Increasing Demand Drive the Decline of the European Eel
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Newcastle University
United Kingdom -
KU Leuven Belgium
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University Rovira i Virgili Spain
Abstract
European eels have attracted considerable interest in recent years, amidst growing illegal markets and plummeting wild populations. While the shifting dynamics between legal and illegal trade are of clear interest to criminologists, little attention has been paid to the confluence of the legal – yet still harmful – activities that threaten the species. To address this gap, we build on a green criminological position and draw together research from across France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom to shine a light on the drivers of demand that shape harms towards the species. We examine both direct drivers of demand, for example, fisheries and globalised food networks; and indirect drivers of demand for “natural resources” such as energy, water and land. By framing demand as a source and driver of harms, we reveal how cultures of demand, particularly in the Global North, are both blind to and disconnected from the harms they produce.
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Author Biographies
Alison Hutchinson is a postdoctoral Research Associate at Newcastle University (UK). She is a green criminologist specialising in wildlife crime and harms. Much of her research focuses on the motivations underpinning wildlife exploitation, the visibility of wildlife victims, and legislative responses to wildlife crime. Her research interests include pathways to justice, intersections between legal and illegal green crimes, animal rights, and visual and narrative approaches to social research.
Aitor Ibáñez Alonso is a PhD researcher at KU Leuven (Belgium), specialising in Green and Global Criminology. He has experience researching different illegal wildlife trade and organised crime phenomena such as the illegal trade in European eels, and the involvement of organised crime in Mexico in the illegal trade in totoaba maw. In 2022, he obtained the PhD fellowship fundamental research of the Scientific Research Fund - Flanders (FWO) for his research project titled “the wildlife crimes and harms behind pandemics: A green criminological exploration of the trade and trafficking in high-risk wild mammals for zoonotic EIDs transmission in Vietnam”.
Monica Pons-Hernandez is a PhD candidate at the University Rovira i Virgili (Spain). Before that, she worked as a Research Assistant at Northumbria University (UK), researching green criminology and illegal markets. Monica holds a BSc in Criminology from the University of Barcelona and an MSc in Transnational Crime, Justice and Security from the University of Glasgow. In 2022, she received the Young Researcher Award from the Spanish Society of Criminological Research (SEIC) and, in 2023, the Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Society of Criminology, Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice and the Student Paper Award from the American Society of Criminology, Division of International Criminology.