RRI joins Alliance to further work on nature crime

The Nature Crime Alliance is pleased to welcome Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) as its latest member.

RRI is a global coalition of 21 partners and more than 200 rightsholders organisations encompassing a range of stakeholders such as community leaders, organisers, researchers, journalists, human rights defenders, and lawyers.

Its mission is to support Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities against marginalisation, and in building sustainable, self-determined development. RRI promotes greater global commitment and action towards policy, market, and legal reforms that secure these communities’ rights to own, control, and benefit from natural resources, especially land and forests.

RRI joins the Alliance as it seeks to deepen its understanding of nature crime and the impact of these illicit activities on Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

This is an issue that the  Alliance focuses on through activities such as the Indigenous Peoples and Frontline Defenders working group, convened in partnership with Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International.

This working group has a focus on training communities to use monitoring technologies to help protect their lands – activities that align with RRI’s increasing interest in community protection strategies, including community-led monitoring.

Keith Slack, Senior Director of Programs, Rights and Resources Initiative, commented: “The Rights and Resources Initiative is proud to join the Nature Crime Alliance in advancing collective action to confront environmental crime. Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples are on the frontlines of defending the world’s most threatened ecosystems.

“By working together through this Alliance, we can strengthen efforts to secure their rights, protect nature, and ensure justice and accountability across global supply chains.” 

Environmental crimes and their convergences with other forms of serious organised crime are a major driver of illegal land conversion, forest loss, and human rights abuses, as highlighted in a recent WRI Insights article by Dr Charles ‘Chip’ Barber, Director of the Nature Crime Alliance. As a member of the Alliance, RRI can not only access resources and expertise, but can also empower communities to shape solutions to this global challenge.

Chip commented: “Nature crime is a clear and present danger to Indigenous Peoples and local communities. By joining the Alliance, RRI will gain access to a supportive network that can help develop strategies to counter these crimes and safeguard communities’ lands and rights. RRI also enriches the Alliance with knowledge and expertise, and we’re delighted to welcome them to our network.”

View all members of the Nature Crime Alliance.