Takeaways on Land Corruption and the Environment: What’s at Stake?

Speakers: Elaine Geyer-Allély - Senior Director, Inclusive Conservation and Governance at WWF, Roberto Martínez B. Kukutschka - Research Expert at Transparency International, and Jonathan Ochom - Land Governance Specialist at Transparency International

Land Corruption as a Form of Broader Corruption: Land corruption is not fundamentally different from corruption in other sectors. It involves the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, often at the intersection of public and private interests. Due to the significant resources and decision-making involved in land management, the potential for corruption is high, and the social costs, such as displacement or the misallocation of land, are significant.
The Connection Between Corruption and Environmental Issues: Corruption in land management has a direct impact on environmental degradation. It distorts land and environmental regulations, hinders effective policy implementation, and contributes to issues like illegal logging and land grabbing. Corruption also impedes efforts to address climate change and environmental health, creating a vicious cycle of poor governance and environmental harm.
Lack of Transparency Fuels Corruption: Countries with high levels of land-related corruption also tend to have low levels of transparency in land data. This lack of information enables corruption to thrive, making it difficult to trace land ownership and resulting in vulnerable groups being displaced. Transparency in land management is crucial to combating corruption and ensuring accountability.
Land Corruption Threatens Conservation and Climate Action: Corruption in land use and ownership drives unsustainable practices and illegal land grabs, undermining both local conservation efforts and broader climate action initiatives, such as carbon offset programs and REDD+ schemes.
Violation of Indigenous and Community Rights: Land corruption often leads to displacement, exclusion from decision-making, and encroachment on Indigenous and local communities' territories, intensifying social and environmental risks and hindering their ability to protect their resources and livelihoods.
Gender-based vulnerabilities in conservation: Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders (WEHRDs) are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence and silencing tactics in land-corrupt environments, due to insecure land rights and power imbalances, limiting their participation and leadership in conservation efforts.
Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) is essential: A HRBA ensures land tenure security, free, prior, informed consent, and accountability, addressing the intersection of land corruption and human rights violations. This approach empowers communities, enhances transparency, and leads to more inclusive and effective conservation strategies.
Examples on how land corruption undermines environmental sustainability: Corruption in land governance drives unsustainable land-use practices such as deforestation and illegal land grabs, significantly harming the environment. For example, in India, land corruption leads to the conversion of green spaces into real estate, causing floods due to encroachment on water bodies. Similarly, in Zimbabwe, land barons use political connections to manipulate wetland allocations, selling plots and bribing officials for development, which destroys critical wetland ecosystems. These actions undermine climate resilience and worsen environmental injustices by disenfranchising local communities and accelerating greenhouse gas emissions.
Examples on how strengthening land tenure and transparency is key to combatting corruption: Tackling land corruption involves policy reforms and enhancing land tenure security. In Kenya and Uganda, efforts to digitize land records and improve land data transparency have helped reduce corruption risks, ensuring that communities can secure their land rights. Additionally, land corruption risk mapping tools are being used in several regions to detect vulnerabilities in land governance. Supporting land and environmental defenders is also critical, as seen in Latin America, where many land activists face violence for protecting their communities' land and resources from corrupt actors.

Useful resources:

The full recording of the presentations from the 15 April Land Corruption working group meeting is available here: