Alternative Legal and Financial Strategies to Combat Environmental Crime
Alternative Legal and Financial Strategies to Combat Environmental Crime
There is nothing permanent except change.
Heraclitus
We create new legal and financial avenues to bring offenders, both corporate and individual, to justice. Our primary strategy is the application of existing laws relating to corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud and utilising the full force of the existing laws to disrupt criminal activity linking to environmental crime.
Wildlife crime, often driven by poverty, financial vulnerability or financial gain is often facilitated by fraud and corruption whether it’s through fraudulent documentation or bribe payments to government officials to facilitate the trade in illicit goods.
Similarly, deforestation is often driven by the need for alternative land use and financial gain – illegal mining, agricultural farming or illegal logging all contribute to global deforestation. Tax crime, fraud, corruption and money laundering all facilitate and assist criminals in benefitting financially from engaging in these crimes.
Our Strategy
We focus on proactive and deterrent interventions to create and inspire change
Proactive Interventions
- Research and Innovation: We develop and advance new global knowledge relating to environmental and financial crime through our research innovation hub.
- Advocacy and Education: We create awareness around the impacts of illicit global supply chains and devise education programmes and communication strategies to enhance global awareness of the interconnected nature of environmental and financial crime.
- Training and Capacity Building: We support local, national and global actors to advance knowledge and approaches to combat crime through training and capacity building.
Deterrent Actions
- Supporting Litigation and the Legal Process: We support litigation and law enforcement agencies to act as a deterrent mechanism to disrupt the global impacts of environmental and financial crime.
Our Expertise
Financial Crime
- Money Laundering
- Fraud, Bribery and Corruption
- Tax Crimes
- Asset Tracing and Recovery
- Underground Money Movements and Illicit Payment Methods
- Regulatory Fines and Sanctions
Environmental Crime
- Wildlife Crime
- Deforestation
- Illegal Logging
- Illegal Mining (Minerals and Precious Stones)
- Waste Dumping
- Fisheries Crime
Our Focus Areas
C4GA also works to unravel the complexities of both environmental and financial crime looking at the root causes and human behaviour that drives these activities.
Natural Resource Exploitation
Exploitation of natural resources – e.g.: wildlife, timber, fisheries, minerals and precious stones
Key resources including wildlife products, timber and forest products, fisheries, gold and other minerals (including precious stones) are being exploited and illegally mined only to be legitimised into global corporate supply chains as the commodities cross national borders. The limitations of law enforcement in combination with the difficulties and slow pace of international cooperation mean that criminal networks do not face any consequences when engaging in this criminal conduct. Where enforcement is strengthened in one jurisdiction, criminal networks quickly shift their business operations to countries with little or weak enforcement to continue their illicit business enterprise.
Exploitation of Human Capital
Forced labour, child labour, inadequate compensation for workers, inadequate working conditions
Often a vital component of advancing natural resource crimes, abuses of human capital are inextricably linked to natural resource exploitation. Poor working conditions, inadequate compensation and poverty is ever-present whilst upstream companies gain through multi-million dollar profits. Exploitation of human capital is often hidden from sight to the end consumer. We create awareness of the interconnected nature of multiple crime types and design interventions that will impact the overall behaviour of the supply chain.
Environmental Destruction
Identifying financial solutions to restoration of ecological areas. eg: Waste dumping, pollution
The impacts of our modern lifestyle have had a devastating impact on our environment. News reports are frequent reporting oil spills into our oceans, plastic pollution and waste dumping systems that are at their limits. We combine education and awareness with leveraging the full force of the law to promote new ways of thinking and acting to help stop the destruction and identify ways to restore what has already been lost.
Illicit Global Supply Chains
Understanding financial flows across global supply chains and targeting the money flows
WWF research suggests between 5% and 50% of globally traded food commodities, such as shrimp, beef, palm oil, and others, may be produced illegally, with financial costs ranging from $40 billion to $600 billion per year.
Exploitation of global resources are being perpetrated on a massive global scale for big business profits and financial gains. Targeted actions against key actors in the supply chain are needed to change the behaviour that creates exploitation of people and the over-exploitation of our natural resources. We map global supply chains to evaluate legal and financial breaches with the objective of educating and creating awareness of the issues along with supporting targeted litigation to create change.
Financial Crime
Applying financial crime tools to environmental crime cases e.g.: bribery and corruption, fraud, money laundering, tax evasion along with asset recovery provisions, sanctions, fines and penalties.
Financial investigations into environmental crime activities open up a range of avenues for law enforcement to understand the “big picture view” of how crime syndicates operate. Financial crime charges may also provide avenues for harsher penalties and should be considered in any environmental case. Fraud and corruption, tax evasion and money laundering often facilitate criminal business enterprises that trade in illicit products. Additional legislation that provides for asset recoveries, sanctions, fines and penalties also need to be considered to further combat the impacts of environmental crime.
Organised Crime
Developing creative approaches to combat organised crime
Organised crime groups operate across national borders, and are dynamic enough to shift and change their network locations based on where enforcement actions are weak and uncoordinated. With financial gain as the key driving force of these groups, the financial elements need to be identified and combatted as part of a new global strategy. We advocate for new legal approaches to combat transnational organised crime with a focus on jurisdictions with strong criminal justice systems.
Get Involved!
Re-Invent our Future
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Contact us
We would love to hear from you! Please get in touch.
Phone
+64 21 02409697
Kenya:
+254 799 751 560
Address
Cedar House, Hazell Drive, Newport, Wales, NP10 8FY, UK
KENYA:
Orchard Close, Muthaiga, Nairobi, Kenya