Madagascar
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A career targeting the finances behind environmental crime – how I got there
This article is part of a series on careers in fighting financial crime and opportunities to learn and study with the Basel Institute. Our colleague Joseph Mihajason Rakotondramanana shares his professional journey, from the private sector and his early steps as an analyst in Madagascar to his current role as a Specialist in Financial Investigation with the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption Programme. The link between financial crime and environmental harm is too often ignored. All the more reason to act. When I look at my colleagues at the Basel Institute, I see people from different backgrounds, each on their individual professional path. But they all share a commitment to confronting illicit finance. Personally, I find this mission profoundly rewarding, and I'm convinced that capacity building plays a key role in forging a career with direction and impact. From private sector to supporting law enforcement Switching from my work in a start-up company to my first job as an analyst at the Financial Intelligence Unit of Madagascar was not easy. It took two attempts and a lot of patience. Back then, the term "money laundering" was still unfamiliar to many. My initial motivation was simple: I wanted to learn and grow through hands-on experience. Over the past 10 years, I have developed a strong investigative mindset and a deep desire to contribute to justice in concrete ways. That commitment led me to my current position as part of the Green Corruption team at the Basel Institute on Governance where I now use my skills to support a cause I care deeply about: to protect ecosystems that are under threat. As a financial investigation advisor, I focus on building strong partnerships with law enforcement agencies and training local partners in financial investigation techniques related to environmental crime. This capacity building approach empowers them to subsequently support analysts, investigators, prosecutors and judges in real cases. The ultimate goal is to enhance the likelihood of securing convictions and potentially recovering illicit assets. A shared mission with real impact Fighting financial crime linked to wildlife trafficking and other environmental crimes is at the heart of my professional mission. Protecting our environment is a shared responsibility, one that calls for joint action and long-term dedication. Working with a team that shares the same values strengthens my sense of purpose and reminds me of the power of working together. When we move forward as one, driven by a common goal, we do so with strength, confidence and clarity. There is no greater reward than receiving a heartfelt thank-you from a partner agency who applied our guidance successfully and as a result managed to make progress in a case. It’s in those moments that you truly feel the impact your work is having, not only professionally, but also personally. Learning as a lifelong strategy Life is a constant learning experience. Like any solid structure, the quality of our foundations determines what we can build. Education is important but it’s just the beginning. I have learned that continuously strengthening these foundations is key to long-term growth and resilience. That is also why, after my Bachelor’s in Finance and Business Development and my Master’s in Economics and Management, I’m currently pursuing a PhD in Economics and Policy of Natural Resources at the University of Antananarivo. Professional training has also played an important role in my journey. International courses have helped me reach new goals and build valuable networks. I’ve invested significant time in online training, especially through platforms like Basel LEARN, the Basel Institute’s online learning hub. With courses on topics such as international cooperation and open-source intelligence, I was able to strengthen my skills and stay up to date in this dynamic field. To young professionals: learn from others and also by yourselves. Take every opportunity to grow, especially through study programmes like our Basel STUDY postgraduate opportunities with the University of Basel. Do not hesitate to join the fight against corruption and financial crime. We need your passion, your perspective and your skills. You are part of the solution.
Announcing the winners of the 2025 Anti-Corruption Collective Action Awards
Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Anti-Corruption Collective Action Awards, presented by the Basel Institute on Governance with the support of the Siemens Integrity Initiative. The awards were announced on 4 June 2025 in a video on social media from Elizabeth Andersen, the Basel Institute’s Executive Director. Gretta Fenner Outstanding Achievement in Collective Action Award In the category of Outstanding Achievement in Collective Action 2025, the award goes to Saya Perempuan Antikorupsi – SPAK Indonesia I am a woman against corruption . Organisations and initiatives awarded in this category have made significant contributions towards fairer market conditions and the prevention of corruption through their engagement in Collective Action. SPAK Indonesia, launched in 2014, empowers women across Indonesia to become agents of change against corruption. Through engaging educational tools and community involvement, SPAK promotes anti-corruption values in various settings, including schools and public institutions. They help build anti-corruption ecosystems and advocate against corruption as a root cause of violence against women. Collective Action Inspirational Newcomer Award In the category of Inspirational Newcomer, the award goes to the Code of Ethics for Businesses in Kenya, developed by UN Global Compact Network Kenya in collaboration with the Kenya Association of Manufacturers and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance. Organisations and initiatives awarded in this category have been active in the field of Collective Action for less than two years. Launched recently, the Code of Ethics for Businesses in Kenya is a private-sector-led initiative rooted in the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles. It unites over 800 companies in a collective stand against corruption, guiding responsible business conduct across all stakeholder groups. With digital tools like a transparency microsite enabling open reporting and compliance, the Code is transforming corporate culture across Kenya. Finalists from around the world We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the winners and all our shortlisted initiatives, who continue to be shining examples of Collective Action in the anti-corruption field. In the category of Outstanding Achievement, the finalists were: Indonesia Collective Action Coalition Against Corruption KAKI Virtuous Alliances in Argentina’s Energy Sector In the category of Inspirational Newcomer, the finalists were: Anticorruption Business Club ABC from Madagascar Collective Action Initiative on Integrity and Anti-Corruption in the Private Sector in Mexico Jury selection and public vote An expert jury reviewed all nominated initiatives and shortlisted the finalists before opening up to a public vote. The jury consisted of leading figures in the anti-corruption Collective Action community, including: Chantal Castro, Anticorruption Manager, UN Global Compact Brazil Network Lisa Miller, Integrity Compliance Officer, World Bank Group Pusetso Morapedi, Africa Coordinator, Integrity Initiatives International François Valérian, Chair, Transparency International The final decision reflected a combination of jury scores and the public vote, ensuring that the selected initiatives demonstrated both expert merit and community resonance. Learn more and see previous awards For those interested in the selection process, the public vote, and the general awards methodology, as well as previous award winners, please find our awards methodology here: award methodology. We look forward to continuing to showcase and support outstanding efforts in Collective Action against corruption.
Building follow-the-money skills and networks to target environmental crime syndicates
The illegal wildlife trade is operating at an industrial scale. It has a direct impact on the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss and deprives local communities of sustainable livelihoods. A grant from the UK’s IWT Challenge Fund has enabled the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption team to extend its work in a number of countries vulnerable to the illegal wildlife trade. By providing training, mentoring on live cases and fostering communities of practice, we are advancing the use of “follow-the-money” techniques to combat the criminal networks operating in this field. An underused approach The follow-the-money approach involves scrutinising transactions to extract evidence about crimes and criminal networks. It is widely recognised for its value in investigating and prosecuting profit-driven crime as well as confiscating the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime. However it is still underused, particularly in relation to environmental crime. Like other transnational crime networks, environmental crime syndicates exploit legal, transport and financial systems to facilitate crimes and evade detection, moving money and goods in complex networks around the world. But the use of these systems is also the criminals’ Achilles heel – the size and sophistication of their networks create a significant footprint and enable investigators with the right skills to trace their financial flows. Our programme aims to capitalise on this opportunity by strengthening capacity in follow-the money-techniques, encouraging cross-border collaboration and providing opportunities for peer learning. Training investigators to trace funds Building capacity for these techniques in the environmental field is the foundation of this initiative. This is achieved through a combination of intensive training in financial investigations and asset recovery, and in-person mentoring by locally based advisors. This face-to-face, tailored support can help officers to translate new knowledge into practice, especially when resources are limited. We now have local teams working with government agencies in countries directly impacted by the illegal trade in wildlife and related environmental crimes: In Madagascar, where several species of fauna and flora are under extreme threat from the illegal wildlife trade and illegal logging. The seizure of tens of thousands of radiated tortoises from traffickers in 2018 is just one example of the massive and organised scale of these operations. In Peru and Bolivia, where the jaguar population is classified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as “near threatened” partly as a result of the illegal trade in this coveted species. In Uganda, which is a transit hub for wildlife products, including ivory and pangolin scales, and a centre of complex financial flows in Africa and beyond. And in Indonesia, where illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing threatens marine ecosystems and affects livelihoods. Strengthening the network A second pillar of the IWT Challenge Fund project is to create a community of experts and advisors on follow-the-money approaches in the environmental sphere. Through virtual roundtables with other IWT Challenge Fund grantees and civil society organisations from around the world, we are collectively working to increase the use of financial investigations and asset recovery in the fight against illegal wildlife trade. As well as the benefits of peer learning and support, building this community will help to generate “surge” capacity to investigate and take down major environmental crime syndicates. Knowledge sharing These efforts align with the establishment of a dedicated Follow-the-Money Working Group in 2022 as part of the Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum – an initiative of the Basel Institute, WWF, Transparency International and TRAFFIC. Led by our Green Corruption team, the Working Group has already been instrumental in facilitating knowledge exchange through workshops on various follow-the-money topics, including closed case reviews, recent trends and proactive financial analysis. An additional sub-group made up exclusively of law enforcement professionals allows peer learning among prosecutors and investigators who are receiving mentoring in our priority countries. These meet virtually to share their experiences and challenges. Increasing risk for criminals, and reach for practitioners As long as environmental crime remains a high-profit and low-risk activity, we will never succeed in combating it. Nor will we succeed without networks of skilled practitioners that reach as far as those of the crime syndicates. The twin pillars of this IWT Challenge Fund project – building both technical capacity for financial investigations and a broad follow-the-money practitioner network – are therefore crucial steps in strengthening global efforts to protect our wildlife and biodiversity.
Southern Africa’s fight against corruption needs Collective Action
A high-level meeting of heads of anti-corruption agencies in the Southern African Development Community SADC last month was a chance to take stock of member countries’ efforts to tackle corruption. The meeting allowed for a reflection on many ongoing activities and discussions around Collective Action in the region this year. It was the perfect opportunity to reflect on how to galvanise joint efforts against the region’s biggest scourge. Speaking to delegates, Scarlet Wannenwetsch, Collective Action Specialist, highlighted the underused capacity of the private sector. Businesses are full of dynamism and talent, both of which are critical in fighting corruption and other transnational crimes. To harness the private sector’s potential, she emphasised the importance of building trust by fostering regional multi-stakeholder networks. Bringing together anti-corruption champions from the public sector, private sector and civil society helps to create “good” networks – ones powerful enough to fight the corrupt networks that are holding back development in the region. Appetite for engagement The Basel Institute has been a long-standing partner of the SADC Secretariat through the work of the Private Sector team. Our team has been impressed by the level of innovation in the region. Some feature in a publication capturing good practices that was created by, with and for anti-corruption agencies in Africa. We have also been training SADC corruption prevention officers on how to engage with the private sector through Collective Action approaches. Our partners consistently express a desire for more opportunities to engage and exchange with other stakeholders. They realise that no one group can tackle corruption alone. Working towards building a community of practice To sow the seeds for such a regional multi-stakeholder network, we launched the first Southern African Anti-Corruption Collective Action Forum earlier this year in collaboration with the Southern African Anti-Corruption Network SAACoN and The Ethics Institute. The event brought together participants from the private sector, civil society and government institutions to discuss concrete opportunities for learning and collaboration. For many, it was the first time they had met at the regional level. The event was also a chance to celebrate progress. CoST Uganda won our Southern Africa Anti-Corruption Collective Action Award for its outstanding achievements in tackling corruption and raising business integrity in the region. What’s next? In order to build on the momentum of the Forum and on the energy of the SADC region’s anti-corruption leaders, it is crucial that member states continue to prioritise collaboration and Collective Action. Government anti-corruption agencies needs close, sustained collaboration with the private sector and civil society if they want to develop a more inclusive strategy to prevent corruption – and if they want that strategy to actually work in practice. That applies not only at the country and sector level, but at the regional level too. And that’s what Collective Action can bring. We look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration with the SADC Secretariat and wider partners to support anti-corruption Collective Action in the region. Learn more about our work on the B20 Collective Action Hub and find inspiration in its global database of initiatives.
Publications
Case Study 14: Madagascar: a landmark conviction for money laundering linked to environmental crime
This Case Study demonstrates how international cooperation and the follow-the-money approach revealed a transnational criminal network trafficking endangered species and led to Madagascar’s first money laundering conviction related to wildlife trafficking.
About this Case Study
This publication is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Case Study series, ISSN 2813-3900. It is licensed for sharing under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Photo: Studio Sifaka / khaosodenglish (used with permission).
The Case Study series offers practitioners insights into interesting and precedent-setting cases involving corruption and asset recovery. This case relates to the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption programme.
The development of this publication was funded through the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund.
The contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Basel Institute on Governance, its donors and partners, or the University of Basel.