Page 75 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

Roberto Pennisi
Deputy Procurator Anti-Mafia and Counter-Terrorism National Bureau

Good evening everyone! Obviously I join all those who have expressed
their appreciation for this event and for the Carabinieri Corps and the State
Forestry Department. I know that each one of us has very few minutes availa-
ble, so I will take away a few seconds from these few minutes, but I will do it
with great pleasure because these few seconds may help to depict a reality that
not even hours of words could illustrate. These few seconds are meant to
remember a woman, an indigenous Peruvian called Maxima Acugna, who has
been the recipient of our most prestigious international award relating to the
environment. What did this woman do to deserve this award? She placed her-
self, the tiny body of a Peruvian woman, in defence of her small piece of land
against a powerful multinational that wanted to purchase or anyway take pos-
session of that land to exploit it for industrial purposes.

This is the scenario – beyond a thousand words – facing those who want
to confront the issue of the protection of the environment. The huge struggle
by those who want to defend the environment, i.e. nature, therefore health,
against those who intend to get round this issue for financial-economic reasons.
Surely someone will say: how many jobs did Maxima Acugna’s action cost?
How many people could have had jobs if that land had been used for certain
purposes? It’s true, but in life we have choices to make and sometimes it must
be understood that there are irreconcilable interests if everyone wants to take
them to the extreme. Mediations can be found, but not to the disadvantage of
fundamental rights, which are constitutional rights. I use the term ‘constitutio-
nal’ in its strict sense, inasmuch safeguarding the environment, thanks to the
conjunction between articles 9 and 32 of our Constitution, is a fundamental
principle of our Constitution, as well as freedom, as well as all the other rights
and principles upon which our system is based.

Thanks to the intervention from the representative of the European
Commission, before the interval, I have learned that European citizens give
pride of place to the protection of the environment, compared to so many
other very important issues like the economy and employment.

73