Wildlife and forest crimes are transnational crimes where corruption is known to play a pivotal role in their facilitation and growth. Annually, illegal wildlife trade alone is estimated to range from $7 billion to $23 billion while illegal timber trade ranges between $30 billion to $100 billion.
EIA has been working closely with a network of activists to set up an innovative system for forest monitoring in Aceh, a province on the very western tip of Indonesia hosting some of the richest forests in Asia, especially the peerless Leuser Ecosystem which is home to Sumatran tigers, elephants, orangutans and rhinos
From EIA’s perspective, corruption is a key enabling factor in environmental crime, especially the theft of natural resources. Research has shown that the more affected it is by corruption, the poorer a country’s environmental performance – a theoretical link borne out by the findings of many EIA field investigations
The conference is an important event and will be attended by a host of global companies seeking to implement zero-deforestation policies in their production or procurement of commodities such as palm oil and timber, pulp and paper, rubber, soya and beef.
Field studies by EIA in Indonesia, Myanmar, Russia, Laos, Vietnam, Mozambique, Madagascar and China have found China’s demand for timber is driving illegal logging with serious global consequence, irreparably damaging forest ecosystems, pushing down incomes in forest communities and driving corruption and conflict
We are famous for our undercover and campaigning work; however, less well known is our work training local partners. We provide capacity-building training workshops in countries such as Tanzania, Indonesia and, Vietnam. we use knowledge and experience to help people to carry out their own investigations.