By Caitlin Maslen

“Nature-based” solutions to climate change require the acquisition of large swaths of land for reforestation, afforestation, conservation and renewable energy sources. However, corruption in the land sector is already widespread and this additional demand for land may aggravate pre-existing corruption risks, as well as causing new ones. National governments and project implementers of land-based solutions should therefore implement anti-corruption measures in projects and, most importantly, ensure that they take into account the communities (such as Indigenous Peoples) who may already live on the land.

Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute. , U4 Help Desk,, 2023. 24p.

By Caitlin Maslen

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that play a crucial role in carbon sequestration while supporting the livelihoods of communities worldwide. However, they face growing threats from extractive industries, urban expansion, illegal logging and other destructive activities. Protecting these ecosystems requires countering corruption through transparency and accountability measures. In doing so, this can help wetlands continue to sustain local communities and wildlife, and contribute to nature-based solutions for curbing climate change.

Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute. , U4 Help Desk,2025. 31p.

By Ian Tennant, Simone Haysom, Tiphaine Chapeau

In October 2024, Brazil, France, and Peru tabled a resolution at the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) for a new intergovernmental process to take stock of how the convention addresses crimes that affect the environment. In addition, the resolution called for possible gaps to be identified in the current international legal framework to prevent and combat these crimes, and to discuss whether any additional protocol should be developed. The work of the new intergovernmental expert group (IEG) will therefore become a key focus of multilateral discussions on environmental crimes in the future. The first meeting of this group will take place in Vienna from 30 June to 2 July 2025, and may be followed by a second meeting in early 2026, ahead of the 15th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the United Arab Emirates in April. The group will be expected to report on its work at the 13th UNTOC COP in October 2026. This new process is the culmination of a long-brewing movement towards addressing environmental crimes beyond what can be controlled through CITES. For example, it builds on progress made at France’s initiative to push forward resolutions on environmental crime that are within the scope of existing UN instruments. In 2022, Resolution 31/1 of the UN Commission of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) called for views on a potential new protocol on wildlife trafficking to be collected, following a campaign led by the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime consortium, which had high-profile government support from countries such as Angola, Kenya, Peru and Gabon, but for which consensus could not be reached as part of UN General Assembly Resolution 75/311 on wildlife trafficking. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has published several analyses of what it calls the ‘patchwork’ of existing legislation, and documented member states’ views on the topic through questionnaires coming out of the latest CCPCJ and UNTOC resolutions. Calls for discussions on updating the international legal framework on environmental crimes, including potentially a new protocol, date back even further. For example, a joint paper by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and the World Wildlife Fund was launched at the 13th UN Crime Congress in Doha in 2015, and the UN system itself has adopted calls for further action since 2014, primarily with regard to the illegal wildlife trade. Environmental criminal markets have changed considerably since, increasing the need for the urgent updating of the existing multilateral response. Crimes that affect the environment are deeply globalized and require diverse action across value chains, including in transit countries, to be successfully combatted. Moreover, incentives for actions and consequences for inaction are grossly skewed across the globe, and preventive and remedial measures, convictions and recovery of proceeds from these crimes often lag behind. Despite some progress – notably on trafficking in wildlife, and especially in some iconic species – it has not been enough. It has never been clearer that more internationally coordinated action and globally funded and resourced responses are needed.

Geneva: ECO-SOLVE Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2024. 30p.

Environmental crime is a serious and growing international issue, which takes many different forms and impacts origin, source, transit and consumer countries. Broadly speaking, environmental crime is a collective term for “illegal activities harming the environment and aimed at benefiting certain individuals, groups or companies through the exploitation and theft of, or trade in natural resources”. This crime area includes corporate crime in the forestry sector, illegal exploitation and sale of gold and minerals, illegal fishing and associated criminal activities in the fisheries’ sector, trafficking in hazardous waste and chemicals, the illegal exploitation of the world’s wild flora and fauna, and wealth generated illegally from natural resources being used to support non-state armed groups and terrorism. Environmental crime is low-risk and high profit for criminals. This crime area has been recently defined as the third largest criminal sector worldwide, after drugs, counterfeit goods and trafficking. In terms of economic loss, just illegal logging, fishing and wildlife trade have an estimated value of $1 trillion or more per year.  Although “illegal mining” has no universal definition, INTERPOL defines it as an umbrella term covering both illegal extraction and trade of minerals, including the illegal use of toxic chemicals (such as cyanide and mercury) in mining activities. Illegal mining has evolved into an endemic and lucrative enterprise in several regions across the globe, with seriously damaging consequences in terms of: • Socio-economic development, due to the high profits generated from illicit assets of approximately 12-48 billion USD per year,5 undermining government revenues; • Peace and stability, as terrorist organizations, armed rebel groups and drug cartels use the sector as both a funding source and a money laundering enabler. In conflict regions, the mining sites are controlled by Organized Crime Groups and have become hotspots for widespread violence; • Human rights in vulnerable communities, who are exposed to i) human trafficking, forced labor, child and women abuse/ exploitation and pervasive (sexual) violence; ii) health issues for local miners and adjacent communities - caused by the chemical substances and environmental-; and iii) human displacements to facilitate the business; and • The environment. Illegal mining causes water and land poisoning via the release of toxic chemicals (e.g. mercury, arsenic, and cyanide), as well illegal deforestation, biodiversity and habitat loss, erosion, sinkholes, and atmospheric carbon emissions. The subsequent illegal trade of gems and precious metals, coupled with corruption and money laundering, is often perpetrated by organized crime. The criminal groups operating in the illegal mining sector are also often involved in other crime areas. These criminal activities pose major threats to global supply chains, the rule of law and sustainable development. Tackling criminal activities in the mining sector requires an international and coordinated policing response  

Paria: INTERPOL, 2022.   20p.