DONATE

Media Monitoring Programme

EIA’s Media Monitoring Programme (MMP) is an innovative project seeking to shut wildlife and forest criminals out of the global financial system while contributing towards anti-money laundering frameworks

What is the MMP?

The Media Monitoring Programme helps financial institutions to curb the huge money flows associated with wildlife and environmental crimes such as the illicit trades relating to elephants, pangolins, rhinos, Asian big cats and totoaba fish, as well as timber from illegal logging.

The programme aims to compile information from a range of open media sources naming individuals implicated in wildlife crime. This information is provided to financial institutions to assist with due diligence and Know Your Customer checks to help them avoid doing business with wildlife traffickers. The MMP therefore provides a framework for effective information-sharing with the financial sector, facilitating improved due diligence and risk monitoring.

Nigerian currency ©️ Simon EIA 2021

Nigerian currency ©️ Simon EIA 2021

What’s the impact?

EIA took over management of the Media Monitoring Programme from Liberty Shared in 2021 and has been feeding data into it since 2017.

As of May 2024, the information supplied since 2021 has led to  more than 3,300 new profiles being created or updated across recipient databases for the financial sector to draw on. It has made more than 7,700 submissions of profiles of individuals and entities in global criminal justice systems to partners which include due diligence companies and various financial institutions such as banking groups and money service providers.

This information facilitates improved due diligence and risk monitoring within the financial sector, consequently reducing the ability of perpetrators involved in wildlife and environmental crime to move their money through the global financial system. .

The Media Monitoring Programme was highlighted as a good example of NGO and financial sector collaboration by the Financial Action Task Force in its 2020 report Money Laundering and the illegal Wildlife Trade. It was also included as a key recommendation in the Centre for Global Advancement’s 2022 report on Environmental Defender List.

How can you take part?

Financial sector companies
If you belong to a bank or private sector financial institution responsible for identifying money laundering and would like to receive regular data on environmental crime, please contact the Media Monitoring Programme.

Civil society organisations or data contributors
We welcome collaboration with other organisations which collect environmental crime information. If you collect data on crime incidents linked to environmental issues and would like to contribute data to the programme, please contact the Media Monitoring Programme.

Contact us

Related