Original Research

This Brief presents evidence from field research on whether, and under which conditions, payment for forest environmental services (PFES) e-payments help to reduce the potential for corruption in benefit distribution. Since 2018, an electronic payment mechanism for PFES has been introduced by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Vietnam Forest and Delta Program (VFD Phase 2) to tackle the risks associated with cash. The introduction of forest sector e-payments has been viewed as promising in theory--it is more efficient, secure, and transparent than cash, reducing costs and streamlining payments. The goal is to contribute to the further improvement of PFES management and sustainability in Vietnam and to examine current issues challenging the success of the PFES e–payment system.

Policies and strategies implemented to combat illegal logging in Peru appear to have had limited success. This paper explores the topic of corruption as a facilitator of deforestation in Peru and argues that addressing it requires an understanding of the role of political and informal power arrangements that shape individual and collective behaviors. In addition, it emphasizes that forest governance outcomes can only be strengthened by considering the networks, actors, powers, and interests that interact with wider conditions.

This practice note summarizes the value added and key insights of using two analytical approaches, political economy analysis and corruption risk assessment, to help natural resource management and conservation practitioners understand corruption risks in specific contexts and design and implement mitigation measures. These techniques take prevailing political and power dynamics into account and help identify windows of opportunity for addressing corruption risks and highlight strategically important stakeholders that may support or oppose the intervention.

In this TNRC Learning Series webinar, hosted by the Basel Institute on Governance, the authors of the TNRC Practice Note How political economy analysis can support corruption risk assessments to strengthen law enforcement against wildlife crimes share insights on the utility and implementation of political economy analysis (PEA) to inform corruption risk assessments that strengthen law enforcement against wildlife crime. Their experience is a resource for practitioners who seek to incorporate corruption risk assessment into their programming to combat wildlife crime.

This note has a dual focus. First, it summarizes experiences and lessons from conducting CRAs with authorities responsible for investigations and prosecutions of IWT cases in three countries in Africa and Latin America. It seeks to demonstrate the value of adopting a collaborative approach to CRAs, illustrates potential avenues for pursuing such an approach when the right factors are in place, and demonstrates how mapping the criminal justice process provides a solid starting point to identify critical vulnerabilities. Second, this note highlights some common risks that emerged from the CRAs in the three countries and that may negatively affect the progress of IWT cases in other countries.

This brief highlights the importance and potential of robust internal controls in helping achieve the objectives of agencies tasked with protecting wildlife and the environment by identifying performance gaps and opportunities for improvement, enabling oversight, and fostering accountability. However, in some countries, internal controls are not always applied to wildlife-related corruption or even natural resource management. Conservation or anti-corruption partners can help government institutions strengthen their systems of internal controls, building on procedures already in place. Well-designed systems of internal controls can discourage corrupt behavior and mitigate other risks to wildlife and natural resources. While no system can completely eliminate the potential for corrupt behavior, enhancing internal controls can help close the implementation gap between agency objectives and what happens in practice.

In this TNRC Learning Series webinar, hosted by the Basel Institute on Governance, the authors of the TNRC Topic Brief Internal controls and illegal wildlife trade: A systemic approach to corruption prevention and law enforcement integrity join leading experts to discuss how the use of internal controls may help prevent the corruption that often accompanies illegal wildlife trade and natural resource crimes. The speakers describe the results of a three-country pilot study and addressed learning questions related to: a) how assessments of internal control systems can help practitioners achieve objectives; b) the current state of natural resource management (NRM) internal controls as observed in the study; and c) implications for future NRM programming and recommendations for the future.

This series of four guides offers practical guidance on the potential applications of behavioral science to enhance anti-corruption and conservation efforts. The first guide provides an introduction to behavioral science for addressing corruption's impact on the environment. The second guide offers insights into how red tape, a common issue generating corruption risks in the fisheries sector and beyond, can be tackled. The third guide explores the topic of collusive corruption and how it can be addressed using a social norms and behavior change approach. Finally, the fourth guide discusses the challenge of corruption affecting front-line wildlife defenders and possible anti-corruption approaches.

These two-part resource guides introduce some foundational principles and common considerations for research into conservation-focused anti-corruption actions. They encourage conservation practitioners to consider their strategic interventions when addressing corruption and to question whether opting for social norm and behavior change (SNBC) approaches or "structural" amendments is the best intervention.

How can big data help address corruption in the forestry sector? New research undertaken by data analysts and financial flows experts at TRAFFIC and the Basel Institute on Governance under the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption project is testing new methods for automating data collection and analysis techniques used in other sectors to identify corrupt actors from the point of allocation of forest access rights. This blog post captures expert insights and responses to practitioner questions raised in a TNRC Learning Series Webinar on this topic.

Under the TNRC project, TRAFFIC is exploring whether big data techniques can be used to identify corruption occurring in the timber sector, specifically at the point where government agencies allocate companies the rights to harvest resources. The data flow model outlined in this blog post offers a ‘preview’ of further insights shared in a TNRC Learning Series Webinar in 2022.