Nature crime whistleblowers recognised as NWC joins Alliance

The National Whistleblower Center (NWC) has joined the Nature Crime Alliance to strengthen its work protecting and incentivising whistleblowers who report environmental crimes.

As a leading nonprofit dedicated to protecting and rewarding whistleblowers around the world, NWC helps assist whistleblowers in finding legal aid, advocate for stronger whistleblower protection laws, and educate the public about whistleblowers’ critical role in protecting democracy and the rule of law.

“Combatting nature crime is impossible without whistleblowers, but strategies to combat nature crimes fail to fully deploy proven best-practice whistleblower programs,” Siri Nelson, Executive Director at NWC, said.

“We need to flip the risk-dynamic for nature-crime whistleblowers by establishing laws and reporting mechanisms which protect the anonymity of whistleblowers and incentivize whistleblowers to come forward by providing large monetary rewards. Under this model, whistleblowers can become the biggest asset to those fighting nature crime.”

By joining the Alliance, NWC will engage with members from across different sectors to develop solutions to support individuals who expose and highlight the illegal exploitation of nature.

Yulia Stange, Director of the Alliance, commented: “Whistleblowers play a crucial role in exposing nature crime, often at extreme personal risk. By working with NWC, we hope we can build the support systems needed to encourage and protect whistleblowers which, in turn, will lead to more prosecutions of the perpetrators of these crimes.”