Forest loss and corruption: Alliance hosts side event at UNCAC CoSP10

As a legally-binding treaty, the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is one of the best tools we have in the fight against corruption. At the UNCAC Conference of the States Parties (COSP10) in Atlanta (11-15 December 2023), UNODC held a special session on fighting corruption to protect the environment. The Nature Crime Alliance co-organised a side event focused on forest loss and corruption during this ‘mega event’, with the Alliance’s Lynn Schlingemann, Senior Associate, Financial Crime and Corruption, sharing insights on the panel.

Moderated by Martha Chizuma, Director-General of Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, the session featured case studies from Brazil presented by Renato Madsen Arruda, Coordinator-General for the Protection of the Amazon, the Environment and Historical and Cultural Heritage, Federal Police, Brazil, and Edson Fábio Garutti Moreira, Head of Institutional Coordination Unit at Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

Erica Hanichak, Government Affairs Director at the FACT Coalition, spoke to the Coalition’s recent Dirty Money report, while Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Vice-Chair, Transparency International, and Executive Director, Transparency International Madagascar, shared thoughts on TI’s work in this space. Findings from a new UNODC report were also discussed by Pierre Bertels, a diplomat from the Embassy of Belgium in Vienna, before Mats Benestad, Director of Research Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway, gave the closing remarks.

We highly recommend catching up on the other side events during the session, which were organised by UNODC and the Basel Institute alongside a range of partners including members of the UNCAC Coalition Working Group on Environmental Crime and Corruption.

View the sessions on the Basel Institute’s YouTube channel.