The upcoming Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP) in Cali is a major opportunity to make global progress on protecting nature. But as with all high-level international fora, the CBD COP has its fair share of complexity.

Based on discussions with members of the Nature Crime Alliance – some of whom are engaging with the CBD process for the first time at COP16 – the Alliance Secretariat convened a webinar to help civil society organisations better understand how the CBD COP works, and provide advice on how to make the most of their participation in this key global summit.

Dr Susan Lieberman, Vice President, International Policy, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Dr Chip Barber, Director, Natural Resources Governance and Policy, World Resources Institute, shared insights from their deep experience in engaging with the CBD process.

Watch the webinar in full

For more information, please contact Luke Foddy, Communications Manager: luke.foddy@wri.org

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and World Forest ID shared insights from their work during the latest ‘Meet the Nature Crime Alliance’ webinar on Thursday 3 October.

Covering issues across wildlife crime, timber traceability, and the global landscape of criminalisation for environmental offences, the webinar brought members of the Nature Crime Alliance together to share information and ideas.

Watch the webinar in full

Tanya Wyatt, Lead Researcher, Crimes that Affect the Environment, UNODC, unpacked highlights from the Landscape of Criminalization report, part of the Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment.

Katalin Kecse-Nagy, Wildlife Crime Research Officer, UNODC, shared highlights from the 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report, including some of the solutions that are working in the fight against these crimes.

Jade Saunders, Executive Director of World Forest ID, provided updates on the non-profit’s science-based traceability efforts, including some good advice for organisations seeking to build relationships with law enforcement.

Moderated by Luke Foddy, Communications Manager, Nature Crime Alliance, the session also included remarks from Dr Chip Barber, Director, Natural Resources Governance and Policy, World Resources Institute.

Learn more about our memebers’ work

If you’d like to find out more about the work showcased during the webinar, you can contact the speakers directly:

Tanya Wyatt: tanya.wyatt@un.org

Katalin Kecse-Nagy: katalin.kecsenagy@un.org

Jade Saunders: jade.saunders@worldforestid.org

If you are a member of the Nature Crime Alliance and would like to be featured in a future webinar, please contact Luke Foddy: luke.foddy@wri.org

The complexities of fisheries crime require different sectors to work more closely together, according to Braddock Spear, Global Policy Director at the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP).

Speaking to the Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat, Spear highlighted the multi-dimensional challenges posed by these crimes – and why they need a multi-sector response.

“It’s a really complicated matter and there are many different factors,” Spear said, citing political sensitivities – including issues around state sovereignty and national security – and the murky layers of corruption that shroud the organised crime networks plundering the ocean.

“We need various actors and sectors to come together and to work together.”

This was a factor in SFP’s decision to join the Nature Crime Alliance when it launched in 2023. Only by working with a wide group of stakeholders involved in different aspects of this complicated issue, building bridges across sectors, and increasing coordination and information-sharing, will success be found.

Watch: Braddock Spear on SFP’s engagement with the Nature Crime Alliance

“The seafood industry has a really key role to play in identifying illegal fishing risks, and in taking steps to close down the markets for those illegal products,” Spear said. “Producing countries, meanwhile, need good fisheries management, they need good monitoring and enforcement systems, while importing countries need the regulations and the checks required to ensure illegal products are identified.

“International institutions, such as UN agencies, also have an important role to play in intelligence sharing or in running campaigns that raise awareness of the issue.”

Bringing together these actors – industry players, governments, international and civil society organisations, innovators – to find solutions to the different parts of the puzzle is “critical” in the fight against illegal fishing, Spear added, highlighting the value of multi-sector initiatives such as the Nature Crime Alliance, which drives engagement across different sectors.

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Case study: Multi-sector collaboration leads to ‘historic decision’ on human rights

In February 2024, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) endorsed plans to address human rights abuses in distant water fishing fleets, alongside measures to improve monitoring, control, and surveillance in the jumbo flying squid industry. The outcome followed a multi-sector push from 30 major seafood companies, industry associations, and governments. While not all measures proposed were adopted, the agreed measures marked a major step forward in tackling illegal fishing and associated human rights abuses at sea.

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An impactful platform

“To date, the Alliance has supported SFP in a couple of different ways,” he said.

“The Alliance, under WRI’s leadership and coordination, gives us a really impactful platform of organisations that are already aligned for fighting environmental crimes. This includes organisations that we haven’t previously worked with.”

SFP is a member of an Alliance working group that focuses on tools and technology in combating illegal fishing. This forum provided an opportunity for SFP to share its new guidelines for designing electronic monitoring programmes, receiving constructive feedback from other organisations in the working group that has strengthened the product.  

SFP was also given a platform at an Alliance webinar to discuss its new fishery IDs tool, developed with FAO. “We got to hear some interesting reactions and feedback from the group,” Spear said. “It’s just really valuable for us.”

Yet these tools and systems that SFP is building will not work in isolation.  

“The truth is, this won’t work – we cannot do it – in a vacuum,” said Spear. “We need collaborators, we need groups from other sectors, we need alignment, particularly with governments and international organisations to bring these systems and the industry’s influence to a global scale.”

This is where the Nature Crime Alliance will continue to add value, he contends.

“More and more, looking ahead, SFP will be tapping into the network or the Alliance to look for those collaboration opportunities.”

Fisheries crime is a major focus of the Nature Crime Alliance, whose members include SFP, FishWise, Fisheries Transparency Initiative, and Outlaw Ocean.

The Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat briefed government officials during the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Implementation Review Group meeting in Vienna this month. 

Lynn Schlingemann, Senior Associate, Financial Crime and Corruption, Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat, participated in a meeting of the Group of Friends on Crimes that Affect the Environment, chaired by France and Peru.

The session convened experts from civil society to share insights on environmental crime and its convergences with other forms of serious organised crime to better inform government representatives working on the UNCAC and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). Schlingemann presented on illegal mining and the financial crimes associated with these activities.

The Wildlife Justice Commission, a founding member of the Nature Crime Alliance, also participated in the session, alongside the UNCAC Coalition and Transparency International.

Participants from the 14 governments represented noted the value of the briefings, highlighting the importance of multi-sector collaboration between governments and civil society – a key tenet of the Nature Crime Alliance.

The Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat supported IUCN’s US Regional Conservation Forum (RCF) in August, facilitating two sessions on nature crime.  

IUCN, a member of the Nature Crime Alliance, convened its US RCF in Arlington, Virginia, with more than 100 participants from across IUCN Member organisations, IUCN Commissions, and other partners. The RCF is held every four years.

The Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat’s Elodie Perrat, Senior Government Engagement Manager, and Frazer McGilvray, Consultant, held two workshops during the Forum to raise awareness of nature crime issues and explore ways for IUCN to approach this challenge ahead of its World Conservation Congress in 2025.

“We had an engaging discussion on elevating the issue of nature crime within IUCN’s agenda for the upcoming years,” Perrat said. “We’re eager to see the impact our collaborative efforts will have on advancing this crucial topic.”

IUCN has catalysed collective change for 75 years – creating a living legacy for the preservation of nature. As it approaches its centenary, the Union has an opportunity to reaffirm its direction and recommit to bring about critical change for nature.

Find out more about IUCN here.

Image: From left to right – Frazer McGilvray and Elodie Perrat, Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat, with Grethel Aguilar, Director General, IUCN; Tracy Farrell, Director, North American Regional Office, IUCN; and Natalie Cox, Program Officer, Commission on Education and Communication, North America Regional Office, IUCN.

Peru is the latest government to join the Nature Crime Alliance in recognition of the need for international, multi-sector collaboration to counter crimes that harm people and planet.

Peru has made significant strides in addressing nature crimes, enabling the implementation of more effective strategies and policies. Yet, as with many countries rich in natural resources, Peru continues to face significant challenges linked to nature crime, with criminal forms of wildlife trade, logging, land conversion, and gold mining remaining a major concern.

By joining the Alliance, Peru stands to benefit from gaining access to the expertise from across this global, multi-sector network, which includes governments, law enforcement, and civil society, international, inter-governmental, and Indigenous Peoples’ organisations. Through the facilitation of the Alliance Secretariat, hosted by World Resources Institute with participation from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Peruvian policymakers will also have the opportunity to engage in solutions-focused working groups and initiatives with Alliance members.

The Alliance currently includes more than 40 members, with the Secretariat managing projects on a range of issues including the use of tools and technology in fighting nature crime; disrupting financial activity and corruption linked to these crimes; and supporting front line defenders, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Peru will help enhance the Alliance’s collective efforts by bringing in its national and regional experience in combating these crimes, including strengthening regional cooperation in the Amazon region.

Gustavo Laurie, Ambassador of Peru in Norway, commented: “By joining the Nature Crime Alliance Peru is not only wishing to obtain benefits from its membership but is also committing itself to advance in the fight against all criminal activities negatively impacting nature, including in the Amazon basin. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, primarily through its Embassy in Norway, aims at ensuring a unified and consistent Peruvian contribution to the Alliance by undertaking effective multisectoral coordination and consultation. This endeavor is not exempted of challenges, but we are determined to overcome them.”

The Co-Chairs of the Alliance’s Steering Committee, Hans Brattskar, Special Envoy in the Ministry of Climate and Environment, Norway, and Christine Dawson, Director of the Office of Conservation and Water, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, US Department of State, commented: “The shared global challenges we face from nature crime cannot be addressed by single governments alone. We need a coordinated and collaborative response that draws on expertise and learnings from different sectors and recognises where efforts can be enhanced. The Nature Crime Alliance is creating the framework for this international collaboration, and we are delighted that Peru has joined the initiative. Together, we can end crimes against people and planet.”

The Director of the Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat, Yulia Stange, commented: “Joining the Alliance represents a commitment to tackle a global challenge that affects us all. We are pleased that Peru has joined the initiative in recognition of the value of international and inter-sector collaboration. Several Alliance members have active projects in Peru, and we look forward to deepening our engagement.”

The Nature Crime Alliance includes governments from Africa, Europe, North America and South America. For more information, please contact Luke Foddy at luke.foddy@wri.org

WWF is the latest organisation to join the Nature Crime Alliance – a global, multi-sector network that raises political will, mobilises finanical commitment, and bolsters operational capacity to fight nature crime.

For more than 60 years, WWF has worked to help people and nature thrive. Today, it operates in nearly 100 countries to conserve and restore nature and tackle climate change.

WWF joins the Nature Crime Alliance to further its work on a range of issues that converge with Alliance members, including financial crime related to land conversion and the disruption of illegal wildlife trade.   

Nature crime – criminal forms of logging, mining, fishing, wildlife trade and land conversion – threatens ecosystems, undermines global biodiversity and climate goals, and robs governments and communities of resources and revenue. These activities regularly converge with other forms of serious organised crime, including drugs and arms trafficking, and often give rise to human rights violations.

The Alliance has been formed in response to this critical global issue, and brings together governments, law enforcement, civil society, international organisations and frontline defenders, including Indigenous People and local communities, to build greater collaboration in response to these crimes.

Crawford Allan, Vice President, Nature Crimes and Policy Advocacy, WWF, commented: “WWF has worked for decades to tackle the combined threats of nature crime that devastate our wild places and undercut natural resource equity for vulnerable economies and communities. Joining the Nature Crime Alliance brings WWF’s experience, resources, and reach to bear alongside the governments and partners in the Alliance, as a unified front to counter the criminal operations that drive and profit from environmental degradation.”

Yulia Stange, Director of the Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat, commented: “WWF has a strong record of success in driving initiatives that tackle nature crime and protect biodiversity. Through joining the Alliance, WWF can deepen collaboration with our multi-sector membership and help scale solutions to nature crime into new regions and contexts.”

The Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat is hosted by WRI, with participation from UNDOC.

For more information, please contact Luke Foddy, Communications Manager, at luke.foddy@wri.org

The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) has joined the Nature Crime Alliance to further its mandate to channel innovative ideas from within and outside the United Nations system.

UNICRI works in specialised niches and selected areas related to crime prevention, criminal justice, security governance, counter-terrorism, and the risks and benefits of technological advances. Headquartered in Italy, the Institute has a strong focus on nature crime, particularly the illegal extraction of minerals – an activity that threatens to grow more frequent amid the global energy transition.

Since 1998, UNICRI has been at the forefront of addressing crimes against nature and the planet by enhancing knowledge, building capacities, and shaping legal reforms, including defining crimes against the environment. The Institute has led numerous international projects to prevent and combat such offenses, with a specific focus on illegal mining and the trafficking of precious metals, as well as mitigating risks associated with the illicit trafficking of e-waste, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear materials. UNICRI is also addressing the role of climate insecurity in exacerbating local conflicts and violent extremism, aiming to strengthen the resilience of governments and civil society.

These offenses severely degrade air, water, and soil quality, adversely affecting human health, endangering species, triggering disasters, and depriving communities of essential resources, thereby posing significant threats to peace, safety, and development.

Leif Villadsen, Acting Director of UNICRI, emphasized the importance of the partnership with the Nature Crime Alliance, commenting: “We are grateful for this crucial partnership. The intricate relationship between environmental crimes and other criminal activities, such as financial crimes and supply chain violations, requires detailed analysis, enhanced training, and a coordinated international response. Our collaboration with the Alliance is crucial to effectively tackle the challenges of nature crime, develop innovative solutions, raise awareness, and amplify the impact of our joint strategies, particularly in combating illegal mining.”

UNICRI becomes the latest international organisation to join the Alliance, which also includes the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, INTERPOL, and the UN Environment Programme. The Institute has a deep involvement with nature crime issues, running an annual ‘winter school’ on environmental crime.

Yulia Stange, Director of the Nature Crime Alliance Secretariat, commented: “UN bodies represent an essential forum for positive change on nature crime, so we are delighted to welcome UNICRI into the Alliance to strengthen our network’s engagement with UN processes and to develop research-based solutions to key issues.

“The Institute’s increasing research focus on illegal mining offers particular synergies with the Alliance’s activities, and we look forward to making progress on this key challenge together.”

The Nature Crime Alliance is a global, multi-sector network that increases political will, mobilises financial commitment, and bolsters operational capacity to fight nature crime. The Secretariat is hosted by the World Resources Institute, with participation from UNODC.

View all members of the Nature Crime Alliance

The online ivory trade in the EU, illegal gold mining in the Amazon, and the role of US transnational whistleblower laws in fighting environmental crime were all explored during the second edition of the ‘Meet the Nature Crime Alliance’ webinar series.

Eugénie Pimont, Wildlife Cybercrime Officer at IFAW, presented findings from the recent report, ‘The Elephant in the Net: Research snapshot of the online ivory trade after the adoption of the new EU rules’, which highlights how ivory is still being widely sold in several European countries despite tougher rules being introduced across the EU in 2022 aimed at limiting the trade. Eugénie’s presentation (see slides here) was a stark reminder of the challenges posed by online marketplaces in the context of nature crime – something the Alliance is focusing on in its supply chain choke points workstream.

If you’d like to know more about IFAW’s work in this area, you can reach Eugénie at: epimont@ifaw.org

Turning to South America, Matt Finer and Nadia Mamani from Amazon Conservation Association shared insights from their ‘Monitoring the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), with a focus on illegal gold mining in Peru. Matt, the Director of MAAP, showed that gold mining in the region takes place in several different contexts, while Nadia, Senior GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist, provided insights on how Amazon Conservation is working with local communities to bring their findings to the attention of law enforcement. You can reach Matt and Nadia at: mfiner@amazonconservation.org and nmamani@amazonconservation.org respectively.

The session also heard from Steve Kohn, Founding Partner at KKC and Chair of the National Whistleblower Center, who shared his perspectives on how existing US transnational whistleblower laws can be used for effective nature crime enforcement. Steve stressed the value of these laws in prosecuting and deterring perpetrators of nature crime, but noted that this value is widely unknown among many stakeholders. This includes the potential funding available for CSOs through successful prosecutions and sanction revenue. See Steve’s slides here. Contact Steve at: stephen.kohn@kkc.com.

The ‘Meet the Nature Crime Alliance’ webinar series aims to showcase Alliance members in short, concise sessions that can spark future engagement. This session, which took place on 29 May, also featured an update from the Alliance Director, Yulia Stange.

If your organisation is an Alliance member and you would like to take part in future webinars, please contact luke.foddy@wri.org

Watch the first edition of the webinar series, featuring Earth League International, Wildlife Justice Commission and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, here.  

The second edition of the ‘Meet the Nature Crime Alliance’ webinar takes place on Wednesday 29 May at 10am ET / 4pm CET.

Eugénie Pimont from the International Fund for Animal Welfare will present findings from the recent report, ‘The Elephant in the Net: Research snapshot of the online ivory trade after the adoption of the new EU rules’.

Matt Finer and Nadia Mamani from Amazon Conservation Association will share insights from their work mapping illegal gold mining in Peru.

And Steve Kohn, National Whistleblower Center, will share his perspectives on how existing US transnational whistleblower reward laws are being utilised for effective nature crime enforcement.

We hope you can join us.

Register here