Nature Crime Alliance Publish Latest Newsletter

The Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat is partnering with Alliance members the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the FACT Coalition to deliver a free environmental crime training programme for journalists and communications professionals. The course, which takes place online between 29 September and 1 October, will explore how organised criminal networks profit from and facilitate nature crimes. Participants will gain practical insights into tools and approaches drawn from intelligence analysis, financial journalism, and conservation criminology. Other Alliance members contributing to the trainings include WWF and Earth League International. If you’d like to join the course, the deadline for applications is 27 September.

Nature crime at the IUCN World Conservation Congress

The Alliance Secretariat, hosted by World Resources Institute (WRI), has coordinated members and other stakeholders around a new motion resolution ahead of the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi this October. A motion submitted by WRI, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) has been integrated with a motion submitted by France and the International Council of Environmental Law focused on strengthening international cooperation and technical assistance to prevent and combat environmental crimes. There will also be a thematic session on nature crime during the Congress, convened by WRI, NWC and WCS. The session takes place on Saturday 11 October, 11am-12:30pm.

Thanks to the collective strength of the Alliance and the leadership of its members, including members of IUCN, momentum is building in the fight against nature crime.

Guidelines to support civil society and law enforcement cooperation to launch at CITES COP

Join us at CITES COP20 for the launch of a new set of guidelines to support cooperation between law enforcement and civil society organisations in the context of wildlife crime. Many civil society groups have investigative capacity, employing former officers and analysts to collect and assess information from communities and open sources. When this information is shared effectively, it can help authorities detect crimes, trace criminal networks, and strengthen prosecutions. The guidelines aim to enhance this process, leading to increased positive outcomes from investigations.

The launch will be part of a side event at the CITES COP20 in Samarkand on Saturday 29 November at 7pm, co-hosted by United for Wildlife, the Nature Crime Alliance (World Resources Institute) and the INTERPOL Wildlife Crime Working Group. For more information, or to request your copy of the guidelines, please contact Tsvetilena.Bandakova@wri.org and Davyth.Stewart.5@wriconsultant.org

Spotlighting Europe’s role in fighting financial crime linked to environmental crime

The Alliance Secretariat has continued its work to tackle financial crime linked to environmental crime through its support of the second ‘European Regional Private Sector Dialogue on the disruption of financial crime related to crimes that affect the environment’ which took place in Dublin on 8 May. Organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, INTERPOL and United for Wildlife, the Dialogues aim to bolster the capacity of the financial sector to identify and disrupt financial crimes linked to environmental crimes. Following the Dublin Dialogue, 94% of participants reported that the meeting helped them or their institutions identify new risk indicators and/or suspicious transactions.

Value of Indigenous-led journalism central to Frontline Defenders working group session

Preserving memory and shifting media perspectives were key issues in the latest meeting of the Working Group for Indigenous Peoples and Frontline Defenders (WGIPFD), convened by Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International as part of the Nature Crime Alliance. Focusing on Indigenous journalism and communications, the session welcomed expert insights from Nelly Luna Amancio, Editor and Co-Founder of Ojo Público, and Yanua Atamaín, a social communicator and Director of CiberAmazonas. The session drew together more than 20 representatives from Indigenous communities around the world to explore the role of Indigenous journalism in shaping national responses to nature crime and the advancement of Indigenous rights. A range of issues were covered in the discussion, including the challenge of disinformation, the rise and limitations of AI technologies, and the need for greater progress on women’s rights.

Welcome to new members: Environmental Justice Foundation and Rights and Resources Initiative

We are pleased to welcome two new members to the Nature Crime Alliance!

Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is a global coalition of 21 partners and more than 200 rightsholders organisations encompassing a range of stakeholders such as community leaders, organisers, researchers, journalists, human rights defenders, and lawyers. RRI joins the Alliance as it seeks to deepen its understanding of nature crime and the impact of these illicit activities on Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Read more

We have also welcomed the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), a leading investigative and campaigning organisation that works to protect the natural world and defend the basic human right to a secure environment. Active across issues including ocean, forests, and environmental defenders, EJF has a particular focus on illegal fishing, with a wealth of expertise and research output on this critical topic. Read more

Latest webinar platforms Peru and Wildlife Investigators Training Alliance

The challenge of nature crime in Peru and the different approaches to tackling wildlife crime in Africa were explored during the fifth edition of the Meet the Nature Crime Alliance webinar series.

Dr Frank Robert Almanza Altamirano, National Coordinating Senior Prosecutor at the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, Government of Peru, joined the session to discuss how types of nature crime are threatening Peru’s rich biodiversity. The Alliance network also heard from Shawn Karns, a Founding Director of the Wildlife Investigators Training Alliance (WITA) who gave an overview of the state of wildlife crime across Africa, and discussed WITA’s approach to tackling the issue – particularly its focus on the ‘criminal justice value chain.’ You can watch the session in English and Spanish on the Alliance website.

Watch now

Elevating nature crime in the public conversation

Members of the Alliance team have continued to raise the profile of environmental crime through new analysis and media engagement. The Alliance Director, Dr Charles ‘Chip’ Barber, published a new WRI Insights article focusing on environmental crime in the Amazon, highlighting how 91% of forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon is linked to illegal activity like land-clearing for agriculture and artisanal mining, often orchestrated by well-structured international criminal enterprises. The work of WRI on nature crime was also profiled in a Mongabay interview with Ruth Nogueron, Senior Associate in WRI’s Natural Resources Governance and Policy team and a regular contributor to Alliance activities. Read the interview

Have you checked out our Nature Crime Resources?

The Alliance Secretariat has scoped and developed a range of specialised tools designed to streamline collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders involved in combating nature crime. These resources were conceptualised together with members to address specific needs outlined during consultations with different actors within our network, and are part of the ‘dot-connecting’ services the Alliance offers to its members and partners.

View the Resources

News from the Alliance

Peru and Kenya to sponsor draft resolution on crimes that affect the environment for UNEA-7

Peru, a member of the Nature Crime Alliance, and Kenya have announced that they will sponsor a draft resolution – ‘Enhancing the international response to address crimes that affect the environment’ – for the upcoming 7th UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7). The announcement of possible draft resolutions came during the annual subcommittee meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Twelfth Meeting. Peru and Kenya participated in a Nature Crime Alliance side event at UNEA-6 last year, during which UNEP announced its membership of the Alliance.

UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) – feedback sought on environmental crime and corruption

The UNCAC Coalition’s Environmental Crime and Corruption Working Group, chaired by Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), is seeking to address knowledge gaps and highlight good practices in UNCAC implementation, with a particular focus on corruption, crimes that affect the environment, and climate. They have prepared a document to capture feedback from stakeholders working on this issue. If you wish to provide inputs, please do so by this Friday (26 September) in the document here

Earth League International launches WildLeaks in Cambodia and the Netherlands

Earth League International (ELI) has launched its WildLeaks platform in Cambodia and the Netherlands to expand its efforts to fight wildlife trafficking. Managed by ELI, WildLeaks is the world’s first secure, anonymous whistleblowing platform dedicated exclusively to environmental and wildlife crime. By activating WildLeaks in Cambodia and the Netherlands, ELI is targeting critical transportation nodes used by transnational wildlife crime networks. WildLeaks has led to the exposure of wildlife crime around the world since its launch in 2014, including an ELI report on the amur tiger earlier this year.

UNODC publishes new report on crimes in the minerals sector

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has published the latest addition to its Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment. The new report, ‘Minerals Crime: Crimes in the Supply Chains of Critical Transition Minerals’, presents the state of knowledge on illegal activity in this crucial industry. It presents what is currently known about the actors, modus operandi, and vulnerabilities as well as documenting how crimes involving these minerals differ to crimes involving gold. View the report

WJC and TRAFFIC brief UK policymakers on environmental crime

WJC and TRAFFIC participated in a joint briefing to the UK’s All-Party Parliamentarian Groups (APPGs) on International Conservation and Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax earlier this month. The briefing, ‘How Dirty Money is Destroying the Planet’, was held at the UK Parliament, and explored the intersection of environmental crime and corruption and the actions needed to address this key global challenge, including at the UNCAC Conference of the States Parties in December this year.

FACT Coalition highlights threats posed by illegal gold mining

A recent report from the FACT Coalition makes the case that illegal gold mining has become a crisis too large for the United States to ignore. ‘Addressing Illegal Gold Mining in the Western Hemisphere: New Approaches for U.S. Policy’ analyses current threats posed by illegal gold mining, gold trafficking, and associated money laundering, drawing on examples from select South American countries – Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The report concludes by presenting solutions that the United States should adopt to address the threats posed by illegal gold mining. Read the report

WRI Event: Deforestation in the Congo Basin

WRI Africa and Global Forest Watch (GFW) are partnering on a webinar focusing on deforestation in the Congo Basin. Forest fires reached record levels in 2024, but they are not the only drivers of forest loss. This webinar will explore why deforestation persists in the Congo Basin, the effectiveness of current actions, and what sustainable solutions could reverse the trend. The webinar will be convened in French with live English interpretation, and takes place on Thursday 25 September, 9:00am ET / 2:00pm WAT. Find out more.