TNRC Event Commodity supply chain traceability initiatives and their anti-corruption potential

TNRC Learning Series
Anti-corruption insights for conservation and natural resource management

Commodity supply chain traceability initiatives and their anti-corruption potential

About the event

Traceability initiatives focused on resource commodity supply chains are sometimes assumed to have anti-corruption effects given their focus on improved transparency and accountability. However, there are many reasons why existing initiatives may not lead to reduced corruption. Join us for a Learning Series Webinar that will highlight these issues and suggest ways for these types of initiatives to improve and strengthen their anti-corruption potential.

Learning questions

1. Which forms of corruption and associated crimes in the wildlife, timber and/or seafood sectors could traceability systems address, and which forms might they not?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of traceability systems at their current stage of evolution, and what are their major limitations for addressing corruption?
3. How could traceability systems, and supporting approaches, mature to better accomplish anti-corruption objectives?
4. What actions could NRM practitioners and others take to help traceability initiatives become more effective as anti-corruption tools in the future?

About the speakers

Achiba Gargule, Senior Advisor, U4-CMI and Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (Presenter):
Achiba Gargule is a human geographer focusing on natural resources governance, specialising in development policy, land-rights inequities, and frontier transformations. Before joining U4, he worked for various organisations in the East African region, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Oxfam GB, ACDIVOCA, and the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) – a regional economic bloc established by ten northern Kenya counties. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography and Sustainable Development from the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern in Switzerland. His dissertation discusses representations of pastoral societies in northern Kenya and the different dynamics in how the state and its network of powerful actors adopt, promote, and recast disruptions in the pastoralism system through ‘new visions’ and reforms expected to deliver growth and advancements. He has published on community land reform and the threats of large-scale land acquisitions for communal land rights and advised governments and international organisations on these subjects.
 

David Gehl, Traceability and Technologies, Environmental Investigation Agency, US (Panelist):
David is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to further the development of policies and technologies to bring transparency and traceability to halt illegal logging and associated trade. In addition, he manages EIA-US’s Forest Team’s work in Eastern Europe. Since joining EIA in 2011, David has coordinated investigative work around the world on illegal logging and HFCs, gathering, analyzing, and processing evidence and drafting and presenting policy recommendations for multiple audiences. David holds Master’s degrees in environmental policy and environmental science from Indiana University.
 

Jason Grant, Manager, Corporate Engagement, Forests, World Wildlife Fund (Panelist):
For 25 years, Jason Grant has been a leader in the sustainable forestry and green building movements. As a manager within WWF’s forest team, he works with major companies on responsible wood sourcing policies and practices, and also leads for WWF US on forest certification and forest legality. For a decade prior to joining WWF, he was an independent consultant and worked with companies and NGOs on policy, advocacy, marketing, training and compliance. A LEED AP BD+C, Jason is recognized as an expert in ecological forest products and their role in green building. Early in his career, he co-founded EcoTimber, one of the first companies in the world to bring to market products from forests certified to the stringent environmental and social standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
 

Aled Williams, Senior Advisor, U4-CMI and Research Coordinator, Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (Moderator):
Aled Williams is Senior Program Advisor at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre. Aled focuses on the uneven politics of natural resource-driven development, with a particular interest in issues of corruption, access, legitimation and control. He has a country focus on Indonesia and experience from assignments in Albania, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Macedonia, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam, and Zambia. He is co-editor of the books: "Corruption, Grabbing and Development: Real World Challenges" and "Corruption, Natural Resources and Development: From Resource Curse to Political Ecology" He was previously Senior Research Coordinator at the global anti-graft NGO Transparency International based in Berlin. He is currently Research Coordinator for the five-year USAID-funded project Targeting Natural Resource Corruption, working with consortium partners WWF-US, George Mason University and TRAFFIC.