The Basel Institute's Green Corruption programme has commenced two new grants funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) under the IWT Challenge Fund 7th Round.
Emerging economies have long struggled with the question of how to combine economic development with sustainable use of natural resources. How does corruption factor into this combination?
Publication
The role of informal networks in promoting illegal wildlife trade: a qualitative analysis from Uganda
Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) poses a threat to many countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America. While the role of informal networks in sustaining wildlife trafficking is ever more on the radar of scholars and practitioners, their modus operandi remains largely understudied. The literature tells us that these informal networks play a role in sustaining this illicit cross-border trade.
This Working Paper details the findings of a survey of Indonesians’ perceptions of corruption, the economy and the environment in July 2021.
The survey was a joint initiative of the Green Corruption team at the Basel Institute on Governance and leading Indonesian pollster Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI). It consisted of a national public opinion survey covering 2,580 respondents and in-depth interviews with 30 private-sector representatives working in various natural resource sectors.
Much has been said about palm oil and its impact on the environment. Major international debates are taking place about the issue, and numerous studies have highlighted the governance weaknesses associated with large-scale plantations.
To gain a better insight into what the Indonesian public thinks about this issue and others relevant to corruption, governance and natural resources, the Basel Institute on Governance and Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), the leading Indonesian pollster, jointly conducted polls and interviews during July 2021.
The sixth event in the Corrupting the Environment webinar series discussed waste trafficking, a topic that receives little attention despite generating significant criminal proceeds (estimates suggest up to USD 12 billion per year). In addition to the financial costs, waste trafficking has enormous impacts for the environment, including from pollution or degradation, and inhibits development by fuelling corruption and poverty in some countries.
Behaviour change interventions aimed at reducing the social acceptability of wildlife trafficking are an important part of efforts to prevent wildlife crime. But how can practitioners craft messages that will be effective in changing attitudes and behaviours?
Our latest policy brief aims to support policymakers and practitioners seeking to improve conservation outcomes through behaviour change interventions.
Behaviour change interventions aimed at reducing the social acceptability of wildlife trafficking are an important part of efforts to prevent wildlife crime. This policy brief summarises lessons learned about how to develop and frame effective messages in the context of these interventions, based on field work conducted in Uganda.
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.
The fifth event in the Corrupting the Environment webinar series explored the latest trends in the online sale of environmental goods, including live animals and wildlife products. What is happening, where, how much and who is doing it? And what are we missing in our efforts to detect and prevent it?