Leveraging Local Community Partnerships to Combat Nature Crimes

Nature crimes, criminal forms of logging, mining, wildlife trade, land conversion, and associated criminal activities, as well as crimes associated with fishing, pose serious threats to the environment and to national security. They undermine the rule of law and fuel corruption. They also spread disease globally, drive species to the brink of extinction, and rob governments, indigenous peoples, and local communities of their natural resources and legitimate revenue. The goal of this program is to increase global grassroot civil society engagement in addressing nature crimes. To advance the policy goal described above, OES seeks one or two lead implementing partners to form consortia with grassroots civil society organizations across various countries to deploy community-led approaches that address global nature crime trends. By taking advantage of the valuable knowledge offered by these partners, OES aims to strengthen their efforts to expose nature crimes, hold perpetrators accountable, reduce profits from these crimes, and support the environment and local livelihoods.