Cattle can both themselves be laundered (if they are grazed on land that has been illegally cleared and converted to pasture) and used as a means of laundering criminal proceeds from other exploits, like drugs trafficking. In Brazil, cattle have been laundered to obscure their links to land clearing, when they are moved from ranches that have contributed to land conversion through “clean” ranches that have not resulted in recent forest loss.
In 2009, several Brazilian slaughterhouses signed the Terms of Adjustment of Conduct, an initiative of the Federal Prosecution Office and the Public Commitment on Cattle Ranching, and a voluntary protocol developed by Greenpeace, which precludes them from purchasing cattle reared on deforested land. However, a single cow might pass through up to 10 farms before it is slaughtered (from birth, through rearing and fattening). Any of these farms might be linked to illegal deforestation but many slaughterhouses assess links to deforestation only on the last farm a cow passes through - their direct supplier. As long as the last farm in the supply chain is from a “clean” ranch that is free from recent deforestation then slaughterhouses (and subsequent transporters and retailers, like supermarkets) are likely to mark them as deforestation-free, even if they have spent the majority of their life on and have passed through nine other ranches that have been converted from forested land. Indeed, data indicates that some ranchers own both “dirty” and “clean” ranches and launder cattle through their own properties. So long as one property is kept clean, they can continue to clear land for cattle grazing purposes on any number of other ranches.
Other investigations by Global Witness have found that ranchers have fraudulently edited the boundaries of their ranch once they have cleared areas of land, so that this land conversion is no longer included within the property’s scope and the ranch appears free from deforestation. This is alleged to be the case for the Fazenda Espora de Ouro II Ranch in Brazil’s Pará state, which Global Witness also found appears to be registered in the name of an individual who could not legally be its owner (based on assessment of a database of land titles and beneficiaries).
Cattle can also – and concurrently – be used as a means of laundering the proceeds of illicit activity. Drug traffickers – especially in Colombia (where the traceability of beef produce is particularly poor), Honduras, and Guatemala – are known to launder revenue from drugs by buying or grabbing land which they convert into pasture for cattle, which they also purchase with narcotrafficking proceeds. When the cattle are sold, profits are hard to trace back to the drug network and their illicit proceeds are effectively laundered. This practice, known as “narco-ranching”, is suspected of contributing up to 87% of deforestation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a large UNESCO heritage area of forest which covers over 2 million hectares of rainforest across northern Guatemala and borders other protected forests in Mexico and Belize. The Reserve is highly vulnerable to deforestation by crime groups due to its strategic location along a significant drug trafficking route up through Guatemala and Mexico leading to the US.
Cattle ranching in such areas also frequently serves to hide airstrips and production facilities used by traffickers to produce and transport drugs or other illicit products. Airstrips now pepper the Maya Biosphere reserve, which are used by planes coming in from Colombia and Venezuela with cocaine to be smuggled across the border into Mexico.
Keywords: Latin America, Honduras, primary production, money laundering, illegal deforestation, human trafficking, serious organised crime
Source: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2022/10/19/23403330/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-cattle-laundering
Organised crime groups engaging in drug trafficking and the illicit palm oil trade often exploit environmental reserves in Honduras. There is a rapid spread of oil palm plantations in the country, as palm oil is increasingly a high earning and low production export. Palm oil accounts for about 40% of global demand for vegetable oil as both food and fuel, with annual production having more than quadrupled since 1995. Palm oil, however, presents a serious threat to the biodiversity of the wetlands and the water quality of communities, among other environmental and health threats.
Making matters worse, illegal palm oil crops are increasingly being harvested by drug traffickers and other criminals in Honduras, with illegal plantations occurring across national parks and other environmental reserves. Investment in palm oil can provide criminals with a seemingly legitimate reason to use and control land in certain areas, as well as seemingly legitimate income that can be used to launder criminal proceeds.
Keywords: Latin America, Honduras, palm oil, primary production, serious organised crime, drug trafficking, illegal deforestation, money laundering
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/27/deadly-harvest-how-global-demand-for-palm-oil-is-fuelling-corruption-in-honduras
According to Amnesty International, after Honduran President Xiomara Castro took office in January 2022, he promised to protect national parks and end open-pit mining. However, two years later, communities in Tocoa, living in protected areas of northern Honduras, face increased harassment and violence while defending local rivers crucial for their survival. The report explains that the conflict began in 2012 when the Honduran Congress declared the area a national park, aiming to shield it from heavy industries. However, in 2013, Congress reduced the park’s core area, allowing mining permits to be granted. The establishment and operation of iron mines in the area without proper environmental impact assessments has caused pollution in the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, negatively affecting the local community's water supply. Local communities, claiming they were neither informed nor consulted about these concessions, organised resistance efforts, which were met with brutal repression. In 2019, a violent eviction of a protest camp led to the arrest of many community members. The failure of authorities to adequately investigate the attacks and murders related to this repression reflects systemic neglect and corruption within the country’s governmental systems. The community’s calls for justice have been widely ignored by authorities, with investigations stalled and no arrests made.
Keywords: Latin America, Honduras, minerals, mining, iron, procurement of permit, human rights violations
Sources: https://www.amnesty.org/es/latest/news/2024/01/activists-harassment-killings-protect-rivers-honduras/
In Honduras' Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, organised crime and drug trafficking are significantly contributing to environmental degradation and social instability. The UNESCO site, vital for its biodiversity, faces rampant illegal cattle ranching and land clearing by narcotraffickers seeking to launder money through cattle farming. These criminal groups exploit the absence of effective law enforcement and weak governance, using the remote area to grow their drug operations and clear land for illegal ranching, which destroys forest habitats. Corruption further exacerbates the problem, with local authorities often complicit or powerless against these powerful criminal networks. The unchecked expansion of drug trafficking and organised crime into the reserve not only threatens the environment but also destabilises local communities.
Keywords: Latin America, Honduras, cattle, primary production, serious organised crime, drug trafficking, rule of law, illegal production
Source: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/there-are-no-laws-cattle-drugs-corruption-destroying-honduras-unesco-site/
Illegal timber and drug trafficking are closely intertwined in northeastern Honduras, particularly in the town of Dulce Nombre de Culmí. The nearby forests of pine, mahogany, and cedar feed a timber trade worth around $60-80 million between 2016 and 2018. However, environmental agencies warn that 50-60% of this trade comes from illegal logging, much of it from the country’s northeastern natural reserves where drug trafficking is also prevalent.
Culmí is the last settlement before entering the Río Plátano Biosphere, a protected forest where drug trafficking and illegal logging have crossed paths for over a decade. The mountains and plains surrounding Culmí are dotted with clandestine airstrips, many built during the drug boom a decade ago. These airstrips, carved from the dense forests in the area, were then used to sell wood to timber traffickers and drug trafficking groups.
In Olancho, Yoro, and Gracias a Dios—three departments renowned for their timber production—drug trafficking groups are known to engage in timber trafficking. Groups of farmers, often migrants from the poorest areas of southern Honduras, settle in unpopulated lands in and around the Río Plátano Biosphere. There, they harvest wood illegally, often with protection from corrupt officials and politicians, as well as support from drug trafficking groups.
The wood is usually cut without securing official permission from Honduras’ Institute of Forest Conservation. It is then combined with legal shipments, mostly at the sawmills, either by falsifying logging permits or bribing police responsible for monitoring timber transport. Meanwhile, illegally harvested precious woods, such as mahogany and cedar, usually head north along clandestine routes to the department of Gracias a Dios, and from there to processing hubs such as La Ceiba. These are the same routes that drug shipments travel along.
Keywords: Latin America, Honduras, timber, primary production, drug trafficking, illegal logging, illegal timber trade, fraudulent documentation, corruption and bribery
Source: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/drugs-and-agriculture-cause-deforestation-to-skyrocket-at-honduran-unesco-site/
Jacobs Douwe Egberts' assessment of Honduras reveals significant environmental crimes linked to coffee production, specifically illegal deforestation and land degradation. These practices are driven by the expansion of coffee farms into protected areas and forests, exacerbated by weak enforcement of environmental regulations and insufficient monitoring. The report highlights how illegal logging and land conversion for coffee cultivation contribute to the loss of biodiversity and climate change. Moreover, environmental crimes are often tied to broader socio-economic issues, such as land tenure conflicts and the exploitation of indigenous communities. These activities not only threaten the ecological balance but also undermine sustainable development efforts in the region.
Keywords: Latin America, Honduras, coffee, primary production, environmental crime, illegal deforestation, indigenous rights
Source: https://www.jacobsdouweegberts.com/siteassets/cr/common-grounds---om/origin-issue-assessment---honduras.pdf