TNRC Event Virtual Panel: Corruption in the Environment: New Perspectives

Image representing TNRC's four focus areas: wildlife, fisheries, forests, and finance

Targeting Natural Resource Corruption

Harnessing knowledge, generating evidence, and supporting innovative policy and practice for more effective anti-corruption programming

Virtual Panel:
Corruption in the Environment: New Perspectives

Thursday
March 25, 2021

Time
10:00am - 11:30am Washington, DC
2:00pm - 3:30pm Cambridge, UK
5:00pm - 6:30pm Nairobi, Kenya
9:00pm - 10:30pm Bangkok, Thailand

Where
Remote Only

Watch the Recording

© Daniel Martínez / WWF-Peru

About the event

Covid-19 is the result of zoonotic transmission, an ongoing threat as habitats are increasingly destroyed or encroached upon. The pandemic compounds the urgency for managing natural resources wisely as the globe builds back, already a critical issue in light of global climate change. Corruption undermines every aspect of wise management, and an expanded and informed constituency for addressing corruption’s impact on the environment is needed. This panel will present new research on the dynamics of corruption in natural resource management and new perspectives on the challenges of integrating effective response to corruption into the stewardship of our remaining natural resources. Panelists will discuss the impact of high-value resources and political interest on community-based natural resource management efforts in Madagascar; the effect of informal networks and norms on environmental management regimes in Peru; and challenges and opportunities building common ground across conservation and anti-corruption, with a focus on terminology, priorities, and alliances.

This event is part of the Knowledge Partner Sessions of the virtual 2021 OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum.

About the speakers

Headshot of Camila Gianella


Camila Gianella, Researcher, CMI
Camila Gianella. Received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Bergen. She holds a Msc from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and a degree on psychology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where she is currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Social Sciences Research CISEPA and assistant professor at the faculty of psychology. She is also a researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and global fellow at the Centre on Law and Social Transformation, Bergen, Norway where she is has been part of projects, hereby; Targeting Natural resources Corruption, Elevating water rights to human rights: Has it strengthened marginalized peoples’ claim for water?, Abortion Rights lawfare in Latin America, Operationalizing a Rights-Based Approach to Health Service Delivery, Political determinants of sexual and reproductive health: Criminalisation health impacts and game changers and Litigating the Right to Health.

Headshot of Kurt Holle

Kurt Holle, Director, WWF Peru
Kurt studied forestry in Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. He is a conservation and ecotourism entrepreneur. Kurt founded Rainforest Expeditions in 1992 pioneering ecotourism and community tourism in Peru. He also worked in the Amazon in Peru and Ecuador and in Botswana helping indigenous tourism and conservation enterprises. With experience in designing, implementing, managing and marketing operations, Kurt works with local communities, ensuring sustainable business practices and forest conservation. He has worked in certification, handicraft development, designing economic incentives for conservation, environmental funds and finance mechanisms. Since 2018 he is the director of WWF Peru

Headshot of Saul Mullard

Saul Mullard, Senior Adviser, U4-CMI
Saul is a Senior Adviser at U4 anti-corruption resource centre and has extended fieldwork experience from India, Nepal, China and Mongolia. His current research interests include the role that local communities, people’s movements and civil society organizations play in anti-corruption efforts, particularly in relation to climate change, conservation and biodiversity programs and initiatives. He has published widely on a variety of topics such as tax evasion and embezzlement, human trafficking, slavery, immigration, and ethnicity and indigenous rights. In addition to academic research roles at the University of Oxford and École pratique des hautes études (Paris), he has had consultant and advisory roles in the Development and NGO sector with a focus on youth, civil society, and indigenous and marginalized groups.

Headshot of Richard Nash

Richard Nash, Technical Lead, Governance Practice, WWF International
Richard Nash is Technical Lead in WWF’s Global Governance Practice. He focuses on supporting the WWF network on its work on anti-corruption, infrastructure and governance. Richard has over 15 years of working at the inter-section of governance, law, development and conservation for a variety of organizations such as the World Bank, DFID and now WWF. Richard has worked across the world on these issues with a particular focus on fragile and conflicted affected states and regions.

Headshot of Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana

Nanie Ratsifandrihamanana, Country Director, WWF Madagascar
Ratsifandrihamanana started working for WWF Madagascar in 1999, working as conservation director from 2004 to 2013. In this capacity, she had a leading role in the implementation of the "Durban Vision" which resulted in the tripling of Madagascar’s protected area network as she co-led the Malagasy Protected Area Commission over the critical years of 2005-2009. In 2014, Ratsifandrihamanana took over the role of Country Director of WWF Madagascar and western Indian Ocean Islands. She is the first Malagasy national to hold this position and is only the second national to represent WWF in Madagascar since Vaohita Barthélémy held this position in 1987. From 2008 to 2011 Ratsifandrihamanana also served on the board of quasi-governmental body responsible for protected area management; Madagascar National Parks. From 2019 she has been serving as the vice-president of the Madagascar Biodiversity Trust Fund (a $70 million endowment to provide sustainable funding for Madagascar's protected area network). She is also a member of the IUCN World Commission on protected areas.

Headshot of Aled Williams

Aled Williams, Senior Adviser, U4-CMI
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.

Headshot of Elizabeth Hart

Elizabeth Hart, Chief of Party, Targeting Natural Resource Corruption, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (Moderator)
Liz Hart is Chief of Party for the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project at WWF. Liz has more than twenty years of experience in governance and anti-corruption analysis and practice in the international development sphere. In addition to a 14-year career with USAID, she was formerly the director of the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre and an active consultant in governance, anti-corruption and development.


Image attribution: © naturepl.com / Jen Guyton / WWF; © Brian J. Skerry / National Geographic Stock / WWF; © Georgina Goodwin / Shoot The Earth / WWF-UK; © Hkun Lat / WWF-Aus