19 December 2025 –
1. How corruption enabled one of Mozambique’s most notorious traffickers
Simon Valoi, also known as ‘Navara’, was one of the most notorious rhino poaching bosses in southern Africa, thought to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of rhino before being brought to justice in 2024.
Navara recruited and armed Mozambican poaching teams, orchestrating incursions into Kruger National Park in South Africa and supplying rhino horns to traffickers in Asia.
Despite also being wanted in South Africa for murder and theft, Navara could move freely across the border, shielded by corrupt connections within police and immigration authorities.
He also engaged in money laundering, with 16 years of his eventual 27 year jail term linked to this financial crime.
Navara’s case highlights the role corruption plays in facilitating environmental crimes such as ivory trafficking.
The Wildlife Justice Commission, which chairs the Coalition’s Environmental Crime and Corruption Working Group , published a global assessment of rhino horn trafficking in 2022, which showed that one-third of trafficked rhino horn is moved unconcealed – indicating that traffickers are heavily reliant on corrupt elements to move shipments through the supply chain, making it unnecessary to disguise the products.
Bolstering the UNCAC
The UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is a powerful yet underused global instrument in the fight against the corruption that fuels environmental crime and the climate crisis. With the UNCAC’s 11th Conference of the States Parties (COSP11) meeting in Doha, we need a dedicated resolution to strengthen and more effectively implement the UNCAC at the national level to combat the corruption that facilitates these crimes.
We need to bolster the #UNCAC for #EnvironmentalCrime.
2. Corruption is a major threat to much-needed climate finance
As governments mobilise billions to protect communities and build resilience against the climate crisis, there is a clear risk of corrupt elements taking advantage of gaps in accountability and transparency to steal funds and undermine these efforts.
The Climate Finance Files, published by the ONE Campaign, found that two-thirds of climate finance commitments counted by OECD – amounting to $343 billion between 2013 and 2021- are never reported as disbursed, or are unrelated to climate.
Elsewhere, research by UNCTAD showed one-in-six adaptation projects are at risk of maladaptation due to a lack of green accountability.
With the effects of climate change devastating communities and wreaking economic damage around the world, we must tackle corruption now to ensure money is going to where it’s needed most.
The UNCAC can play a major role in fighting back. As COSP11 convenes in Doha, commitments in new resolutions could safeguard climate and environmental finance by ensuring transparent, effective use of funds and adopting inclusive approaches that engage civil society and affected communities.
The Coalition’s Environmental Crime and Corruption Working Group is calling for such resolutions at #COSP11.