Environmental crime including poaching and forestry is worth $2 trillion in proceeds annually. Yet law enforcement globally has yet to seriously tackle the business model driving the trade which involves a network of organised crime, corporate facilitation and corrupt regimes.
The discussion was moderated by Yale Poynter Fellow Khadija Sharife, a South-Africa-based award-winning investigative journalist and senior editor for Africa at Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Sharife is the former director of the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers (PPLAAF) and currently also a board member of Finance Uncovered. She has worked with diverse forums including the Pan-African Parliament, the African Union, the OECD, and UN Environmental Program. Her work is focused on illicit financial flows, natural resources, and political economy. She is the author of “Tax Us If You Can: Africa.”