Introduction: Enforcing Ecological Destruction

Abstract

Across the world, ecological destruction, or ecocide, is enforced, protected, and facilitated by police, military, private security, and mercenary forces, often against militant resistance by local communities. Yet, the impacts of policing on ecologies and nonhumans are rarely discussed, if not entirely ignored. This introduction to Enforcing Ecocide explores how policing forces are driving ecological and climate catastrophe. We discuss policing, scientific violence, extractivism, and ecocide, contending that policing forces generate multiple forms of ecological harm, culminating in climate catastrophe and mass extinction. After providing a brief exploration of the critical literature on policing, we interrogate the relationship between colonialism, counterinsurgency, and policing, and how they are linked to socio-ecological degradation. Lastly, we introduce the ten chapters that follow this introduction. The authors provide unique and novel case studies in a range of countries and habitats across the world, examining the technologies, relationships, political ecologies, and socio-ecologically destructive effects of policing forces. Taking these findings seriously, we conclude by cautioning against the repackaging of violence and ecological degradation as “green” and “environmentally friendly”.