TNRC Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum

Environmental corruption is a systemic problem costing trillions of dollars, affecting the lives and livelihoods of billions of people, and the future of our planet. Given the scale and cross-cutting nature of this threat, conservation and governance practitioners need to work together even more closely and more frequently than we are now.

This workshop highlights the devastating impact of corruption on the environment and emphasizes the need to place corruption, transparency, and integrity at the center of global agendas and investments aimed at safeguarding natural resources. This session took place during the 20th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) held in Washington, D.C. from 6-10 December 2022.

While there are excellent and well-established fora dedicated to policy and advocacy work, only a handful of projects are currently working on countering corruption at the source. This Forum is distinct in two important ways. First, it focuses on expanding practice. Second, the community centers on issues of corruption, with core working groups.

Land corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain in land administration and management. Meetings of this working group are chaired by staff from Transparency International (TI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and are open to any professional in the Countering Environmental Crime Practitioners Forum who seeks to target land corruption.

This workshop focused on the importance of discussing land grabbing and corruption, how it's negatively impacting people and the environment, and potential solutions. This session took place during the 20th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) held in Washington, D.C. from 6-10 December 2022.

Follow-the-money is the process of tracing financial transactions to find the source of illegal activity. Meetings of this working group are led by the Basel Institute on Governance and are open to any professional in the Countering Environmental Crime Practitioners Forum who is working (or aspiring) to target financial and environmental crimes.

In this session, panelists explain the usefulness and their experiences in embedding financial investigation techniques to uncover criminal networks and prevent them from using illicit funds to further criminal activity. This session took place during the 20th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) held in Washington, D.C. from 6-10 December 2022.

Corruption harms the environment and is a major driver of the climate crisis. The cost of responding to it, adapting to and mitigating the worst effects of global heating, will be immense. These huge financial investments create tempting opportunities for corruption. Meetings of this working group are chaired by Transparency International (TI) with support from the Green Climate Fund and are open to any professional in the Countering Environmental Crime Practitioners Forum who seeks to target corruption linked to climate finance.

Corruption undermines conservation outcomes. To address the detrimental effects of corruption, a wealth of data from governments, companies, and citizens is being made available that can be leveraged to monitor environmental data and uncover illicit and corrupt behavior. Open data analysis provides an efficient and cost-effective method for identifying potential corruption risks and actors. Meetings of this working group are chaired by TRAFFIC and are open to all professionals in the Countering Environmental Crime Practitioners Forum who are interested in learning about new data mining tools and open data sources to identify red flags of corruption within the conservation space.

This LinkedIn group is a dedicated space for the members to promote practices, share experiences, and learn from each other. The group is open to professionals from diverse backgrounds, including government, civil society, academia, and the private sector, committed to addressing environmental corruption and promoting sustainable development. Subscription to the forum is required to join this group.