Monica Pons Hernandez

📣 3 post doc roles on GreenFrontier @erc.europa.eu project - fantastic opportunities to work on an exciting project on socio-ecological relations in Italy, Spain & Poland. And best of all, a chance to work with @georgeiorda.bsky.social as team lead #PoliticalEcology #Conservation ⬇️

Postdoc GreenFrontier - Politics of Conservation and Unequal Ecological Exchange in European Peripheries' - the case of Spain

Details on the position with Spanish are here www.wur.nl/nl/vacature/...

🚨 We are looking for 3 new colleagues to join the GreenFrontier team as Postdoctoral Researchers!

Deadline for applications: 25 Nov 2025

Each of the 3 openings will involve extended ethnographic fieldwork + plenty of opportunities to consolidate research & leadership skills!

Please share widely!

Plastic waste trafficking in Spain: examining the actors, routes, and crimes involved - Trends in Organized Crime The management of plastic waste represents a significant global environmental challenge due to excessive reliance on plastics and the limitations of recycling. The inability of countries and cities to...

📣Publication alert!

“Plastic waste trafficking in Spain: examining the actors, routes, and crimes involved”

Available OA here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I am thilled I got to contribute to this story! A must read by @alexandratalty.bsky.social !!

GREEN Newsletter 2(2)

🍂 Just like autumn, the new issue of the GREEN Working Group newsletter has arrived! 🍁

This edition is packed with updates and insights!

Whether you're deep into #greencriminology or just curious about the latest developments, this issue has something for you.

🔗 www.uu.nl/en/research/...

“Internal Souths” in the Global North Much of the research on wildlife trafficking often centres on countries in the Global South, which are frequently rich in biodiversity. Such research frames these countries as the primary sources of t...

Happy to share that a chapter I wrote with Avi Brisman is out! Here we challenge the conventional North-South narrative in wildlife trafficking research by employing the idea of “internal Souths” within affluent countries.

Read the full chapter here: link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...

Bottom trawling to continue in English protected waters, government rules Defra says blanket ban on ‘destructive’ fishing practice disproportionate as MPs urge minister to reconsider

Have they not seen Attenborough’s latest documentary??

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The Paradox of Saving Fish by Eating them: Food Crime at the Intersection of Green Criminology and Political Ecology - European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Aquaculture is framed as a key contributor to global food security and sustainable food production. Yet, in its industrial form, it involves several harmful practices that negatively impact food secur...

Working on a report on aquaculture, focused on salmon farming.

Study frames this, rightly, as "food crime", which reveals "how practices that are presented as ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ can entail systemic environmental & social injustices"

@theferret.scot

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Thank you so much, Rosaleen! 🤩

Really important article examining #harms from @monicapons.bsky.social & @guillemrubio.bsky.social comparing #AtlanticSalmon & #EuropeanEel in #Aquaculture. The narrative of ecological sustainability & reduced pressure on ‘wild’ fish needs a fundamental rethink #PoliticalEcology #GreenCriminology ⬇️

Thank you, Hannah! Your work has been really inspiring!! 🤩

Love the abstract of this paper. Congratulations, Monica!

Thank you so much! It means a lot!

The Paradox of Saving Fish by Eating them: Food Crime at the Intersection of Green Criminology and Political Ecology - European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Aquaculture is framed as a key contributor to global food security and sustainable food production. Yet, in its industrial form, it involves several harmful practices that negatively impact food secur...

"The Paradox of Saving Fish by Eating Them: Food Crime at the Intersection of Green Criminology and Political Ecology" is out!

I’m thrilled I got to work with the lovely @guillemrubio.bsky.social—I genuinely enjoyed and had fun working on the manuscript together 🧡
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New paper on harms-based political ecology - Beastly Business Our team members Alison Hutchinson, Rosaleen Duffy, George Iordachescu and Teresa Lappe-Osthege developed an idea of bringing together debates on harms from green criminology with political ecology co...

1/ 📄New paper! Alison Hutchinson @georgeiorda.bsky.social Teresa Lappe-Osthege & myself have developed a new harms-based #PoliticalEcology as a way of understanding the #WildlifeTrade published in @jpoliticalecology.bsky.social ⬇️
beastlybusiness.org/2025/07/23/n...

Join us in Athens for this year’s GREEN Working Group Pre-ESC event "Environmental crime, policing & social control"🌎

Excellent piece on #GlassEel trade in @mongabay.com - and as ever @monicapons.bsky.social is absolutely spot on. Eel consumption always relies on wild caught fish, & the valuable trade attracts criminal networks #IWT #WildlifeTrade #EuropeanEel #EnvironmentalCrime

Glass eel smuggling booms despite bans, leaving species on the brink Tiny, translucent and no longer than a finger, juvenile European eels, also known as glass eels, might not look like much. But demand for these slippery creatures, particularly in East Asia, has made ...

I recently contributed to a Mongabay article on the illegal glass eel trade—a critical issue for environmental crime research.
Thank you, Keith Anthony Fabro, for giving me the chance to share insights on this topic and engaging with my work.

📖 Read it here: 
news.mongabay.com/2025/06/glas...

I've just watched Attenborough's Oceans film. It's excellent. But my overwhelming feeling is "at last!" I've been waiting, and fruitlessly lobbying, for a film like this for 40 years. But the institutional cowardice of the broadcasters has stymied such projects, until now.

Animals that feed nations and nations that feed animals: industrially farmed pigs as nation-building resources in Catalonia This paper examines industrially farmed pigs in Catalonia, a stateless nation within Spain and a major pig meat producer, to expand existing understan…

My first paper from my PhD is out! In it, I argue that viewing pigs as both resources (that feed) and as more-than-resources (to be fed) is crucial for understanding how nonhuman animals make nations and how, in turn, nations make nonhuman animals.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Norway rules out fish farm ban despite ‘existential threat’ to wild salmon Open-net farms to continue despite numbers of wild fish halving as minister looks for ‘acceptable’ pollution levels

Norway rules out fish farm ban despite ‘existential threat’ to wild salmon www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Marc Balcells, criminólogo: “Los ladrones de tumbas trabajan y por la noche van a excavar” Jan Téllez Asensio Barcelona, 9 mar (EFE).- Tras una investigación sobre el tráfico de bienes arqueológicos italianos, el criminólogo Marc Balcells narra en un libro quié...

Marc Balcells, criminólogo: “Los ladrones de tumbas trabajan y por la noche van a excavar” www.lavanguardia.com/vida/2025030...

Exciting news! I’ve been awarded the Extraordinary PhD Award by URV for my thesis on “Wildlife trafficking, speciesism & the European eel”. Grateful to my mentors, colleagues & loved ones for the support! Excited to continue researching marine wildlife harm at UiB! 🐋✨

Excited to contribute to The Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Crime, with an entry on IUU Fishing! 🌊

A huge thanks to the editor, Prof. Rob White, for leading this important project. I’m thrilled to be part of this work and to share the space with amazing senior and early-career scholars.

I am!! Thank you so much! ❤️

Thank you!!

Excited to start my MSCA #SEAS Postdoctoral Fellowship at the @unibergen.bsky.social! Looking forward to new research and collaborations in this inspiring environment!

Sweet moment of celebration at @w-u-r.bsky.social as both my dear friend Emmanuel Adu-Ampong and I are launching our #ERC Starting Grant projects! Keep an eye out for #GreenFrontier & #Frictions research!

Using crime script analysis to unveil illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing of European eels The exploitation of European eels, driven by the global demand for eel meat, is contributing significantly to the declining populations of the species…

I'm thrilled to share that the paper I coauthored with the brilliant Dr Gohar Petrossian is now available in Marine Policy!

Read the full paper here:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X24005694