Damaged Lands: Environmental Crime in Colombia

InSight Crime has teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to study the criminal activities driving deforestation, forest degradation and biodiversity loss in Colombia. The project - titled “Transparent Governance of Natural Resources” and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) - tracked illegal mining, land grabbing, illegal logging, and wildlife trafficking in the country’s Amazon and Pacific regions.

Also partnering on the project were Transparency for Colombia (Transparencia por Colombia), a branch of Transparency International, and the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development (Fundación para la Conservación y el Desarrollo Sostenible), a conservation group focusing on Colombia’s Amazon region.

We also provide a primer on how organized crime acts as a motor for environmental crime, in turn decimating lands and vital species while also stoking violence in Latin America.

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