Category: Media

Op-eds

The world needs a new UN protocol to fight environmental crime

In Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory and across other parts of the Amazon Basin, illegal gold mining has metastasized into a transnational criminal enterprise. What starts with illegal deforestation and mercury poisoning ends with laundered gold flowing into global supply chains. The trade finances organized crime, corrupt officials,

Op-eds

Flows of Guns and Money Are Dooming Haiti

Haiti is sliding into the abyss. Violence has intensified since the beginning of the year as gangs continued to overrun communities and paralyze basic services. The capital, Port-au-Prince, and several other cities are now largely controlled by powerful gang coalitions, most notably Viv Amsanm and Gran Grif. The country’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC), formed with CARICOM over a year

Op-eds

The rise of Brazil’s fuel mafias and their gas station money laundering machines

Brazil’s federal police recently pulled back the curtain on a criminal web that had infiltrated the country’s fuel distribution chains. What looked like ordinary gas stations were, in fact, outposts of a vast laundering machine, washing dirty money with diesel and ethanol. According to Justice Minister Ricardo

Op-eds

Latin America’s Deadliest Threat Is Made in the U.S.

Earlier this month, Juliette Dorson, a 50-year-old Haitian caterer, was shot while working an event in Port-au-Prince. Her business partner, Luc, died in the attack. She survived, but barely. For residents of Haiti’s capital, such horrors are tragically routine. Gangs now control four-fifths of the city, wielding not

Op-eds

5 futures for aid in a divided world

The global development industry is facing a reckoning. Long reliant on Western donors, the sector is grappling with deep and sudden cuts to official development assistance. The crisis in aid affects tens of thousands of workers and service users with cascading effects on food security, poverty reduction, health and education provision,

Media

Disappearing before our eyes: Can philanthropy save civil society?

A world in crisis needs a functioning civil society. But today, three out of four people live under authoritarian regimes that are determined to stifle civil society – and even those in liberal democracies are witnessing alarming efforts to dismantle the sector. What should philanthropy do? A panel

International

Report reveals how environmental crime profits in the Amazon are laundered

A new report by the FACT Coalition found that many investigations into environmental crimes do not follow the money. Of the 230 cases analyzed, 76% involved the use of front and shell companies, likely due to flaws in the anti-money laundering systems of foreign countries, researchers said.

International

Biodiversity credit to protect and restore nature

I am writing from Cali, Colombia, where COP16, the UN Biodiversity Conference, is taking place. Among the various goals of those here to advocate for nature, one significant milestone has been achieved: the launch, this past Monday, of the Framework for the International Advisory Panel

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International

Biodiversity credits now have a global standard for high integrity

This Monday (28th), the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB), composed of 25 organizations and experts from various countries, will present a global framework at COP16, the UN Biodiversity Conference. This framework provides guidelines to ensure the integrity of biodiversity preservation and restoration projects.

International

Brazil takes center stage in G20, advancing social issues

Under Brazil’s presidency, the social agenda of the G20 has gained significant focus this year, with proposals addressing three key priorities of the country’s leadership: poverty alleviation, reform of global governance, and sustainable development. Participation from organizations extended beyond engagement groups, with formal contributions made

International

Homicides in Messi’s hometown fall to the lowest level in a decade

Homicides in the metropolitan area with Argentina’s highest crime rate have decreased this year as local police presence has increased and President Javier Milei implements a crackdown on crime to fulfill one of his main campaign promises. Homicides in the city of Rosario, an agricultural

International

Gang Violence Is Moving to the Amazon’s Fast-Growing Cities

This is the second article in a series on the challenges and opportunities of the urban Amazon. Read the first one here. Framed by an elegant riverside promenade and a modest skyline with streets enviably free of gridlock, Macapá is that rare major Brazilian city with

International

State weakness could hamper US bid to stem Amazon organized crime

BOGOTA/RIO DE JANEIRO Aug 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A new U.S.-backed initiative to disrupt illicit financial flows from nature crimes such as illegal logging and mining in the Amazon rainforest has been welcomed by security experts, but the effort could be hampered by lawlessness

International

Eder logra trazar su visión de centro para la seguridad desde Cali

Alejandro Eder llegó a la Alcaldía de Cali con la promesa trabajar por la seguridad. La propuesta que presentó en campaña tenía una visión integral, más allá de la mano dura o el “azote a los bandidos”. Eder se propuso una estrategia de seguridad equilibrada,

International

Las tendencias que revelan las tasas de homicidios en América Latina

Las ciudades son un referente del progreso de las naciones. Cuando ellas prosperan, también lo hacen sus países. Y cuando son frágiles, es más probable que sus naciones sufran una amplia variedad de males, desde el deterioro de la calidad de vida hasta la disminución

International

Guardianas del Amazonas 2: vivencias y herramientas desde el territorio

Colombia es un país rico en biodiversidad y con una historia marcada por conflictos, hoy se encuentra en una encrucijada crítica en la búsqueda de una paz duradera. En este contexto, las mujeres que lideran la defensa de los derechos humanos y la protección ambiental

International

Bolivia: 2023 Record Deforestation Due to Environmental Crime

“Behind this destruction there are out-of-control forest fires, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, rampant gold mining, and the construction of airports and drug laboratories in the middle of natural parks and protected areas,” indicated the recent report The Plundered Amazon: The Roots of Environmental Crime

International

The plight of Brazil’s indigenous groups worsens

Since PORTUGUESE colonisers first appeared, the story of indigenous Brazilians has been littered with horror. Disease and violence killed many after the conquest. Slavery on rubber plantations existed into the 20th century. Today wildcat miners, ranchers and loggers are the threat to the indigenous peoples of

International

Confronting the Organized Crime Pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO – Transnational organized crime is a paradox: ubiquitous yet invisible. While criminal tactics evolve rapidly, government-led responses are often static. When criminal networks are squeezed in one jurisdiction, they rapidly balloon in another. Although the problem concerns everyone, it is often considered

International

Guns and weapons trafficked from US fueling Haiti gang violence

As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump-action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous. But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities. It is

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