How do illegal wildlife products, live animals, exotic marine species and illegally logged timber end up in stores, zoos, aquariums and homes on the other side of the world?

Too easily, is the answer. Weaknesses in global supply chains make them vulnerable to exploitation by organised crime groups and bad actors working in legitimate businesses. Corruption opens the door to that exploitation. And the easy possibilities for laundering money from environmental crimes makes this illicit activity attractive to criminals around the world.

In their efforts to promote sustainable development around the world, development agencies and their country offices face a variety of corruption risks. 

Why is it important for development agencies to understand and take a strategic approach to addressing corruption issues? What is the role of strategic guidelines in doing this, and how are they best developed and implemented?

This report presents the findings of a novel application of social network analysis (SNA) to study a criminal network surrounding an East Africa-based wildlife trafficker. This technique focuses on understanding structural, functional and sociometric characteristics of networks by mapping social interactions between individuals and groups. 

Claudia Baez Camargo, the Basel Institute's Head of Public Governance, will showcase the results of her and her team's research under the UK's East Africa Research Fund (EARF) at an end-of-programme event on 16-17 March 2021.

The research project, entitled “Corruption attitudes, social norms and behaviours in East Africa”, looked at how behavioural factors influence attitudes towards petty corruption in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Research highlights

In (very!) brief, the research illuminates: