Environmental Crime and Corruption

The UNCAC Coalition’s Environmental Crime and Corruption working group seeks to facilitate discussions, the exchange of information and joint advocacy among civil society experts working on these issues.

Working Group Chair: Lisa Hartevelt, Director of Policy and Communications of the Wildlife Justice Commission  

Working Group Policy Lead: Corinna Gilfillan, Senior Analyst of the UNCAC Coalition  

In case you are interested in joining the working group, please fill out this form.

If you have any questions please contact us at betina.pasteknik@uncaccoalition.org

The Working Group hosts a dedicated email discussion list as well as several coordination calls per year. 

Next Working Group Meetings: 

  • Tuesday 9 September 2025, 15.00-16.30 Vienna time
  • Tuesday 4 November 2025, 15.00-16.30 Vienna time

Find our calendar with all relevant events here

Context in which this group operates

  • Environmental crime cannot be understood and therefore addressed without taking into consideration the corruption supporting and facilitating it.
  • Vienna is the place where multilateral negotiations on the fight against crime and corruption take place, in particular under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC), and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), which present important opportunities to raise awareness and provide information on environmental crimes and the corruption supporting them to policy-makers.

Objectives

The objectives of the Working Group are to:

  1. provide updates on policy developments on the corruption supporting environmental crimes to ensure that all participants are aware of the latest developments on the issue;
  2. create a space where NGOs can present their findings, reports or campaigns (on a rotating basis) for dissemination purposes;
  3.  transmit knowledge and concerns from organisations working in specific regions to policy-makers based in Vienna to impact policy discussions;
  4. shed light on practical topics that are not necessarily addressed in other fora;
  5. coordinate advocacy efforts, such as NGO submissions at fora present in or organized from Vienna on environmental criminality;
  6. ensure that anti-corruption activists and the wildlife crimes experts work jointly on transversal themes rather than in their respective silos.

Working Group Steering Groups:

Human Rights Steering Group

  • Lead: Rob Parry-Jones, WWF International.

Climate Change Steering Group

  • Lead: Brice Böhmer, Transparency International.

Illicit Financial Flows Steering Group

  • Lead: Olanrewaju Suraju, Human and Environmental Development Agenda.

Communications Steering Group

  • Lead: Luke Foddy, Nature Crime Alliance (World Resources Institute).

Relevant resources, activities and outputs:

UNCAC Coalition Guidelines and Etiquette

Please have a look at our Guidelines and Etiquette, which apply to all conversations and the exchange of information within this group and its email list. By being part of this group, you agree that you have read and will follow the guidelines set for the VoC group and its email list.