„Green criminology” – a question about transnational environmental crime in Poland

The purpose of this article is to introduce the achievements of green criminology in the context of combating transnational environmental crime. In addition, the Polish scientific contribution to the development of this new sub-discipline of criminology was highlighted by illustrating the main directions of research on transnational environmental crime. Then the tasks of the National Revenue Administration in the context of detecting and combating transnational crime against the environment were presented. Selected representative elements of the above phenomenon were also illustrated, such as crime related to illegal mining and smuggling of amber, illegal transportation of waste, illegal trade in endangered plants and animals (CITES), and illegal export or import of cultural monuments. The conclusions point out that environmental crime poses an increasingly significant threat to both the environment and the financial interests of the State Treasury. The authors note that environmental crime is more and more often taking on the character of economic crime. Given the above, it is necessary both for efficient operation of services in this area (the role of law enforcement agencies) and continuous monitoring of the problem from a scientific perspective (the role of green criminology).