In association with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Background to the event
The Amazon Rainforest is not only a vital ecological treasure, but also a battleground where serious and organised crimes like drugs trafficking, environmental crimes, and human trafficking converge; these ‘convergent crimes’ have devastating impacts on local communities and the environment.
This criminal market convergence can be understood as “the operation of multiple criminal markets in the same space, undermining good governance and regional peace and security”1.
To varying degrees, criminal markets overlap or reinforce each other in the Amazon—for example, human trafficking supporting the illicit minerals trade, drugs exchanged for wildlife commodities, or illicit firearms bolstering gang control over drug turf. Systems of transporting commodities and laundering criminal profits are also common across multiple criminal markets2.
Addressing the complexities of ‘convergent crimes’ in the Amazon presents significant challenges and opportunities, including around fostering effective regional collaboration. The advent of frontier technologies offers promising opportunities to bridge these gaps through strengthening deterrence and improving transparency and accountability. Our hope in designing this event was that a convergence lens may improve responses to organised crime by clarifying the reach of corrupt arrangements across markets, locales, and parts of the government; identifying key nodes and points of vulnerability in poly-criminal networks; applying the commitment and tools used to address one market to address other markets; and galvanising political will across a range of stakeholders3.
This conference brought together high-level government actors, influential regional institutions, civil society representatives, and technological leaders to foster dialogue, collaboration and develop solutions.
Executive Summary
This Wilton Park dialogue emphasised the need for indigenous community involvement, cross-border intelligence sharing, and stronger institutional frameworks to tackle environmental crimes effectively.
In particular, leveraging technology, fostering trust among stakeholders, and strengthening legal frameworks were seen as crucial in combating illicit activities in the Amazon. Participants emphasized the need for better data sharing, the integration of indigenous knowledge, and international cooperation through agreements like the Escazú Accord. Moving forward, strategic efforts should focus on creating an integrated information system, enhancing transparency, and promoting operational coordination among Amazonian nations to curb environmental crimes and safeguard the region’s ecological and social fabric.
Participants generated a range of collaborative initiatives to take on this task:
- A robust and collaborative information system that allows data exchange between the countries of the Amazon region
- Promotion of agreements for the exchange of information between responsible authorities, and mechanisms to monitor compliance with these agreements
- An Observatory of Transboundary Environmental Crimes in the Amazon Basin, with an alert mechanism and real-time data updates
- Promotion of the Escazú agreement across the region
- Creation of the NIMU Tracker, a technological application for indigenous associations
- Promotion of the Amazonia MAIS program, establishing a centre in each country across the Amazon region
- Building of trust through the creation of a network of contacts among the conference participants, including information on lines of work, expertise and interest.