This final report provides a summary of the contributions made by the United States Agency for International Development-funded Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project. The project worked from 2018 – 2024 and focused on improving biodiversity outcomes by equipping conservation and natural resource management practitioners to assess and address the threats posed by corruption to wildlife, fisheries, and forests. This objective was achieved through three strategic approaches: 1) harnessing existing knowledge and generating new evidence about the impact of corruption and effective programming responses; 2) communicating and networking to disseminate that information and demonstrate practical application, building experience, and generating new learning opportunities; and 3) supporting practical application through pilot projects in six countries and select initiatives to broaden practitioner experience. Additionally, the project worked on institutionalizing anti-corruption within partner organizations to leave a legacy of concrete change.

The project was led by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and implemented by a consortium of leading conservation and anti-corruption organizations, including TRAFFIC; the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre at the Chr. Michelson Institute (U4); the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at George Mason University; and in collaboration with the Basel Institute on Governance.

The world is off track to protect and restore forests by 2030. Fortunately, there’s still time to get back on course and meet global goals. WWF’s Forest Pathways report shows how the scale of failed action on the world’s forests is leading to an alarming increase in deforestation. It also shows it’s possible to halt deforestation, sustainably manage forests, and restore them in ways that benefit humanity and nature.

Does your work focus on addressing illegal logging and associated trade? Are you concerned that corruption is driving deforestation and illegal timber flows? This guide outlines three steps to start building anti-corruption approaches into your conservation programming.

For more resources and tools, visit TNRCproject.org.

A corruption-oriented situation analysis can help conservation and natural resource management (NRM) practitioners understand and respond to the threats that corruption poses to conservation and NRM outcomes. As part of the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project, WWF teams in different countries conducted situation analyses to inform both small-scale pilot projects and large-scale investments, in each case aiming to get a better idea of the ways that corruption may impact NRM activities and how they could design projects that would respond more effectively to those threats. Part I of this guide collects lessons from their experience and provides insights on implementing this type of analysis. Part II shares three case studies and analysis tools for doing corruption-oriented situation analysis.

For more resources and tools, visit TNRCproject.org.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a collaboration of over 150 national and local governments and more than 1000 civil society partners working to promote transparent, participatory, inclusive, and accountable governance. OGP offers a promising opportunity to bring transparency, participation, and accountability to the governance of natural resources, as participating governments collaborate with their civil societies to commit to concrete, impactful reforms to bring transparency, accountability, and participation to bear on the most relevant and important challenges those publics face. This guidance shows how conservation organizations can start taking advantage of OGP as a possible key platform for accomplishing conservation priorities.

Visit the TNRC Knowledge Hub for more resources.

On International Anti-Corruption Day 2022, we recognize the determination of women who are taking remarkable steps to address corruption through conservation programming. Shambhavi Poudel leads the Campaigns and Education Unit at WWF Nepal. She works closely with children and young people, placing them at the core of conservation interventions. She recently helped to design a new pilot activity under the TNRC project that focuses on mobilizing youth to promote good community forest governance.

For more resources and tools, visit TNRCproject.org.

The forestry sector is immensely important to Tanzania’s economy but corruption robs much of the revenue and the government's ability to effectively manage timber harvesting. This practice note from TNRC partner TRAFFIC explores how the timber tracking system has improved data management and traceability along Tanzania's timber products supply chain. Additionally, it shares the experiences, views, gaps, and challenges encountered and suggestions for further improvements of the frontline users of the system.

Visit the TNRC Knowledge Hub for more resources.

Sustainable livelihood projects can be vulnerable to corruption risks that may contribute to further social and environmental damage. This guide has been developed for programming designers and implementers aiming to reduce corruption's impact on community-based conservation initiatives. It contains three modules exploring the corruption opportunities, power, and justifications that might manifest in three typical sustainable livelihood interventions. Each module identifies corruption risks in that activity type and anti-corruption responses that have been tried or can be considered to address those risks.

Visit the TNRC Knowledge Hub for more resources.

Indigenous communities play an essential role in successful forest conservation. Community Forest Management (CFM) is a tool that promotes the participation of Indigenous peoples in forest conservation and sustainable management by preventing abuses from third parties and community leaders that could act against the common interest. While CFM has led to many positive results, a variety of obstacles inhibit Indigenous communities’ involvement in CFM-based legal timber harvesting, such as forest-related corruption, a lack of technical and financial support, bureaucratic barriers, and lack of capacity. This Brief aims to help fill knowledge gaps, generating recommendations to strengthen initiatives that promote the participation of Indigenous communities in forest conservation and sustainable management.

Visit the TNRC Knowledge Hub for more resources.

This paper presents three case studies that portray how Free Trade Zones (FTZ) and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) characteristics contribute both to Illegal wildlife trade and corruption, while also demonstrating that wildlife trafficking is merely an expression of the multiple illicit economies that can take place in FTZs/SEZs in the absence of adequate controls. These cases also demonstrate that the corrupt practices within these areas do not necessarily differ from other forms of corruption happening elsewhere in the country, region, or trade chain. Rather, what makes FTZs/SEZs particularly interesting for illicit trade is the additional layer of opaqueness and complexity that they pose for local authorities.

Visit the TNRC Knowledge Hub for more resources.

A summary overview of the analysis from the full Deforestation Fronts report.

The causes, pace, and magnitude of deforestation and forest degradation have changed over time. The way that different deforestation drivers are connected and the effects they have on forest ecosystems vary across regions. While progress has been made in halting forest loss and degradation, both continue at alarming rates. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of deforestation, connecting drivers and responses on a global scale.

The importance of biodiversity below the forest canopy is often underappreciated, and yet it is a crucial component of healthy functioning forest ecosystems. Below the Canopy: Plotting Global Trends in Forest Wildlife Populations is the first-ever global assessment of forest-dwelling wildlife populations and highlights the multitude of threats forest-living species are facing.

Deforestation is a major threat both to ecosystems and local economies. The Greater Mekong was the world's most densely forested area in the 1970s, but has now lost a third of its tree cover. It is on course to lose another third between 2010 and 2030 if trends continue.

Extreme weather events are adding a new, ominous threat to the monarch butterflies’ key wintering habitat in Mexico, according to a report by the WWF-Telmex-Telcel Alliance, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, and the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The majority of the timber from Peru is harvested illegally. The new National Pact for Legal Wood represents an unprecedented opportunity to address major challenges in the country’s forestry sector and to create the conditions needed to develop a domestic market for legal Peruvian wood.

A new study by twelve international and Indonesian NGOs, including WWF, shows that in spite of its high-profile commitment to “zero deforestation”, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is building one of the world’s largest pulp mills in the Indonesian province of South Sumatra without a sustainable wood supply.

The palm oil industry has caused dramatic deforestation in Indonesia. This report, based on an Eyes on the Forest investigation, demonstrates how tainted crude palm oil entered the supply chains of several of the most well-known palm oil suppliers in the world, including subsidiaries of the Sinar Mas group and Wilmar that operate in Indonesia.

This report identifies 11 regions that will account for more than 80 percent of projected deforestation between 2010 and 2030. If nothing is done, we could lost up to 656,000 square miles of forests (an area more than twice the size of Texas). The report brings together the latest data and expert opinion to identify the regions and the likely causes of deforestation in each place.

Pulp is the base for a lot of products we use every day, such as napkins and paper. Pulp typically comes from natural fibers that are in trees. But purpose-grown and agricultural residue feedstocks – such as bamboo, kenaf and wheat straw—are being explored as alternatives to such fibers.