Traceability systems: Potential tools to deter illegality and corruption in the timber and fish sectors?

Illegal logging, fishing, and the associated trade in their products are major threats to sustainability and are often abetted by corruption. One reason that the illegal timber and fish trade and the corruption that facilitates it have flourished is that it is possible and often easy to "launder" illegal products in ways that make them difficult to distinguish from legal ones. This Brief finds vulnerabilities in some traceability systems that reduce their effectiveness in preventing laundering and combating illegality and corruption. While they can be strengthened in a variety of ways, the efficacy of traceability systems as anti-crime/corruption tools will always be conditional upon the will and capacity of authorities to act on the information the systems provide.

For more resources, visit the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption project Knowledge Hub.

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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.