news 29.04.2025
Speakers: Melina Risso, Director of Research at the Igarapé Institute, Mauricio Cabrera Leal, Vice Minister of Environmental Policies and Regulations at the Ministry of Environment of Colombia, and Marcelo Oliveira, Senior Programme Officer at WWF-Brasil. Moderator: Renata Cao de la Fuente, Project Leader for Latin America at TRAFFIC.
Environmental crimes and criminal economies in the Amazon are deeply intertwined, with illegal activities like deforestation, mining, and land grabbing converging with organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, and corruption—resulting in complex and widespread social harm across the region
Illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon is deeply linked to organized crime, including money laundering, drug trafficking, forced labor, and environmental violations, with critical support from corrupt political figures, civil servants, and logistics networks involving smuggled mercury and aviation fuel.
The failure of coordination among regulatory and enforcement agencies, combined with weak oversight, has allowed illegal gold mining operations to flourish, highlighting the urgent need for systemic reform, stronger international cooperation, and robust supply chain traceability measures.
Weak legal frameworks and enforcement capacity across Amazon Basin countries hinder effective responses, as differing legal definitions of environmental crimes, corruption in local institutions, and changing regulations enable impunity and make coordinated action against these converging threats difficult.
In Colombia, the fight against environmental crime and corruption has seen a major success through the establishment of CONALDEF (National Council to Combat Deforestation), a high-level coordination body created in response to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling demanding stronger protection of the Amazon. CONALDEF brings together government entities and other actors to develop and implement policies, strategies, and joint actions aimed at halting deforestation and safeguarding Colombia’s forests. With a focus on priority areas like the Amazon, CONALDEF tackles key drivers of environmental crime, such as illegal mining, while also protecting environmental defenders and engaging local communities in policy design.
The event included interactive breakout rooms where participants could dive deeper into key themes. Below are a few key takeaways from the discussions:
🔹 Transparency, Accountability & Open Data
🔹 Law Enforcement & Prosecution
🔹 Community engagement, Border Regions & Local Monitoring
Useful resources:
Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum, 2024, Takeaways on the US role in illicit financial flows related to environmental crimes in the Amazon.
Basel Institute on Governance, 2022, Targeting Profit: Non-Conviction Based Forfeiture in Environmental Crime
FACT Coalition, 2024, Money Laundering from Environmental Crime: Typologies and Trends in Countries in the Amazon Region
WWF, Crime Convergence: Natural Resource Exploitation and Transnational Organized Crime
Igarapé Institute, 2024, Dynamics of the Ecosystem of Environmental Crime in the Legal Amazon
Igarapé Institute, 2023, FOLLOW THE MONEY: how environmental crime is handled by anti-money laundering systems in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru
The full recording of the presentations from the 29 April 7th Plenary session is available here. To enable English subtitles, please click the 'CC' button on the video: