Earth Observation against Environmental Crimes: Report Launch

The event will be an opportunity to present the new IAI report on the use of new technologies to combat and monitor environmental crimes, titled “Earth Observation against Environmental Crimes: A Review of Users and Usages Worldwide”. The event and the report mark the concluding milestone of a project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 2024.

The report analyses the current state of the use of Earth Observation (EO) in tackling environmental crimes, taking a global perspective that covers all the main sectors involved, in particular forestry crimes, illegal mining, pollution and illicit waste trafficking. The study examines global and regional trends in both environmental crimes and the availability and use of satellite data, analysing the key factors driving the adoption of space-based solutions as well as the main obstacles these applications face. The project comprises a general analysis, a sector-specific analysis and ten case studies.

The event will open with remarks from IAI President Michele Valensise and Pierre Potin, Head of the Copernicus Space Office. Lorenzo Colantoni, Senior Researcher at IAI and lead researcher of the project, and Pietro Rinaldi, Research Fellow at IAI, will then present the main findings of the report. A panel discussion will follow, bringing together a range of stakeholders who will offer an important global and diverse perspective on the topic: participants will include representatives from the European Commission, from IBAMA (Brazil’s federal environmental protection agency), the director of Guardian Forestal (a Mexican NGO) and the director of Costa Rica’s national Earth Observation centre.