Land corruption working group - Illicit Finance & Land Corruption: Impacts for Nature

Illicit finance and land corruption pose significant threats to environmental sustainability, undermining efforts to protect ecosystems and local communities. These illicit activities drive deforestation, habitat loss, and degradation of critical natural resources, while disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations. Corruption in land governance often results in illegal land acquisitions, exploitation, and the loss of biodiversity, which in turn jeopardizes global conservation goals.

The discussion will cover current challenges, vulnerabilities in land governance, and highlight solutions to strengthen land tenure systems and protect natural resources from corruption. Building on this, the session will explore how tools and frameworks used in the illicit financial flows space can be adapted to the land corruption sector. For instance, mechanisms such as beneficial ownership transparency, commonly used to unmask hidden financial networks, could be leveraged to expose the true beneficiaries behind corrupt land deals. Additionally, anti-money laundering frameworks can offer pathways to trace and block the illegal transactions often associated with land exploitation.

The speakers from the panel are:

• Robert Mwanyumba, Independent Consultant
• Marcello De Maria (PhD), Project Manager, WWF-UK
• Patrick Bwalya, Citizens Engagement Officer, Transparency International Zambia

Robert Mwanyumba will provide general insights from a global perspective and then focus on specific approaches and considerations related to illicit financial flows on the African continent, with particular examples tied to land and environmental corruption. Marcello De Maria will present the WWF’s Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit, which we will explore as a potential solution to help track illicit funds tied to environmental and land crimes. Patrick Bwalya will present insights from the case of illicit logging of Mukula in Chipili Luapula Province in Zambia.

The meeting will be held in English on Zoom. It is open to current members of the Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum and its Land Corruption Working Group, as well as those potentially interested in joining.

• Date and time: 14 November, 15:00 CET, 09:00 ET
• Register here