Episode: Rangers at the frontline of corruption and anti-corruption
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The Corruption Tapes is a podcast series led by TNRC consortium partner the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre that invites researchers and practitioners to a conversation about some of the most pressing anti-corruption issues in the world of biodiversity and conservation. In this first episode, Aled Williams (U4-CMI) is joined by Anwesha Dutta (CMI), Rob Parry Jones (WWF) and Rohit Singh (WWF) to discuss forest rangers’ working conditions at the frontline of conservation, and the pressures they can face to conform to the ‘corrupt rules of the game’.
Forest rangers are frontline workers in efforts to protect forests from illegal logging and often irreparable damage. Far from being able to count on everyone’s support, however, they can find themselves caught between demands from authorities, expectations from local communities, and criminal networks involved in illegal trade. This environment can create pressures to engage in corrupt actions, but rangers can also be part of the solution.
In this podcast, experts discuss new research on the working conditions and relationships of rangers and how this can affect their role. Shifting the focus to the overarching systems that facilitate and sometimes even encourage corruption in conservation can help illuminate new solutions. Some of the most crucial questions to ask are which measures can be put in place to prevent corruption risks, and what support mechanisms can be established to make sure that rangers have more favorable working conditions and can safely report corruption?
Listen to the podcast above, or you can read more from U4 here.
This content is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or individual TNRC consortium members.