Based on extensive research and collaboration with global financial institutions, we have published this report, Financial Crimes and Land Conversion: Uncovering Risk for Financial Institutions, which brings attention to the issues of deforestation and land conversion through a financial crime lens.
It shines a light on:
- The reputational, operational, and regulatory risks associated with land conversion for financial institutions.
- The convergence of land conversion with an array of financial crimes.
- The inextricable link to human rights violations across the world.
Research Report - Financial Crimes and Land Conversion: Uncovering Risk for Financial Institutions
Land Conversion and Deforestation Resources
Land conversion refers to a substantial and sustained change of a natural ecosystem (including via the introduction of different land management practices) to another land use or a profound change in its species composition, structure or function. The definition encompasses all sorts of ecosystems, for example: forest, grassland, marshland, peatland, mangrove swamps, and savannah.
Deforestation is a specific type of land conversion and one that has, perhaps, hitherto attracted the most global attention: the conversion of natural forest to agricultural or other non-forest land use or to a tree plantation; or severe and sustained degradation of natural forest (for example, through the felling of trees for timber).
We urge financial institutions to consider the wider issue of land conversion—covering a more expansive range of land types and ecosystems—beyond just deforestation in their approach.
In the Media
- Major investors are failing to track exposure to land conversion
- Assessment report on land degradation and restoration
- Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation
- Species and landscapes
- Risks from misalignment of banks’ financing with the EU climate objectives
- Assessing the financial impact of the land use transition on the food and agriculture sector
- The threat of environmental crime
- Money laundering from environmental crime
- A charcoal syndicate threatening Virunga
- Gender-based violence and the environment
- Tax havens and global environmental degradation
- Uncovering the U.S. role in illicit financial flows from environmental crimes in Peru and Colombia
- Financial investigations into wildlife crime in East Africa
- Organized crime groups pushing environmental security to tipping point
- Crimes in the forest sector
- Trafficking in wildlife and timber
- Drug cartels getting into the avocado and lime business
- Urbanisation
- Global resource initiative
- Trafficking in Mozambique
- Illicit networks and politics in Latin America
- Overview of environmental risk analysis by financial institutions
- Seedlings of hope: Addressing corruption linked to crimes that impact the environment in line with UNCAC resolution 8/12
- Protect and restore forests by 2030
- Deforestation exposes coastal cities
- How deforestation risks for investors can become opportunities for conservation
- Banking beyond deforestation
- Deforestation dividends
- Guatemala national park nearing ‘collapse’ amid land grabbing, deforestation.
- Tackling the deforestation on supermarket shelves
- Brazilian Amazon deforestation up 150% in Bolsonaro’s last month
- Extracted forests
- What are the biggest drivers of tropical deforestation?
- Financial companies linked to deforestation
- Illegal deforestation in UK supply chains
- Guatemala forest industry
- US sanctions Brazil deforesters
- Climate change financial risks
- Deforestation: As much a financial crime as an ESG issue
- Deforestation inc. an ICIJ investigation
- Majority of financial institutions still failing to address deforestation as part of their net-zero commitments
- Tree Spotting: Detecting deforestation risks one company at a time
- The role of supply-chain initiatives in reducing deforestation
- Deforestation surges in Cerrado but wanes in the Amazon
- How Brazil’s government is clearing the way for deforestation
- Laundering cattle
- Secret airstrips gutting the Amazon
- Amazon governments set sights on narco-deforestation
- Amazon facing ‘urgent’ crime crisis after gutting of protections
- Crime and corruption in the Amazon
- The Trans-Amazonian Highway
- Regional collaboration to address the impacts of mercury pollution in the Amazon
- Tax havens and Brazilian Amazon deforestation
- The largest land grab in the Brazilian Amazon
- Destruction of the Amazon
- Transnational gangs terrorising the Amazon
- Beef, banks and the Brazilian Amazon
- French banks face a complaint for money laundering and hiding proceeds from illegal Amazon deforestation
- Amazon destruction
- Organised crime drives violence and deforestation amazon, study shows
- Illegal gold mining and its threat on indigenous people
- Impact of illegal gold mining in Latin America
- Trail of illicit gold proceeds
- Gold mines in Latin America
- Illegal gold rush is fueling corruption
- Illegally mined gold in Latin America
- Colombian gold enriches criminal groups
- Colombia alluvial gold output area up 3% with a large majority of illegality
- Illegally source gold in Brazil
- Half of the worlds GDP relies on nature
- Why the crisis engulfing nature matters for the Economy
- Financial institutions must address deforestation
- The challenges of trade financing
- How the banking industry can help halt and reverse deforestation
- The rosewood and ebony trade of Madagascar
- Proceeds from financial crime
- Sustainable finance in the EU
- Congo illegal trade
- Corruption in Congo
- Wildlife trade report
- Sustainability due diligence and reporting obligations for financial institutions
- Why sustainable palm oil is better than boycotting
- Ecosystem services
- Global diversity
- Deforestation and social risks
- Renewable energy
- Blood diamonds
- Colombia cocoa economy crashes
- Honduras palm oil corruption
- Palm oil
- Papua New Guinea palm oil
- Netherlands largest EU importer of soy, palm oil and cocoa
- Timber trade in East Africa
- China's timber market
- The roadmap to financing deforestation-free commodities
- Eliminating commodity-driven deforestation
Dashboards, Trackers, Geospatial Data and Other Data Sources
- Forest 500: https://forest500.org/
- Global canopy: https://globalcanopy.org/
- Global Forest Watch: https://www.globalforestwatch.org/ and Global Forest Watch: https://pro.globalforestwatch.org/
- USGS earth explorer: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
- Google earth engine: https://earthengine.google.com/
- MapBiomas: https://mapbiomas.org/
- SEDAC: https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/
- FAO's land use and land cover database: https://data.apps.fao.org/map/catalog/srv/eng/catalog.search#/home
- Copernicus land monitoring service (CLMS): https://land.copernicus.eu/en
- TRASE: https://trase.earth/
- Space intelligence: https://www.space-intelligence.com/about-us/
- Land & carbon lab: https://www.landcarbonlab.org/about
- World resource institute: https://www.wri.org/data
- Environmental justice atlas: https://ejatlas.org/
- Land matrix: https://landmatrix.org/
- Nusantara atlas: https://nusantara-atlas.org/
- WRI RADD: https://www.wri.org/events/2021/5/advances-forest-monitoring-alert-systems
- Dynamic world: https://dynamicworld.app/
- MapHubs: https://www.maphubs.com/
- IBAT (Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool): https://www.ibat-alliance.org/ (in particular, the World Database on Protected Areas and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas).
- Global environment crime tracker: https://eia-international.org/global-environmental-crime-tracker/
- Global forest watch: https://www.globalforestwatch.org/
- Wildlife crime tech: https://wildlifecrimetech.org/index
- Global fishing watch: https://globalfishingwatch.org/
- Environmental investigation agency: https://eia-international.org/
- Interpol environmental crime programme: https://www.interpol.int/en/Crimes/Environmental-crime
- Traffic: https://www.traffic.org/
- Eye on earth: https://www.eyesonearth.org/
- Enforcement database (Convention on International Trade in Endangered species - CITES): https://cites.org/eng/prog/imp/enf/introduction
- UN human rights treaty body database.
- Land portal geoportal
- Landmark map of indigenous and community lands and land rights.
- Verite commodities atlas (country level data on the risk of child and forced labour in commodity supply chains).
- Environmental justice atlas
- Global witness annual report on the killings of land and environmental defenders over the prior 12 months.
International Organisations and Initiatives:
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): https://www.unep.org/
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): https://www.fao.org/home/en/
- World Wildlife Fund (WWF): https://www.worldwildlife.org/
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC): https://www.nature.org/en-us/
- Global Environment Facility (GEF): https://www.thegef.org/
- Conservation International (CI): https://www.conservation.org/
- Rainforest Alliance: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/
- Global Witness: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/
- Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/
- Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/
- Preferred by Nature: https://www.preferredbynature.org/
- Ceres: https://www.ceres.org/nature
- Accountability Framework: https://accountability-framework.org/
- NDPE: No Deforestation, Peat, and Exploitation
- ClientEarth: https://www.clientearth.org/about/
- Forest Stewardship Council: https://info.fsc.org/certificate.php
- Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil: https://rspo.org/members/acop
Governmental and Regional Initiatives:
- European Union (EU) green deal: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
- China's grain for green program: https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1374988/
- African Commission on human and peoples' rights: https://achpr.au.int/
- US Bureau of International Labour Affairs: List of goods produced by child labour or forced labour: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods
- EU zero deforestation hub: https://zerodeforestationhub.eu/
Private Sector:
- Amazon conversion team: https://www.amazonteam.org/
- Nestlé's responsible sourcing initiative: https://www.sustainablesourcing.info/
- Unilever's sustainable agriculture code: https://www.unilever.com/
- Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): https://www.cdp.net/en/forests
- Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) SPOTT: https://www.spott.org/
- Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure: https://encore.naturalcapital.finance/
- EU REDD Facility and Climate Policy Initiative's land use finance tool: https://landusefinance.org/
- Forest Trends' supply chain initiative: https://www.forest-trends.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017SupplyChange_Trackin-Committments.pdf
Non-Governmental Organizations:
- Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org/global/
- Friends of the Earth: https://foe.org/
- World Resources Institute (WRI): https://www.wri.org/
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC): https://www.nature.org/en-us/
- Rainforest Alliance: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/
- Forest Peoples Programme (FPP): https://www.forestpeoples.org/
- Conservation International: https://www.conservation.org/
- University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CSIL): https://www.wri.org/data
- Stockholm University research initiative: https://www.su.se/english/research/research-projects/bringing-the-social-dimension-into-deforestation-free-supply-chain-initiatives
- Forest trends: https://www.forest-trends.org/
- Swedwatch: https://swedwatch.org/about-swedwatch/
- WWF Scorecards on palm, soy, timber
The Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit is developed by WWF and Themis, with support from the Climate Solutions Partnership (CSP). The CSP is a philanthropic collaboration between HSBC, WRI and WWF, with a global network of local partners, aiming at scaling up innovative nature-based solutions, and supporting the transition of the energy sector to renewables in Asia, by combining our resources, knowledge, and insight.