ABSTRACT

This brief report first identifies mercury pollution as a serious and growing threat to global environmental security and the health of the community of life. It then details this threat in the biologically important Guiana Shield ecoregion located in the North East Amazon, bordering the Caribbean, where it is caused by wide-spread informal gold mining. Therefore, the European Union’s relevent legal arrangements, lacunae and dilemmas are summarised, also from a criminal law perspective and, finally, conclusions and policy implications for the EU are suggested.