By Melina Risso, Julia Sekula, Lycia Brasil, Peter Schmidt and Maria Eduarda Pessoa de Assis

In the past 20 years, the price of gold has increased from US$400 to US$1861.50 per ounce, driven by rising demand in China and India. Gold is time and capital-intensive to produce, which is why this rise in demand has driven an attendant demand for illegal gold mining — an industry that is estimated to yield globally between US$12 and US$28 billion annually.2 The Brazilian Amazon is rife with illegal gold mining operations, with 321 identified points of illegal, active and inactive mines arranged in the 9 states that comprise the Brazilian Amazon Basin.3 This has had a direct impact on deforestation rates and health hazards of local indigenous populations. Deforestation across the Amazon grew 25% in the first half of 2020 according to INPE (Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research). The contribution of mining activity to deforestation rates as a whole has increased from 4% in 2017 to 23% in indigenous territories in data recorded up to June 10, 2020.4 Deforestation has been concentrated in indigenous territories where, between 2018 and 2019, environmental degradation by mining increased 107%. This devastation has a price — according to Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutors Office, 1kg of gold represents roughly R$1.7m in environmental damages, culminating in an environmental cost roughly 10 times greater than the current price of gold.

Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brasil, Igarapé Institute, 2021. 50p.

By Laura Trajber Waisbich, Melina Risso, Terine Husek and Lycia Brasil

Researchers analyzed data from 369 the Federal Police (PF) operations carried out between 2016 and 2021

Environmental crimes are rarely committed isolated from other offenses. Amazon deforestation is not only largely illegal but also driven by a diverse array of offenders through markets contaminated with crimes that despoil the environment, such as illegal logging, illegal mining (especially gold), land grabbing and unsustainable farming. There are a wide array of violations, from environmental, to tax evasion and interpersonal violence from assault to homicide.

The document provides an overview of this biome of Amazon crimes drawn from a detailed analysis of 369 Brazilian Federal Police operations carried out between 2016 and 2021. The police operations found that organized crime was behind half of environmental crimes they investigated, while illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives turned up in almost one in five police operations

The analysis also highlights another strategic failing: lack of data, institutional weaknesses and insufficient political will. All are vital to holding violators accountable for their actions, most critically when the crimes include stealing public lands for illegal farming and ranching – an important driver of illegal deforestation.

Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brasil, Igarapé Institute, 2022. 41p.

By Laura Trajber Waisbich, Terine Husek and Vinicius Santos

The ecosystem of environmental crime in the Amazon is largely to blame for the current levels of deforestation and degradation of the biggest tropical forest on the planet. Several illegal economic activities, representing the main drivers of destruction in the river basin, take a heavy toll on the forest and its inhabitants. Based on an analysis of the spatial distribution of the Federal Police operations to fight environmental crime in the Legal Amazon between 2016 and 2021, this study highlights the hotspots for a range of illicit forest-based economic activities in the region, while also showing how other locations within and outside the Brazilian Amazon form part of a broader nexus of environmental crime. The study reviewed more than 300 Federal Police operations and identified 846 territories that make up the ecosystem of environmental crime in the Amazon. These territories are located in 262 municipalities, both in the Legal Amazon and beyond its borders. Of the cities mapped, 75% are located in the Legal Amazon, 22% are in other regions of Brazil and 3% are in neighboring countries. These territories are where environmental and associated crimes converge to fuel illegal deforestation, illegal logging, public land grabbing (known as grilagem, in Portuguese), agriculture and livestock rife with environmental illegalities and illegal mining.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Igarape, 2022. 58p.

By Elizabeth Burke Voorhees

The purpose of this study was to identify core competencies for supervisory-level security management professionals working in the sports and entertainment industry. Qualified and trained sport and event security-management professionals are essential to support the U.S. homeland security objectives outlined in Presidential Policy Directive21. Providing effective safety and security for sports and entertainment events requires specialized knowledge and skill on the behalf of security-management practitioners who detect, deter, prevent, and respond to potential risks and threats. This qualitative research study employed a Delphi research design to elicit expertise from a purposefully selected panel of experts (N = 36). The expert panel suggested a list of competencies in Delphi round one and rated each competency statement based on level of importance and frequency using a 5-point Likert scale. The expert panel produced 136 core competencies in seven clusters: Risk Management, Emergency Planning, Problem Solving and Decision Making, Leadership, Communication, Building Collaborative Relationships, and Human Resource Management. Twenty-nine panelists successfully completed all three rounds of the Delphi study yielding a 93.5% response rate. Sport and event security management professionals and industry stakeholders can use the validated list of competencies to develop human capital and improve performance though the strategic application of human resource management,

Hattiesburg, MS: University of Southern Mississippi, 2010. 247p.

By Shamini Jayanathan

This report, commissioned by the Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA) in partnership with Africa Nature Investors Foundation (ANI) and supported by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), is the first of its kind to undertake an in-depth legislative analysis of the federal wildlife-related laws of Nigeria alongside those of six states identified as key for addressing wildlife crime in Nigeria, namely Adamawa, Kano, Lagos, Rivers, Cross River and Taraba States. It builds on recommendations made by the EIA in its report of 2018 regarding Nigeria’s progress on its National Ivory Action Plan (NIAP) which included the need to conduct an assessment under the auspices of the International Consortium for Combatting Wildlife Crime (ICCWC). This report’s focus on legislation will complement such an effort that will in due course be undertaken by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Nigeria: Africa Nature Investors Foundation; London:Environmental Investigation Agency (UK), 2021. 36p.

By Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 saw the world come to a virtual standstill, with global lockdowns disrupting or halting transport and trade routes and travel. The hopes that illegal wildlife trade activities would also be disrupted or halted were largely misplaced – as millions of people worldwide adapted and started working from home, so too did the traffickers. Over the past decade, we have seen a shift of focus as organised criminal networks involved in illegal wildlife trafficking from the continent of Africa to markets in East and South-East Asia have further turned their attention from East and Southern Africa to West and Central Africa, moving their operations to both source and export increasing quantities of illegal wildlife. Based on ongoing EIA investigations, this report presents a brief analysis of these two regions and provides an overview of the ongoing activities of the networks operating in them. Through engagement with illegal traffickers and traders operating out of Nigeria and beyond, details and documents shared with investigators reveal how they exploit the existing status quo of the region, which has a wealth of natural resources but is faced with a number of challenges – pockets of civil unrest, high levels of poverty and weak rule of law, all underpinned by corruption.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, 2020. 27p.

By Bridget Connelly and Henry Peyronnin

Wildlife trafficking in the air sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (also known as the LAC region) is a serious and significant problem. As in other regions, the confluence of habitat destruction, economic polarization, and convenient availability of international travel has facilitated wildlife trafficking at a national, regional, and international level. The consequences for wildlife populations have been dire – against the backdrop of a 94% drop in regional animal population sizes between 1970 and 2020, the C4ADS Air Seizure Database shows that seizures of animal products along air routes increased steadily until 2019.

The LAC region poses particular concern for two reasons. First, it is one of the principal remaining repositories of biological and species diversity in the world. Increasing wildlife trafficking will continue to degrade this essential environment. Second, the LAC region is the home to many of the world’s most capable and violent trafficking organizations, which raises the risk that wildlife trafficking will empower organizations seeking to impose more direct harms on humans.

Washington, DC: USAID Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species (ROUTES). 2021. 16p.

By Livia Wagner

Criminal groups quickly recognized that controlling large swaths of land and illicit and legitimate enterprises linked to illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon enabled them to generate larger profit margins with fewer risks due to the lack of a government law enforcement presence. Gold constitutes an ideal medium for criminal groups to launder proceeds obtained from other illegal activities. Compared to other natural resources and illicit goods, gold is valuable by volume. Also, COVID-19 is not only having an impact on the global economy and surging unemployment. It is driving gold prices to historical record highs since 2012, leading to an influx of illegal miners to unlicensed mining sites where they invade protected indigenous lands, stripping swaths of forest bare, poisoning rivers with mercury, and laundering illegal gold through mineral shops. The nexus between illegal mining and other organized crime complicates the design of strategies to address this problem effectively. Specifically, intersections with human trafficking and forced labor, migrant smuggling, and the drug trade have been identified. However, the form and degree can vary significantly.

Miami: Florida International University, The Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, 2021. 27p.

By Camila Gianella, Maritza Paredes and Lorena Figueroa

Policies and strategies implemented to combat illegal logging in Peru appear to have had limited success. Addressing corruption in the forest sector requires an understanding of the role of political and informal power arrangements that shape individual and collective behaviours. Forest governance outcomes can only be strengthened by considering the networks, actors, powers, and interests that interact with wider conditions.

Bergen, Norway: Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2021. 25p.

By The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

For a decade, Vietnam has been repeatedly highlighted for its role in the international illegal wildlife trade, so it is encouraging to see the recent efforts taken by the Government to address its involvement; it is to be congratulated for the measures it has taken and the successes it has had domestically. Yet despite these efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade in country, Vietnam’s reputation is tarnished by the fact that it is the primary destination for illegal wildlife products sourced from across Africa and shipped by criminal networks directly or indirectly to meet the demand in Vietnam and beyond. These networks are accelerating the decline of Africa’s biodiversity and are exacerbating corruption and weak rule of law in many source and transit countries in the continent.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, 2021. 32p.

By Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin

The report ‘Myanmar’s Growing Illegal Ivory Trade with China’ released today (subs: October 2, 2018) shows that one town in particular, Mong La - a frontier town in the notorious Golden Triangle on the border of China - has experienced a ‘prolific growth’ in ivory trading. The number of new ivory items seen for sale in the town grew by 63% in three years, and now accounts for over a third of the ivory seen in the country.

The report by ivory trade specialists Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin recounts how Chinese visitors smuggle worked ivory from Mong La back home with little concern about getting caught. This ivory has often come up the Mekong River into the lawless eastern periphery of Myanmar where it is for sale in both retail and bulk. The wholesale price for African raw ivory in late 2017 in the Golden Triangle region has remained stable at about USD 770 to USD 800 per kg since late 2015.

Myanmar has the largest captive, or ‘domestic’, elephant population in the world with over 5,000 individuals. Traders there say that the internal ivory trade is legal for trimmed domestic elephant tusk tips and from licensed animals that have died, and operate accordingly. (Trading in the tusks of the remaining wild elephants in Myanmar – numbering perhaps 2,000 – is acknowledged to be illegal). The ivory from captive elephants is used for local carving and retail sale especially in Mandalay and Yangon. Their tusks are also sold wholesale in Mandalay to Chinese traders, who smuggle them across the China border in contravention of the existing international ivory trade ban.

Traders reported that 90% of buyers were Chinese wishing to smuggle the ivory home, as also found by the same authors in market surveys in Hong Kong (2015) and Laos (2017). In Vietnam (2016) this was estimated to be 75%.

Nairobi, Kenya: Save the Elephants, 2018. 92p.

By Mary Utermohlen

"This report highlights the widespread, pervasive nature of wildlife trafficking by air, with each major world region impacted. Our analysis shows that traffickers of all types exploit the same vulnerabilities within airports, often using the same trafficking methods to circumvent law enforcement and airport authorities. Furthermore, seizure data shows that many wildlife trafficking networks rely on the same smuggling methods over time, suggesting that a thorough understanding of airport-specific or country-specific trafficking patterns could be instrumental in reducing the air transport system's vulnerability to trafficking," said the report’s author Mary Utermohlen, Program Director at C4ADS.

In addition to contributing to the extinction of endangered species, threatening local livelihoods, and undermining regional and global security, illegal wildlife trade is a risk factor for the spread of zoonotic diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control, three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases originate in animals. Many of the species seized in air transport—including live birds, live reptiles and mammals—are high-risk carriers of zoonotic diseases and may end up in illegal or unregulated markets around the world.

Godalming, UK: Traffic, 2022. 12p.

By InSight Crime

Peru’s 70 million hectares of Amazon forest are being razed at an alarming rate. This investigation reveals the range of culprits behind the devastation: from illegal gold miners who leave behind pools of poisonous mercury, to poor locals coopted into harvesting valuable trees, to a complex web of front companies, agribusiness subsidiaries, corrupt officials and criminal groups that prosper from the Amazon’s destruction.

Conducted with the Igarapé Institute – a Brazil-based think tank devoted to development, security and climate issues – the six-part series also unravels the crucial links in the chain of specific environmental crimes contributing to forest loss, including illegal logging, illicit gold mining, coca cultivation, wildlife trafficking and the usurping of lands for cattle farms and booming agricultural industries.

Peru’s Amazon, which covers nearly half of the Andean country, is rich in biodiversity and critical to the capture of carbon, which mitigates global warming. Political instability and corruption, however, have made protecting it much more difficult. Meanwhile, demand from international markets for wood, gold and other forest products increases the threat to Indigenous communities, animal habitats and protected reserves.

Washington, DC: InSight Crime; IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE , 2022. 61p.

By Philip Rothrock, Laura Weatherer, Kate Ellis, Leah Samberg, Stephen Donofrio, Ciro Calderon

Over the past few decades, cocoa production has emerged as a driver of land use change, particularly in West Africa. In addition to its significant contributions to deforestation, cocoa production has also faced intense public scrutiny due to human rights violations, especially the use of child labor.

In Trends in the Implementation of Ethical Supply Chains: A 2020 Snapshot of the Cocoa Sector, Forest Trends’ Supply Change Initiative joined the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFi) to shed light on current trends in implementing best practice for achieving ethical supply chains across the cocoa sector. For this analysis, Supply Change researched and analyzed company sustainability commitments, production and procurement policies, and progress reporting against the common approaches for pursuing ethical supply chains outlined in the Accountability Framework.

Washington, DC: Forest-Trends, 2021. 22p.

By Sage Melcer and Simon Zadek.

A new report published today from Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) points to how to break the environmentally-destructive connection between environmental crimes and legitimate investments. F4B calls on the global financial community, working with regulators and civil society organisations, to take steps to ensure the entire financing value chain is free of environmental crimes.

Environment crime, such as illegal wildlife trade and logging, is now one of the most profitable global criminal enterprises, generating up to almost USD300 billion in criminal gains each year, and creating even more profound damage and cost to the environment and society. Many entirely legal enterprises benefit from such environmental crimes, as do those who finance them.

The report highlights the opportunity to reduce environmental crimes by widening the scope and interpretation of existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. Pointing to the limits of such an approach, however, the report highlights the need to go further, and proposes a way forward paralleling anti-slavery and conflict diamond approaches. Finally, it encourages the financial community to take leadership in advancing widely adopted and effective voluntary measures to ensuring environmental crime-free financing value chains, and points to first-mover advantages in avoiding likely reputation damage, litigation, and poorly-designed legislation.

The report is an invited contribution to the UK Government-sponsored Global Resource Initiative (GRI), a multi-sectoral taskforce mandated to provide recommendations on greening the UK’s international supply chain footprint. Its recommendations are, however, internationally applicable.

Finance for Diversity, 2022. 17p,

By Tomomi Kitade, Masayuki Sakamoto, Chris Madden Hof

Japan customs records reported 564 kg of hawksbill tortoiseshell seized in 71 incidents between 2000 and 2019, representing some 530 Hawksbill Turtles. Over half was seized between 2015 and 2019 alone. The Hawksbill Turtle is listed as “Critically Endangered” in the IUCN Red List. In recent years, the major source region appears to have shifted from Southeast Asia to the Caribbean. The report highlights the current marine turtle trade situation in Japan, including the trends in illegal commodity imports —hawksbill tortoiseshell, in particular—and an analysis of manufacturers’ stockpiles, domestic regulations, and online trade.

Tokyo: World Wildlife Fund for Japan, 2021. 16p.

By Sandra Charity and Juliana Machado Ferreira

Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon biome and holds the planet’s largest biodiversity treasure trove, with over 13% of the world’s animal and plant life. Turtles, fish, jaguars, frogs, insects, primates, songbirds, and parrots are among a long list of wildlife in Brazil that is illegally targeted for domestic and international trade. According to the report’s analysis of trafficking in the Amazon region, river turtles, ornamental fish, fish for consumption, and wild meat appeared most frequently in seizure open data between 2012–2019.

Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC, 2020. 140p.

By Saket Badolaand and Astha Gautam

TRAFFIC’s “HIGH FLYING: Insight into wildlife trafficking through India's airports” analysis found the trafficking of over 70,000 native and exotic wild animals, including their body parts or derivatives (weighing around 4000kg) in 140 wildlife seizure incidents at 18 Indian airports between 2011-2020. Many of the seized species are categorised as threatened on the IUCN Red List and listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices, regulating its trade to protect the species from decline.

One example, the Indian Star Tortoise, is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. However, traffickers clearly disregard the threatened status and international CITES rules in Appendix I prohibiting its trade as the Indian Star Tortoise was the highest number of native species seized between 2011-2020. Among the species groups seized (including both Indian and exotic species), reptiles were the most encountered group during the study period (46%), followed by mammals (18%), timber (13%), and species from the marine environment (10%).

The highest number of native species seized included the Indian Star Tortoise, followed by the Black Pond Turtle Geoclemys hamiltonii.

The highest number of non-native species seized, Red-Eared Slider Turtle, followed by the Chinese Pond Turtle Mauremys reevesii.

Chennai International Airport, Tamil Nadu, recorded the highest number of wildlife seizure incidents, followed by Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai and Indira Gandhi Airport New Delhi. The study's findings reflect the ongoing trafficking and not an actual representation as most of the illegal wildlife trade goes unchecked and unreported.

Godalming, UK: Traffic, 2022. 12p.

By Jason Lowther, Dee Cook and Martin Roberts

The attitude of the UK's legal system towards the ever-increasing illegal wildlife trade is inconsistent. It does not adequately reflect the nature and impact of the crimes, and it is erratic in its response. The result is that the courts perceive wildlife crime as low priority, even though it is on the increase.

Godalming, UK: Traffic, 2002. 42p.

By Environmental Incentives, LLC, Foundations of Success, and ICF International

Killing protected or managed species and the illegal trade in wildlife and their related parts and products (hereafter called “wildlife crime”) are among the most severe threats to global biodiversity. Hundreds of millions of individual animals belonging to hundreds of species are the targets of illegal harvesting and trade. Wildlife crime not only threatens the survival of focal species, but may also significantly alter ecosystem function and stability when one or more species are substantially depleted or even made locally extinct. High-value wildlife products are often trafficked by organized criminal syndicates and are known to finance violent non-state actors including terrorist groups. Armed conflict can exacerbate wildlife killing and trafficking, and trafficking is frequently associated with other crimes such as money laundering (Loucks et al. 2008, UNODC 2012). Wildlife criminals create insecurity in rural communities and kill park rangers, hurting morale and recruitment of park staff and reducing tourism and associated revenue needed for conservation and community development. For developing countries, loss of revenue from trade, taxes, and/or tourism can be significant and particularly damaging (Rosen & Smith 2010). The illegal trade in wildlife can also introduce and/or spread pathogens (Gómez & Aguirre 2008), posing major risks to human and livestock health, with implications for food security, commerce, and labor productivity (i.e., Ebola virus outbreak). Despite focused efforts often lasting several decades, wildlife crime remains a global threat (Broad & Damania 2010, Sharma et al. 2014). The importance of wildlife crime as a threat to conservation and development has attracted the attention of governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutions, and multilateral organizations globally. Strategies to combat wildlife crime depend on accurate and reliable knowledge,

Washington, DC: United States Agency for International Development, 2017. 76p.