The following opening remarks were made by H.E. Graziella Marok-Wachter, Minister of Infrastructure and Justice of the Principality of Liechtenstein, at the 2022 International Anti-Corruption Conference in Washington, D.C. on 7 December 2022.

The session on Using Follow-the-Money Techniques to Detect Environmental Crimes: Potential and Challenges was coordinated by the Basel Institute on Governance in cooperation with the Principality of Liechtenstein.

A key session at the 2022 International Anti-Corruption Conference will shine a spotlight on efforts to take the profit out of environmental crimes like illegal wildlife trade, fishing, logging and mining.

Following (and confiscating) the money seems an obvious way to disrupt criminal networks engaged in environmental crimes, identify the kingpins and corrupt facilitators, and remove the profit motive. In practice, it is proving challenging. Why? What can practitioners do to ensure financial investigations achieve their potential in the fight against environmental crime?

A delegation from the Basel Institute will attend the International Anti-Corruption Conference (#IACC2022) in Washington DC on 6–10 December 2022. 

We will be distributing some of our recent publications and are looking forward to meeting our friends, partners and hopefully future partners in anti-corruption. 

Please see this summary of plenary sessions and panels we are leading or involved in, plus details of how to meet us there.

Crimes involving wildlife, forests and fish are typically undertaken for profit. Understanding the financial aspects of such crimes and related corruption could help practitioners to tackle them more effectively, improving conservation outcomes.

Over the last years, the USAID-funded Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project has made significant progress in exploring and explaining illicit financial flows and their relation to natural resource corruption.

This introductory guide for the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) project:

  • outlines the impact of illicit financial flows on conservation goals;
  • explains approaches that can help conservation and natural resource management practitioners to strengthen their programming and related responses;
  • offers guidance on risks and constraints to such financial approaches.

It leads the Illicit Financial Flows topic page of the TNRC Knowledge Hub and is designed to help practitioners find relevant resources.

The key takeaways are: