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The writer is co-founder of the Igarap\u00e9 Institute, a think-tank<\/p>\n
Climate diplomacy has long treated environmental crimes such as illegal logging, gold mining and wildlife trafficking as a sideshow. COP agendas\u00a0fixated on emissions, adaptation and finance, while the illicit economies accelerating deforestation and biodiversity loss went largely unmentioned in the UN climate convention. They only rarely appeared in national pledges or the Global Stocktake. Ambitious goals to deliver climate and nature targets were celebrated even as criminal markets hollowed them out.<\/p>\n
That is starting to change. At COP28 in 2023, campaigners nudged the issue on to the agenda. By COP29, governments were pressed to integrate crime disruption and anti-corruption into climate plans. Yet recognition in the climate talks remains patchy. The omission is costly. Environmental crime is reckoned to generate as much as $281bn a year, with less than 1 per cent of illicit proceeds ever recovered. These are not victimless offences; they corrode the rule of law, deter investment and sabotage climate and environmental policy.<\/p>\n
The Amazon shows the stakes. New research shows how across the world\u2019s largest tropical forest, organised crime groups, armed dissidents and local elites profit from land grabs, illegal timber trafficking, gold laundering and cattle smuggling. In 2025, a cross-border crackdown, Operation Green Shield, mobilised more than 1,500 officers across Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It led to 94 arrests and the seizure of over $64mn in assets \u2014 encouraging, but still a drop in the river.<\/p>\n
Brazil is stepping up action as it prepares to host COP30 next month. The government revived its flagship anti-deforestation plan, launched a national security initiative and opened a new international police hub in Manaus to fuse satellite intelligence with cross-border investigations. Prosecutors are piloting \u201cgold DNA\u201d to trace bullion to its origins. Deforestation fell sharply last year, though attributing decline to enforcement alone is premature.<\/p>\n
The costs of inaction are stark. The World Bank estimates that continued Amazon degradation could put at risk Brazil\u2019s valuable remaining rainforest, estimated to be worth $317bn per year, seven times the gains from frontier expansion. Meanwhile, mercury exposure from illegal gold mining imposes sizeable economic losses in the Amazon.<\/p>\n
Prevention is a bargain. Protection and restoration investments yield multiples in avoided damages alongside cleaner water, reduced disaster risk, higher farm yields and carbon storage and even lower lethal violence.<\/p>\n
Markets are also raising the price of crime. The EU\u2019s regulation on deforestation-free products obliges importers of beef, soy, timber, coffee, cocoa, palm oil and rubber to prove supply chains are clean. The law is due to apply from late 2025 for larger companies and mid-2026 for smaller ones, though Brussels recently delayed enforcement. Only four countries have been branded \u201chigh risk\u201d, leaving big producers such as Brazil and Indonesia under lighter scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The US\u2019s stance is mixed. In 2024, Washington launched an Amazon-basin initiative to disrupt illicit finance linked to logging, mining and trafficking. The Lacey Act was strengthened, widening import-declaration rules and stepping up prosecutions. Yet in 2025 the direction shifted. The Treasury removed the obligation for US companies and individuals to disclose beneficial ownership, suspended penalties and restricted reporting to foreign entities.<\/p>\n
With or without America, Bel\u00e9m\u2019s COP30 must pull environmental crime from the margins to the core of climate diplomacy. The first task is to name the problem. Parties need to embed environmental crime explicitly in COP decisions alongside the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.<\/p>\n
Rule of law commitments also need to be integrated into climate plans. National contributions and adaptation plans should include transparent land registries, anti-corruption checks, traceable gold and timber supply chains, and investigations aligned with Financial Action Task Force standards, with progress reported alongside emissions. Climate finance must also resist capture by vested interests, corrupt officials, and opportunistic intermediaries through robust vetting and oversight. <\/p>\n
Finally, governments should scale what works. Expanding cross-border operations such as Green Shield, increasing police co-operation and mainstreaming satellite alerts, e-registries, beneficial-ownership databases and e-invoicing could choke laundering routes. None of this is altruism. It is prevention and it pays. Ignore illicit economies and climate goals will unravel. Confront them, and COP30 could yet unlock the resilience the planet urgently needs.<\/p>\n
Climate Capital<\/p>\n
Where climate change meets business, markets and politics.\u00a0Explore the FT\u2019s coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n