In an article by Presna Libre, it is reported that Miguel �ngel Turcios Pineda is facing a legal process for money laundering in the case known as Fedecocagua, which involves a structure for laundering Q1 billion. The Public Ministry (MP) reported that Turcios Pineda will face trial as part of phase 2 of the Fedecocagua case. He was granted a substitute measure and the payment of a Q200,000 bail. The investigation by the Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity (Feci) of the MP indicated that in the first phase of the case, the manager of the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Coffee Producers of Guatemala (Fedecocagua), Ulrich Gurtner Kappeler, was also arrested for money laundering. It was determined that a series of non-existent companies were generating invoices and through which the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) returned the Value Added Tax that they had obtained at the time. It was referred that more than Q1 billion were benefited by these companies. It was established that Fedecocagua directors simulated coffee purchase and sale operations using front companies, who invoiced the coffee that the cooperatives and small producers delivered to Fedecocagua, who in turn simulated the payment of invoices, money that later returned to accounts through a series of transfers.

In an article by Mongabay, it is reported that Guatemala's Sierra del Lacand�n National Park is nearing a state of collapse due to rampant deforestation and land grabbing. Over the past two years, the park has lost thousands of hectares of forest, raising concerns among government officials and conservationists that the area may soon be lost to illegal actors. Some communities that were already living in the area when the park was established have declined to cooperate with the government's plans to work together on sustainability, education, and public health projects. Instead, these communities have expanded their presence with roads, cattle ranching, and airstrips for drug planes, all of which have exacerbated deforestation rates. The park is part of the larger Maya Biosphere Reserve, which covers over 2 million hectares of rainforest across northern Guatemala and connects to other protected forests in Mexico and Belize. The reserve is home to a rich biodiversity, including 56 species of fish, 24 species of amphibians, 60 species of reptiles, 326 species of birds, and 69 species of mammals, as well as over 30 archeological sites from Mayan and other Mesoamerican civilizations.

In Guatemala's El Pato region, allegations of illegal mining by Goldex Resources have sparked serious human rights concerns. Local organisations claim Goldex's mining activities violate indigenous land rights and operate without proper authorisation. This illegal mining has led to environmental damage and disruption of community life. Moreover, human rights defenders opposing these activities face threats and violence, reportedly from individuals linked to the mining operations. These defenders, advocating for the protection of land and resources, endure harassment and intimidation aimed at silencing their protests. The situation underscores the urgent need for accountability and legal enforcement to protect indigenous communities and their rights. Local and international calls for Goldex to cease its operations and respect legal and environmental standards highlight the broader struggle for human rights and sustainable development in the face of illegal resource exploitation in Guatemala.

According to the BFT Online, Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) suffered a loss of approximately �100,000 in July 2023 due to the destruction of over 19,000 rubber trees on 40 hectares at Gyabengkrom in the Ahanta West Municipality. These trees, planted a year prior to the incident on state land, were meant to replace old ones. However, large-scale damages were discovered during routine checks by the Plantation Development Manager. During the incident, security was present but unable to cover the entire large plantation. A similar incident in 2022 saw 20,000 hectares destroyed without identifying the perpetrators. GREL's Corporate Affairs Manager, Perry Acheampong, stressed the economic impact and called for the prosecution of those responsible. In addition, the Association of Chiefs on Whose Land GREL Operates (ACLANGO) condemned the vandalism, labelling the acts as barbaric and criminal. Their statement highlighted a troubling trend of illegal land takeovers under the guise of community expansion and "galamsey" (illegal mining). They called for immediate and thorough action by the Ghana Police Service to investigate, arrest, and prosecute the culprits, regardless of their status, to protect investor confidence and maintain peaceful co-existence between GREL and local communities.

The Cadbury brand, owned by Mondel_z International, is facing allegations of child labour on cocoa farms in Ghana. In April 2022, a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary revealed that children as young as 10 were using machetes to harvest cocoa pods, with some working long hours and not attending school. This comes despite the chocolate industry's 20-year-old pledge to eliminate child labour. In the documentary, children can be seen performing hazardous tasks without protective gear. One girl reported a severe injury from using a machete. However, Ghanaian law prohibits children under 13 from working on cocoa farms and bans hazardous labour for anyone under 18. Despite this, such issues are not contained to Mondel_z farms, with a 2020 study finding that 1.56 million children are involved in cocoa farming in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Behind this child labour is cocoa farmers' poverty, with farmers earning too little to hire adult workers.

A dramatic increase of illegal mining taking over cocoa production farms in Ghana has led to a shortage of cocoa beans, going as far as creating the near shutdown of processing plants throughout the nation. Although the cocoa bean shortage is also a result of climate change and the saturation of available farming land, the increased pressure on cocoa farmers to sell or lease their lands to illegal miners has further threatened the supply of cocoa. This process is locally known as galamsey. Investors will claim underlying gold deposits, influencing farmers to sell or lease their lands in exchange for financial compensation. Miners will then promptly exploit the area, making it impossible to reverse the damage caused. The galamsey operations are largely unregulated and illegal. They involve sophisticated equipment and harmful chemicals which pose severe environmental and health related risks. Once these mining activities have been completed, these methods make the quality of the land unsuitable for cocoa cultivation. Ghana, historically known for both cocoa and gold, has recently struggled with balancing both economic interests, and the need to preserve environmental and safety concerns in the face of small-scale mining.

In Gabon, the temporary suspension of a timber traceability monitoring system in 2023 raised suspicions of corruption within the Ministry of Water and Forests. Gabon has 88% forest cover, making forestry a major economic sector and a key area of interest for foreign companies. Timber originating from the country's Nkok Special Investment Zone (SIZ), set up to promote local wood processing, must meet EU sustainability certifications. To ensure this, the TraCer monitoring system traces the origin of harvested wood and the methods used in extracting wood from this zone. Yet, in March 2023, the system was briefly suspended for a month due to administrative issues. This suspension raised concerns in regard to corruption within Gabon's Ministry of Water and Forests. Government inconsistencies concerning the verification of traceability and legality of timber entering the Nkok SIZ have notably been uncovered. In addition, allegations suggest that officials from the Ministry of Water and Forests were complicit in illicit timber operations when suspending the TraCer. The "Kevazingogate" scandal, which involved extensive trafficking of kevazingo, a protected wood species, despite a ban on its export, also exacerbated these suspicions. Officials from both the customs office and the Ministry of Water and Forests were implicated, highlighting systemic issues within Gabon's forestry sector.

According to Mongabay, Olam, a Singapore-based agribusiness giant and FSC-certified palm oil producer, has allegedly deforested over 25,000 hectares of wildlife-rich rainforest in Gabon to develop palm oil plantations. Mighty Earth first filed a complaint against Olam in 2016 after publishing a report in December that year, alleging that Olam cleared nearly 40,000 hectares of rainforest. Olam denies these claims, arguing the cleared areas were highly logged and degraded secondary forest, not high carbon stock (HCS) forests as claimed by Mighty Earth. Olam's group head of external affairs, Steve Fairbairn, stated that areas of high conservation value (HCV) were left untouched and are now strictly protected. He mentioned that about 50% of the most severely impacted and low-value regrowth areas were available for plantation development. Additional reports, such as one by the World Rainforest Movement, accused Olam of neglecting local community rights and making insincere deforestation commitments. It is suggested that Mighty Earth was motivated by the commercial timber value in the cleared areas, with timber revenues being invested in community-managed social funds.

An article by Mongabay details the case of illegal timber seizure in Antwerp. On July 8, 2019, Belgian authorities blocked a shipment of tropical timber from Gabon after a tip-off by Greenpeace. The timber, which was being exported by Wan Chuan Timber SARL (WCTS), a Chinese logging company operating in Gabon, has been exposed and fined for a series of grave offenses. The company receiving the shipment, Antwerp-based Compagnie de Bois Anvers, is now under investigation for a possible breach of the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR). The shipment came from Gabon, a country with 85 percent coverage of incredibly biodiverse rainforest, and whose forestry sector is inextricably linked to high level corruption. WCTS's business model was alleged to involve structural over-harvesting, tax evasion, money laundering, and corruption. The company was extracting between two and three times its legal quota and was already cutting down forest in areas it was not supposed to have reached until 2030.

Loggers in Ecuador have reportedly invaded protected reserves to harvest balsa, particularly the territory of the Indigenous Waorani community, located in Ecuador's eastern Amazon region. Mafias dedicated to trafficking balsa have been operating at Ecuador's borders with Peru and Colombia. Since 2019, the demand for balsa has surged, driven by the global shift towards clean energy and the increasing production of wind turbines. Consequently, illegally harvested balsa from Ecuador's border regions has found its way to international markets, including wind farms in China and the United States. The timber is initially transported via river or road to Peru, where it is either mixed with legal shipments or processed through sawmills to conceal its illicit origin, allowing the wood to be legally exported.

In 2022, the Swiss mining giant Glencore International was found responsible for sending cash bribes and corrupt payments to Equatorial Guinea, amongst other African countries such as Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. Prosecution against Glencore International was a coordinated effort across several civil authorities in the U.K., U.S. and Brazil. The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened its investigation into Glencore's activities in Equatorial Guinea in 2019, and uncovered a trail of text messages, large cash withdrawals and deliberately concealed payments. Glencore paid bribes worth a total of US$29m in order to secure access to oil. It was also exposed that the company used high-profile agents to funnel bribes into state-owned oil companies and government ministries, often disguising bribes as unspecified 'service fees' or 'success fees' in reports. In addition, Glencore and some of its employees were convicted by the U.S's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for manipulating benchmark price assessments for fuel oil products between January 2011 and August 2019. This manipulation was aimed at artificially inflating or deflating prices to benefit Glencore's physical contracts and derivative positions.

The high demand for gold, which has not dropped below $1,500 per troy ounce since the onset of the Covid pandemic, has led to an increase in illegal gold mining and gold exports in Ecuador. This activity is facilitated by factors such as high levels of informality and poverty, the presence of mineral deposits in remote areas, and the existence of illegal mining networks in neighbouring Colombia and Peru. In the absence of state enforcement, the Indigenous A'i Cof�n people of Sinangoe, Ecuador, have mobilised against this illegal gold mining. The group patrols a territory of 243 square miles, stretching from the Andean foothills down into the Amazon rainforest. They are on the lookout for alluvial gold miners who invade their land with heavy machinery and tear up the banks of their sacred river, the Aguarico. Last year, Ecuador's highest court suspended 52 formal mining concessions on their land, which borders the Cayambe-Coca national park. However, illegal gold mining has grown significantly in Ecuador's Amazon. As of February 2023, it had devoured 1,660 hectares of forest. In January, Ecuador's president, Guillermo Lasso, declared the activity to be a threat to national security. At the same time, the formal sector has grown, with the country's mining exports growing 34% between January and November 2022 to $2.52 billion.

Los Lobos, a narco-trafficking gang affiliated with Mexico's notorious Jalisco New Generation cartel, has infiltrated illegal gold mining in Ecuador. Their activities have reached remote areas, including Podocarpus National Park, where they extort miners and dominate almost all stages of the gold supply chain. Each miner is forced to pay an extortion fee of up to $1,000 every month to the gang, leading to violent clashes in instances of non-compliance, with several local officials opposed to illegal mining being attacked or even murdered. As criminal organisations in the region who have traditionally focused on drug trafficking expand into other criminal activities, the rising value of gold on international markets and the ease of laundering profits from the cocaine trade have made gold mining increasingly attractive to them.

The Verit� report on coffee in Africa examines the challenges and issues within the coffee supply chain, focusing on labour rights and social responsibility. It highlights widespread issues such as child labour, forced labour, and poor working conditions among coffee workers across several African countries. These problems are exacerbated by factors like poverty, lack of education, and inadequate labour protections. The report identifies key areas for improvement, including enhancing transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain, strengthening labor laws and enforcement mechanisms, and promoting responsible sourcing practices among coffee buyers and exporters. Verit� calls for concerted efforts to address systemic issues in the coffee sector, ensuring that economic growth benefits all stakeholders fairly and sustainably.

A Global Witness investigation in 2019 found that ten European companies had sourced over $2.26 million of wood from a company engaged in illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Illegal logging in the DRC is one of the main deforestation threats in the country, which has the world's second largest tropical rainforest. In one case, Global Witness accused IFCDO, a timber trading company, of harvesting timber outside of its approved annual harvest area. The same company also allegedly failed to pay taxes and violated local labour laws. The investigation found that much of the illegally sourced timber was placed on Vietnamese and Chinese markets, which have fewer checks in place to prevent the import of illegal timber.

_A report by Congo in Conversation explains how the production of the charcoal, or "makala", in Congo's North Kivu Province, contributes to an illegal trade. This trade has a significant environmental impact on Virunga National Park. The national park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, suffers from deforestation as a consequence of these activities, since over half the charcoal consumed in nearby Goma is illegally sourced from the park. In addition, the charcoal trade supports criminal networks and contributes to ongoing violence, including clashes between park rangers and armed groups, leading to numerous fatalities. Generating around $35 million annually, the charcoal trade is controlled by armed groups like the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which only exacerbates environmental destruction and local conflicts. The FDLR exploits natural resources, including charcoal, to fund its activities, imposing taxes on loggers and charcoal burners. Despite government acknowledgment of the issue, little action has been taken due to corruption and complicity among officials.

In 2021, the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Tshopo province lost 12,000 hectares of intact forests to fires, a record-breaking loss linked to the expanding cultivation of cacao by recent migrants from neighbouring North Kivu province. This influx of people is caused by mass displacement of people from the South and North Kivu provinces in 2019 and 2020, which is, as a result, fuelling greater demand for food crops and an increase in cash crop production, especially cacao. Some newcomers are financially well-off and able to purchase land from local chiefs to establish plantations, replacing forested areas. This has sparked tensions within local communities as land is considered communal property in many parts of Tshopo. Cacao production, a well-documented driver of deforestation in West Africa, is now impacting the DRC. Efforts are being made to improve cultivators' incomes to tackle child labour and prevent further deforestation. However, the specific dynamics in the DRC present unique challenges that need to be addressed.

The United States (US) sanctioned international mining magnate Dan Gertler for amassing a billion-dollar fortune through opaque and corrupt mining deals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In 2017, Gertler was sanctioned for allegedly using his close friendship with then President Joseph Kabila to act as an intermediary for mining asset sales in the DRC, which created a system where multinational companies had to go through Gertler to do business with the Congolese state. According to the US, the DRC reportedly lost over $1 billion in just two years due to Gertler's corrupt deals. Despite being sanctioned by the US, Gertler was able to continue operating in the DRC's mining sector through an international money laundering network that spanned from the DRC to Europe and Israel. In one instance, Gertler acquired new mining permits through proxy companies in the lead up to the 2018 Congelese elections. Moreover, as of 2022, Gertler was still reportedly earning millions of dollars from copper-cobalt mining interests in the DRC despite US sanctions.

Ivory Coast's market regulator, under the leadership of Yves Brahima Kone, is planning to introduce measures to curb fraud related to fair-trade certified cocoa contracts. The Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) suspended sales of fair-trade certified contracts after recording an exponential increase in certified cocoa. Buyers and co-operatives have been using this program to push multinational companies into overpaying. To combat fraudulent contracts, the regulator is considering limiting the number of cocoa buyers to 30 from over a thousand. Next year, Ivory Coast will introduce a new certification and traceability system to align with European regulations on the import of commodities linked to deforestation.

The Institute of Security Studies reports that extremist groups are involved in illegal artisanal gold mining in Côte d'Ivoire. Gold mining activities are concentrated in areas like Bagoué, Bounkani, and Tchologo in the north of the country, as well as in protected areas like the Comoé National Park. Extremist groups typically use intermediaries to interact with local miners, using subsequent earnings to finance their operations. They provide financial support and operational equipment to the miners in exchange for a share of the gold produced or at reduced prices. The presence of extremists has created a climate of fear among local miners, with many miners experiencing encounters with armed groups who demand gold. This presence has led to a decrease in mining activities, as miners are afraid to operate in areas controlled by extremists. The report also gives the example where a miner from Burkina Faso described how he was approached by jihadists who offered financial support and a secure market for his gold. The miner eventually fled to Côte d'Ivoire due to the risks involved . Overall, the extremist groups' involvement in gold mining has both economic and social repercussions, disrupting local economies and contributing to insecurity.

In May 2013, InSight Crime reported that Colombian authorities seized 11 tons of contraband meat in Cucuta, near the Venezuelan border. These contraband goods were linked to money laundering operations by guerrilla and drug trafficking groups. The contraband meat, originating from Venezuela, was packed in a truck and discovered in Cucuta, Norte de Santander, Colombia. The meat was estimated to come from about 600 cows. Authorities believe these groups use the meat trade to launder drug money and generate revenues to purchase coca, a key ingredient in cocaine production. The process involves buying meat in Venezuela at black market prices and selling it in Colombia, taking advantage of the significant difference between the official and black market exchange rates of the Venezuelan bolivar. By purchasing meat cheaply on the black market in Venezuela and selling it at higher prices in Colombia, the groups maximise their profits. The FARC along with neo-paramilitary groups like the Urabeos and Rastrojos, are implicated. These groups are heavily involved in drug trafficking and use various methods, including contraband trade, to launder their illicit earnings.

C�te d'Ivoire, the world's top cocoa producer, is experiencing devastating deforestation driven by its principal economic activity, cocoa farming. Farmers typically rely on the natural soil fertility of virgin forests for high cocoa yields, leading to forests being cleared for cocoa cultivation. After five to ten years, when soil fertility dwindles, farmers move to the next fresh two to three acres of virgin forest to plant a new crop. This practice has led to a fourfold increase in deforestation in Saamaka lands and the growth of towns and villages in protected forest areas. To diversify and increase their income, some farmers make profitable deals with logging companies and illegal timber traders to remove trees to make way for cocoa crops. This practice has proved more lucrative for farmers than cocoa bean production, making illegal logging arguably one of the country's most prevalent and lucrative forms of organised crime.

According to Reuters, in May 2024, the Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) suspended around 40 cooperatives. These cooperatives were accused of hoarding cocoa beans with the intention of selling them at inflated prices, amidst a national supply shortage caused by adverse weather conditions and the spread of cocoa diseases. It is reported that these cooperatives and some independent buyers had stockpiled over 60,000 metric tons of cocoa since the mid-crop season began. This practice, though not illegal in itself, became problematic when it was used to drive up prices unfairly. While the official farmgate price was set at 1,500 CFA francs ($2.50) per kilogram, some cooperatives were demanding between 1,600 and 1,800 CFA francs at the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro. In response to these practices, the CCC suspended the trading activities of the implicated cooperatives and buyers, in order to stabilise the domestic market and prevent smaller exporters from being outcompeted by larger multinational companies willing to pay higher prices. While the CCC's actions were largely supported by exporters, Reuters reports that the situation revealed underlying tensions within the cocoa supply chain.

A report by the Colombian Centro de Estudios Regionales Cafeteros Y Empresariales details the extent of child labour in Colombia's coffee sector. Colombia's coffee zone covers 22 of 32 departments, with significant small-scale, traditional production. Child labour is alledgedly prevalent in these zones due to familial economic needs, despite the national regulatory framework which includes international conventions and laws aimed at protecting young workers. The report finds that while most children in coffee-growing households attend school, attendance rates decline with age. Children and adolescents are involved in various coffee-related activities such as harvesting, carrying food, and processing coffee. According to the report, most children explain that their involvement in coffee activities does not interfere with their rights. However, some do mention reduced free time and fewer social interactions. There are also several safety concerns associated with specific tasks, particularly those involving machinery or harmful chemicals. Approximately 13.2% of surveyed children are engaged in child labour, primarily in hazardous activities like handling machinery or chemicals. These tasks pose significant risks to their health and safety.

Significant labour rights violations were uncovered at the Pedreira farm in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The farm is owned by the family of Cooxup� president Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo. Cooxup� is the world's largest coffee cooperative, and supplies major international brands like Starbucks and Nespresso. Workers at the Pedreira farm had up to 30% of their wages illegally deducted to pay for essential equipment, like portable coffee harvesting machines, which should legally have been provided by the employer free of charge. In 2021, an inspection revealed that 19 workers, who had migrated from the impoverished Jequitinhonha Valley, were affected by these illegal deductions. This violation occurred despite Cooxup�'s substantial profits, which nearly doubled to $61 million in 2020 on revenues of $1 billion. The Melo family subsequently agreed to return the deducted wages and pay each worker 2,000 reais ($370) as compensation for moral damages. This incident is part of a broader issue of labour exploitation in Brazil's coffee industry. In 2020, 140 workers were rescued from slave-like conditions on coffee plantations in Minas Gerais.

The Colombian peace process left a power vacuum in rural areas formerly controlled by FARC, leading to increased deforestation and environmental damage due to the lack of government oversight. Criminal groups have exploited this situation by engaging in illegal timber trafficking, amongst other environmental crimes. The Colombian Ministry of the Environment estimates that 47% of the timber sold nationally is illegally sourced. A 2020 investigation also found irregularities in Colombian timber exports, including over-invoicing and under-invoicing to move value in and out of the country. Logging operations often occur in protected areas of the forest, despite licences indicating authorised zones. Overall, the illegal logging of timber in Colombia causes 10% of all deforestation. Another issue is that existing regulations are only weakly enforced. For instance, the environmental authority of Corpoamazonia, responsible for protecting forests in the southern departments, is understaffed, with just 30 officers overseeing an area the size of Ecuador. In addition, the Transport Handbook, a permit required for cutting and transporting timber in Colombia, is frequently falsified in order to launder illegal timber. Merchants exploit these permits as blank cheques to justify volumes logged in protected forests.

In Colombia's Guaviare department, the nomadic Indigenous tribe Nukak Mak� is currently endangered by illegal palm oil plantations, coca cultivation, and cattle ranching . The tribe first made contact with the outside world in 1988, and since then, the incursion of external activities has pushed them to the brink of physical and cultural extinction. Indeed, despite their territory being an officially recognised Indigenous reservation, the Nukak have been losing their home to illicit activities. Deforestation and land grabs are driven by criminal groups and former settlers transforming the land for agricultural use. Illegal palm oil plantations have spread in the Guaviare region, encroaching on the reservation. In the past, the region was also heavily affected by armed conflict involving paramilitary groups and guerrillas, further displacing the Nukak people. Despite legal protections and court orders aimed at curbing deforestation and environmental crimes, enforcement has been weak, and illegal activities continue to threaten the Nukak's territory.

Mongabay reports on a case in Colombia's tropical Andes, where a group of farmers and villagers are resisting the construction of a large copper mine by international gold mining giant AngloGold Ashanti. The company has been working for over a decade to obtain a license to extract nearly 1.4 million metric tons of copper from the mountains surrounding the town of Jeric�. Concerned about the impact of the mine on their underground water supply, the group blocked the company from performing the final environmental studies needed for its pending mining license. The company claims that the mine would bring in around $5 million in annual profit for the town and create at least 3,000 jobs. However, the town is sharply divided over the issue. Farmers fear their livelihood will vanish if the mine disrupts the water table. The area is predominantly agricultural and has never been a mining zone. The potential impact of the mine on the aquifer and the farmers' water sources isn't clear yet. The farmers and villagers have kept constant watch on the land rented by the company and have disrupted operations. As of mid-May, the legal process was still ongoing, with the town's police inspector in charge of mediation between the two sides. Despite the resistance, AngloGold Ashanti has invested millions of dollars in Jeric� since it first launched the project in 2010.

In Santander, a region of Colombia, corruption is a common practice in the timber industry. Timber traders will exploit the regulatory, police, and judicial systems in order to enable the illegal trafficking of wood. Government agencies, such as the Autonomous Corporation of Santander (CAS) and the Corporation for the Defense of the Bucaramanga Plateau (CDMB), which are responsible for regulating timber extraction, have become riddled with corruption . Officials within these bodies have been found to issue false permits, recycling old ones and creating fake licences to launder illegally sourced timber. Police officers, bribed by the criminal organisations, frequently allow trucks carrying illegal timber to pass through checkpoints. In addition to this, the judicial system is also compromised, with prosecutors being influenced by bribes to exploit procedural loopholes. This allows seized timber to be returned to traffickers. An example of this corrupt behaviour is the Los Ingenieros criminal network's use of intermediaries. These individuals will manage the logistics of illegal timber transport, securing false permits, and connecting loggers with buyers. Businessmen in major cities including Bogotá or Bucaramanga purchase timber through these intermediaries. This corruption has led to widespread deforestation in natural reserves such as Yarigués National Park, while key figures often evade punishment.

In Colombia, labour rights violations in the palm oil industry are rampant, characterised by exploitative practices and corporate impunity . The industry is large and promoted by the government, yet most of its 130,000 workers are employed in illegal and harsh conditions. Major companies, such as Paligrow, have been involved in wage theft and have denied their workers collective bargaining rights. Employees also often work in unsafe conditions, with injuries being frequent. Palig row also uses subcontracting schemes, such as "worker cooperatives" and "simplified stock corporations" in order to avoid employment costs, including contributing to social security benefits. This undermines workers' rights and complicates enforcement under the U.S.-backed Labor Action Plan, which mandates fines for such subcontracting but remains largely unenforced. Paligrow is only one of the numerous major companies that reportedly employ such exploitative practices. Furthermore, the climate for labour organising is highly dangerous, with over 150 union leaders in the palm oil sector murdered since 1998. Between 2011 and 2015, there were over 1,933 threats and acts of violence against workers, including 121 assassinations.

In Chile, trade misinvoicing, which occurs when export or import invoices are falsified in the final goal of tax evasion or money laundering, remains prevalent. This practice is particularly significant in the copper industry, which accounted for 48.2% of the nation's total exports in 2018. By underreporting the value of copper exports, companies have minimised their taxable revenue. Conversely, overreporting import values has allowed companies to reduce their tax burdens by inflating deductible costs. For instance, this practice was employed by Chile's state-owned copper corporation, CODELCO, in its agreement with China Minmetals Corporation to supply copper at below-market rates. This has raised concerns about potential tax evasion and undervaluation. Trade misinvoicing also allows for money laundering, as falsely reported trade transactions are used to conceal illicit proceeds. Money can notably be moved across borders, as has been found to be the case for Caso Yaupel, a fruit importer and distributor that laundered money digitally across Colombia, Germany, Ecuador, and Chile. Trade misinvoicing is not just an economic problem but also affects public welfare and security. The practice is often linked with other criminal activities like drug trafficking and human trafficking.

Illegal logging is an ongoing issue in Chile and has caused extensive environmental and economic damage over several decades. The World Bank notably reports the destruction of 11,368 hectares of land and the generation of 1.2 million m_ of illegally harvested timber from 2013 to 2019. A significant consequence of the enormity of this sector is illicit activity, such as timber theft by criminal mafias. Timber theft by criminal mafias has surged, with the value of stolen wood increasing from US$20 million in 2018 to US$67.8 million in 2020. In addition, the ongoing conflict between the Mapuche Indigenous community and the government has also intensified due to logging on ancestral lands. Criminal groups exploit this situation, engaging in timber theft, creating fake invoices, and laundering illegal timber through legitimate financial structures. Investigations have revealed significant laundering through false documentation, sometimes even involving internationally certified companies. The government's institutional framework has allowed organised crime to flourish in the timber sector. Government agencies have inadequately supervised timber companies, particularly regarding the proper use of shipping documents and invoices and the sustainable use of forest lands.

Large-scale copper robberies orchestrated by organised crime groups have had a devastating impact on the Chilean copper industry. For instance, on the 11th of January 2023, 13 shipping containers, valued at $4.4 million, were stolen from the port of San Antonio after guards were subdued and cameras disabled. The Antofagasta Bolivia Railway (FCAB) has also reported over 100 attacks on copper-carrying trains from 2020 to 2023, with 39 incidents in 2022 alone. Gangs, equipped with advanced technology and heavy machinery, conduct these raids with paramilitary precision. These robberies are also highly violent, as shown when armed men kidnapped workers in Antofagasta to facilitate a copper robbery in May 2021. Organised crime groups also frequently attack police and companies' security teams, sometimes resulting in murder. The scale and level of violence of these copper robberies has increased drastically over the past few years. While copper robbery has always been frequent in Chile, the methods used are now much more developed, allowing for better organised, larger and more effective heists.

In the Central African Republic (CAR), Russia's involvement in the mining sector is a key strategy maintained to evade sanctions, allowing both economic and geopolitical advancement The Wagner Group, a paramilitary organisation with close ties to the Kremlin, plays a crucial role in this process. By securing profitable mining contracts, notably in the gold and diamond industry, Wagner circumvents Western financial sanctions imposed due to Russia's internationally condemned military actions in Ukraine. In the CAR, Wagner's operations go beyond traditional economic interests, with security concerns also being prominent. Companies such as Finans M and Lobaye Invest, reportedly controlled by Wagner's leader, exploit mineral resources in the Central African Republic (CAR) under the guise of economic activity, reinforcing Russia's geopolitical presence. These entities facilitate the trade of precious minerals outside the formal banking system, enabling Russia to bypass sanctions. This strategy allows Russia to leverage CAR's rich minerals to sustain its economy and finance military activities in Ukraine. It is also crucial to note that Russian mining activity in the CAR is causing environmental damage, including land degradation, deforestation, and water pollution, due to a lack of regulation. If Russia's involvement in CAR succeeds, similar unregulated mining projects could spread throughout the sub-Saharan region, increasing environmental harm.

A report by Afrik 21 has found that the export of Cameroonian timber to Vietnam involves significant environmental and fiscal abuses, including illegal logging and false invoicing. To safeguard its forest biodiversity, which covers 48% of the country, Cameroon enacted a law in 1999 that strictly bans the export of certain wood species in log form, including doussie, mukulungu, sapelli, padouk, and movingui. However, after a three-year investigation into the timber trade route between Cameroon and Vietnam, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) have uncovered the extent of illegal activities in the sector, characterised by corruption, false invoicing, and unlawful logging. These illegal activities allow loggers to largely bypass existing regulations. The report reveals that at least 132,000 m_ of logs were exported from Cameroon to Vietnam in violation of forestry regulations from January 2016 to July 2020. This illegal trade has resulted in an estimated loss of $58 million in public revenue during this time period. The report also suggests that state agents may be complicit in the illegal timber trade.

A Global Witness investigation revealed how illicit practices in the Central African Republic (CAR) timber industry has helped finance conflict in the country. According to the investigation, logging companies have paid millions of euros to armed groups to ensure that they can continue operating in the country, with companies continuing to offer CAR timber for sale on international markets. One of the country's leading timber exporters, SEFCA, was accused of paying significant sums of money to armed groups in the country, including a �381,000 payment to the Seleka, an alliance of rebel militia groups accused of numerous human rights violations.

Cameroon faces significant challenges in relation to children's rights, particularly in artisanal mining areas. These areas employ many children, who are left exposed to several forms of exploitation, one of the most severe issues being sexual exploitation. According to a 2023 UNICEF report, around 20,000 children in these areas are survivors of sexual exploitation, with half of them being girls. These children are often exploited by mineral buyers, police officers, and other adults, forced into prostitution, sexual services, or marriages with adult men. This exploitation is primarily due to poverty, as well as a lack of education, and a weak state presence in these areas. The consequences for children who are sexually exploited are severe, including mental health issues, physical violence, school dropouts, and increased involvement in crime and prostitution. Despite efforts by the Cameroonian government and civil society organisations to combat this issue, measures employed are not sufficient. Organisations like the Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Developpement (RFLD) play a crucial role in combating child sexual exploitation by organising awareness sessions and providing support to child survivors, including legal, medical, and psychological assistance.

An industrial rubber project in Cameroon is now being condemned for causing the largest single rainforest destruction in Central Africa, according to Rainforest Foundation UK._ In a statement released in November 2018, the representatives from 21 surrounding villages denounced the effects of the Sud-Cameroun Hevea (Sudcam) project on the rights and livelihoods. Established in 2008, Sudcam was granted nearly 60,000 hectares of forest without conducting an environmental impact assessment or consulting the numerous communities affected. Such extensive land clearing has severely affected local and indigenous Baka communities. Approximately 30 communities rely on the area granted to Sudcam for hunting, fishing, farming, and collecting forest products. Large-scale rainforest destruction in the area therefore poses a significant threat to local livelihoods. In addition, in 2015, three indigenous Baka communities living in the forest were forcibly evicted to make way for the plantation. Around 120 people were forced to seek shelter in neighbouring Bantu villages, where they now live in poor conditions and face severe discrimination and human rights abuses. To date, none of these individuals have received any compensation for their lost livelihoods.

Cameroon's Congo River basin forest sector is exposed to illegal timber logging as demand for high-quality wood in Asia is growing. Due in part to ineffective forestry sector governance and management, the region is emerging as a focal area for local and international criminal actors. The Congo Basin's rainforests supply a wide range of wood species, including African teak, rosewood, bubinga, iroko, sapele, and moabi, to key high demand markets such as China and Vietnam. It is estimated that up to 50% of the annual wood harvested in Cameroon is from small-scale logging, most of which is illegal. At the borders, traffickers falsely declare tree species to pass illegally harvested timber off as legal, with this wood then trafficked into neighboring countries and exported on to consumer markets. According to the research organisation ENACT Africa, both private sector and state operators can be involved in this illegal trade, with the industry in Cameroon steeped in corruption. A key concern is bribe-taking among senior officials, civil servants, and companies in exchange for timber logging permits. Unfortunately, well-meaning government authorities also often lack the resources needed to effectively monitor the country's vast forests.

Cattle can both themselves be laundered (if they are grazed on land that has been illegally cleared and converted to pasture) and used as a means of laundering criminal proceeds from other exploits, like drugs trafficking. In Brazil, cattle have been laundered to obscure their links to land clearing, when they are moved from ranches that have contributed to land conversion through "clean" ranches that have not resulted in recent forest loss. In 2009, several Brazilian slaughterhouses signed the Terms of Adjustment of Conduct, an initiative of the Federal Prosecution Office and the Public Commitment on Cattle Ranching, and a voluntary protocol developed by Greenpeace, which precludes them from purchasing cattle reared on deforested land. However, a single cow might pass through up to 10 farms before it is slaughtered (from birth, through rearing and fattening). Any of these farms might be linked to illegal deforestation but many slaughterhouses assess links to deforestation only on the last farm a cow passes through - their direct supplier. As long as the last farm in the supply chain is from a "clean" ranch that is free from recent deforestation then slaughterhouses (and subsequent transporters and retailers, like supermarkets) are likely to mark them as deforestation-free, even if they have spent the majority of their life on and have passed through nine other ranches that have been converted from forested land. Indeed, data indicates that some ranchers own both "dirty" and "clean" ranches and launder cattle through their own properties. So long as one property is kept clean, they can continue to clear land for cattle grazing purposes on any number of other ranches. Other investigations by Global Witness have found that ranchers have fraudulently edited the boundaries of their ranch once they have cleared areas of land, so that this land conversion is no longer included within the property's scope and the ranch appears free from deforestation. This is alleged to be the case for the Fazenda Espora de Ouro II Ranch in Brazil's Par� state, which Global Witness also found appears to be registered in the name of an individual who could not legally be its owner (based on assessment of a database of land titles and beneficiaries). Cattle can also 'and concurrently' be used as a means of laundering the proceeds of illicit activity. Drug traffickers, especially in Colombia (where the traceability of beef produce is particularly poor), Honduras, and Guatemala, are known to launder revenue from drugs by buying or grabbing land which they convert into pasture for cattle, which they also purchase with narcotrafficking proceeds. When the cattle are sold, profits are hard to trace back to the drug network and their illicit proceeds are effectively laundered. This practice, known as "narco-ranching", is suspected of contributing up to 87% of deforestation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a large UNESCO heritage area of forest which covers over 2 million hectares of rainforest across northern Guatemala and borders other protected forests in Mexico and Belize. The Reserve is highly vulnerable to deforestation by crime groups due to its strategic location along a significant drug trafficking route up through Guatemala and Mexico leading to the US. Cattle ranching in such areas also frequently serves to hide airstrips and production facilities used by traffickers to produce and transport drugs or other illicit products. Airstrips now pepper the Maya Biosphere reserve, which are used by planes coming in from Colombia and Venezuela with cocaine to be smuggled across the border into Mexico.

A report commissioned by the government of Burkina Faso revealed that extremist political groups frequently attacked gold mines in order to access gold as a source of funding. Since 2016, armed extremist groups have accumulated 70 billion CFA francs ($126 million) following attacks on mining sites. These extremists, often linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda, target gold mines in order to seize control and extort taxes. The central governments' limited control over mining regions leaves communities vulnerable, and struggling to defend themselves from these well-armed groups. Extremist groups not only target gold mines in the aims of conflict financing, but also to supply explosives for terrorist activities. Terrorist groups view the control of gold mines and transport routes as crucial for legitimacy and power over local populations. This control leads to violence as groups compete for profits and dominance. Lastly, the loss of governmental tax revenue from gold smuggling undermines funding for social programs and counter-terrorism efforts.

A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime details how the illicit gold trade in Burkina Faso has played a critical role in financing conflicts. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), a focal point for the country's economy, provides resources to non-state armed groups, and contributing to instability in the region. In Burkina Faso, ASGM produced approximately 49.5 tons of gold in 2018, valued at around $2.7 billion in 2022. The artisanal gold mining market is a significant source of income for many communities, but a big portion of this gold is smuggled out of the country, avoiding formal channels and taxation. The revenue derived from this illicit trade is often reinvested in weapons and vehicles, providing increased economic prosperity for armed groups, such as those affiliated with Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), during conflicts. The influx of weapons into the region, especially after the 2011 Libyan revolution, has made arms readily available to different groups, contributing to the weaponisation of existing trafficking routes. In addition, the smuggling networks also play a role in supplying armed groups with recruits. Migrant smugglers, for instance, liaise with armed groups and pay taxes for safe passage through territories controlled by these groups.

According to a press release issued by the Brazilian government, an Operation led by its Federal Police dismantled an international criminal organisation involved in the illegal extraction, trade, and export of precious stones, particularly rough diamonds and gold. On April 26, 2023, Brazil's Federal Police launched Operation Itamar�, which encompassed a total of 42 search and seizure warrants and eight preventive arrest warrants across several Brazilian states and involved international cooperation with the United States, Belgium, England, and the United Arab Emirates. Investigations began in 2020, as the organisation's activities were first revealed through the arrest of a suspect at Guarulhos International Airport. The suspect was found carrying rough diamonds without proper documentation. Subsequent seizures included gold bars at Confins/MG Airport and rough diamonds intercepted with the help of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. The Operation eventually uncovered that the criminal organisation had extensive operations in over a dozen countries, involving complex financial schemes and the use of shell companies to issue false invoices. They also co-opted legitimate companies to facilitate the illegal export of precious stones.

According to Mongabay, a boom in illegal cattle ranching activities in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in Brazil has caused illegal deforestation and violations of Indigenous rights. An increase in commercial cattle ranching has encroached on large plots of the Arariboia Indigenous Territory. Several bans against such establishments are in place, but cattle ranchers are able to find loopholes since Brazilian laws do not require buffer zones around Indigenous territories, unlike conservation units. Commercial cattle ranching in the area has caused illegal deforestation, as well as other illegal activities such as the construction of an unlicensed airstip in mid-2023. In addition, the local Indigenous community, the Guajajara, has faced harassment and violence from the illicit loggers. In 2023, four killings and three attempts on their lives were recorded. Killings correlate with areas of illegal activities and police operations against illegal logging. In addition, water contamination and reduced fish stocks due to cattle farming chemicals affect the Guajajaras health and food sources.

Brazilian federal authorities launched an investigation into a money laundering network suspected of moving millions of dollars' worth of illicit gold in 2023. Through a network of shell companies, individuals are alleged to have moved money linked to gold illegally sourced from Brazil's northern neighbor Guyana. In one instance, a shell company purportedly to be trading hospital supplies was alleged to have laundered over $12.3 million in gold. Shell companies play an important role in Brazil's illicit gold industry, with these companies providing a way for criminals to issue invoices without a physical address to hide the illegal origin of exported gold. Authorities have estimated that over 30 tonnes of gold is illegally extracted each year from the Brazilian Amazon, with this illicit practice exploiting low-earning miners in areas of poor human and economic development, causing considerable deforestation and socio-economic harm.

In Par�, Brazil's largest palm oil-producing region, violence, land grabbing, and forced evictions of Indigenous, Quilombola, riverine, and campesino communities have been escalating since early 2022. Local leaders allege that government officials have encouraged palm oil producers to suppress any opposition violently. Two major palm oil companies are at the centre of these conflicts. Brasil Biofuels (BBF) is accused of using violence and intimidation against Indigenous and traditional communities. BBF allegedly employs armed security to intimidate and forcibly remove community members from their lands, leading to violent conflicts with the Temb�, Turiuara, and Pitau� Indigenous peoples. Agropalma is linked to fraudulent land grabs, acquiring land with illegal titles, and displacing communities. Despite their denials, both companies are reportedly responsible for severe human rights abuses. Major international brands such Mondelez, Nestl�, PepsiCo, and Unilever continue to source palm oil from BBF and Agropalma, indirectly supporting these human rights violations.

Belo Sun Mining Ltd, a Canadian company based in Toronto, has been developing the Volta Grande gold project in Par� State, Brazil since 2012. The project, including a planned open-pit gold mine, is the ancestral home of several Indigenous Peoples and riverine (Ribeirinho) communities. The project has faced numerous legal challenges and complaints. The main issues include inadequate impact studies on Indigenous Peoples, questionable licensing processes, insufficient consultation with Ribeirinho communities, and potential violations of land rights. Despite these challenges, the project was designated a priority under Brazil's 2021 Pro-Strategic Minerals Policy. Human rights defenders, including Indigenous Peoples, have faced ongoing threats and intimidation related to their opposition to the project. Belo Sun's security firm, Invictus, reportedly intimidated local communities with armed patrols and surveillance. For instance, in October 2023, Belo Sun filed a criminal complaint against 40 individuals accusing them of criminal activities related to land protests.

A legal complaint against the US-based agricultural giant Cargill has been filed following its failure to adequately deal with its participation in soy-driven deforestation and human rights violations in Brazil. Cargill allegedly failed to implement adequate monitoring methods to oversee the vast quantities of soy it trades, handles at its ports, and ships to global markets. This deficiency prevented the company from identifying and eliminating links to deforestation and human rights abuses, thereby breaching its legal due diligence responsibilities. Due diligence deficiencies include a lack of proper environmental due diligence on soy bought from third-party traders, no due diligence on soy owned by other companies passing through its ports and failure to address indirect land use change.The complaint also highlights human rights failures, including forced displacement and violence against land defenders linked to Cargill's operations, and the destruction of traditional ways of living due to deforestation.

A 2023 investigation uncovered that seven agribusiness giants, including Bunge, Cargill and COFCO, bought grains, notably soybeans, from Brazilian farmers fined for illegal cultivation on Indigenous lands in Mato Grosso. However, the grain sales invoices failed to identify the farms as being inside the Indigenous lands, falsely stating other lands of origin to allow the business to take place. In addition, the investigation found that five identified producers fined by IBAMA in 2018 for cultivating crops within Indigenous lands continued to make sales to large international grain traders during the periods of interdiction from 2018 to 2019. A practice of 'grain laundering' was used to facilitate this illegal trade. This practice involves mixing illegally produced grains from conservation units, seized lands, or interdicted areas with legally planted and harvested soybean and corn, thereby concealing the irregular origin of a portion of the crop. The close proximity of these farms, listed on invoices as the origin of the produce, to Indigenous lands facilitated this 'grain laundering'. Grain laundering was openly acknowledged by farmers in the Pares� Indigenous region in March 2019.

A criminal complaint has been fined against several French banks, accusing them of money laundering and financing meat companies driving deforestation in Brazil. From 2013 to 2021, the four French banks involved, BNP Paribas, Cr�dit Agricole, BPCE, and AXA, invested nearly $70 million in bonds issued by leading Brazilian meat companies, generating about $11.7 million in profits. An analysis of JBS and Marfrig slaughterhouses, financed by such investments, in Par� and Mato Grosso found that over 50% and 40% of suppliers, respectively, showed evidence of deforestation and intrusion into Indigenous lands. The founder of the NGO Harvest, that contributed to initiating the complaint, emphasised that banks have an obligation to prevent money laundering and must exclude actors profiting from illegal deforestation. In response to the complaint, Cr�dit Agricole and BPCE did not comment, while BNP Paribas and AXA provided statements emphasising their commitment to ESG standards.

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), seven individuals were detained in Par�, Brazil after suspicions of illegal Amazon timber trade. Among those detained is a former employee of the Par� Environmental Secretariat (SEMAS). Investigation began in 2019, with the operation "Dark Wood" involving a total of nine search and seizure warrants and the freezing of bank accounts. The two-year investigation sought to dismantle the criminal scheme that enabled the illegal extraction of sale and timber. The scheme involved laundering wood from illegal deforestation, yielding significant profits. It disguised the origins of illicit wood, which was then exported to the United States. Yellow Ip� wood, highly valued in the U.S., was a primary target. During their investigation, the Brazilian Civil Police eventually uncovered forged documents used to simulate forest product auctions. These allowed companies to introduce fraudulent permits into the Forest Products Commercialization and Transportation System (Sisflora). Operation "Dark Wood" resulted in the detention of guilty sawmill owners and former SEMAS employees across various locations in Par� and the Federal District. The identities of the suspects and companies remain undisclosed.

A report by InSight Crime demonstrates the growing ties between drug trafficking and illegal timber logging in Brazil's Amazon. The report details how timber shipments from the Amazon are now being used to conceal drugs, primarily cocaine, for export to foreign countries. From 2017 to 2021, authorities seized nearly nine tons of cocaine hidden within timber shipments destined for European countries. In addition to drugs being hidden in timber shipments, the ties between illegal timber logging and drug trafficking is also the consequence of organised crime groups in Brazil diversifying their activity. Indeed, organised crime groups in Brazil have also become involved in illegal mining, land grabbing, logging, gold trading, and invading indigenous lands. Criminal gangs have been known to buy land illegally in the rainforest to profit from logging and to establish marijuana plantations, particularly in Par�'s "Marijuana Polygon.". From 2015 to 2020, more than two million marijuana plants were seized across the Amazon region, with 55% of these seizures occurring in Par�.

An investigatory report by Greenpeace led to allegations that South Korean machinery manufacturer HD Hyundai Construction Equipment (HD HCE) contributed to deforestation in the Amazon by providing excavators to illegal gold miners operating within Indigenous territories, in areas of Brazil which were degraded 202% more between 2019 and 2021 compared to the preceding decade._ In the Indigenous lands of Yanomami, Munduruku, and Kayap�, 75 Hyundai excavators were identified during aerial surveys conducted between 2021 and 2023. Illicit mining activities have led to a humanitarian crisis in these areas; for example, contaminated rivers have posed health risks to Yanomami adults and children.

A study found that tax havens offer a major conduit through which investors can fund agribusiness in tropical areas; 68% of all investigated foreign capital flowing into nine of the top companies in the soy and beef sectors in the Brazilian Amazon was transferred through tax havens between 2000 and 2011. A large proportion of this was through the Cayman Islands. The report noted that the secrecy and transparency offered by such havens appear to be important to those investing large sums in agribusiness companies responsible for significant land conversion in the Amazon, likely because it protects them and allows them to more thoroughly conceal their involvement.

According to Mongabay, it was uncovered in February 2023 that three landowners had orchestrated the largest single instance of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon's history, clearing 6,469 hectares of forest in Par� state. This large-scale land grab, conducted between February and May 2020, cost at least $2.5 million and is expected to yield nearly $20 million in profits from selling the land for soy farming or cattle ranching. This took place along the BR-163 highway, between the districts of Castelo dos Sonhos and Vila Isol, regions known for their economic activities, including gold mining, timber, cattle, and soybean farming. The land, initially public and belonging to the Brazilian federal government, was illegally appropriated and cleared without environmental authorisation. This deforestation, larger than the area of Manhattan, represents a significant loss of biodiversity and a contribution to climate change, as well as a breach of Brazilian environmental laws. The three key figures behind this land grab are Jeferson de Andrade Rodrigues, Delmir Jos� Alba, and his brother Augustinho Alba. They all have a history of environmental fines and infractions.

The Brazilian Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region convicted three companies for the illegal logging and subsequent transportation and trade of wood from the Rond�nia region of the Legal Amazon. The companies involved are Celia Ceolin EPP, BV Ind�stria e Com�rcio de Madeiras Ltda ME, and Madeireira Mil Madeiras Ltda EPP. Each company was fined US$100,000 and ordered to plant 10 hectares of the protected Brazilian tree that had been illegally exploited. The conviction followed Operation Guardians of the Mountains in 2008, where authorities were able to seize 600 cubic metres of timber illegally logged in the Amazon, as well as 17 trucks. The wood had been sawn without authorisation, whereas Mil Madeiras had falsely advertised on their website that they operated in an environmentally conscious manner, claiming certification from Brazilian environmental authorities. However, the exploitation of Brazilian nut wood, found during the Operation, has been prohibited since the early 1990s. The court also found that, in addition to the illegal cutting of protected trees in the Amazon, the companies laundered the timber by mixing the illegally logged wood with legal logs, and their records never mention the Brazil nut.

The Global Witness report titled "Empty Promises: Cargill, Soy, Banks and the Destruction of Bolivia's Chiquitano Forest" reveals that US food giant Cargill has directly purchased soy from farms in Bolivia where more than 20,000 hectares of forest have been razed since 2017. The report suggests that Cargill is systematically failing to collect key data about the origins of its soy supplies in Bolivia, casting serious doubt on its commitments to achieving fully traceable and "deforestation-free" supply chains. The report also reveals that Cargill's global operations have been bankrolled by financial institutions including Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC and Santander, despite these firms' pledges to eliminate or reduce deforestation from their portfolios. The report concludes with a series of urgent recommendations to the EU and UK, US and Bolivian governments, to the world's biggest and most influential banks, and to Cargill itself.

Corruption is a significant issue in the Bolivian timber industry, with false or fraudulent documents being issued by government officials. Companies launder illegal timber into supply chains by fraudulently obtaining paperwork, falsifying the Forestry Origin Certificate (CFO), or selling timber without a CFO. Most of this illegal timber comes from protected areas, indigenous territories, or natural forests. Illegal timber is laundered out of Bolivia by loggers making fraudulent declarations of greater numbers of trees than exist, artificially inflating the number of trees in authorised forest management areas or logging plans. This allows them to supplement their timber consignment with illegally extracted timber from other areas. Reno Noel Silvia Cespedes, a former Forest and Land Authority (ABT) official, reportedly signed 2,096 documents authorising the clearing of protected areas between 2015 and 2018. A 2018 report by the ABT found that the agency authorised the cutting of at least two protected species at far higher rates than is permitted by law.

Illegal logging in Bolivia's forests is contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. High-value woods are being harvested almost to extinction, pushing loggers deeper into protected areas. Parks at risk include Madidi, Carrasco, Ambaró, and Isiboro-Secure, all of which are adjacent to the Amazon region. In Madidi and Ambaró, an entire trafficking network has sprung up around the pilfering of valuable mara wood (Swietenia macrophylla), also known as big-leaf mahogany. The tree species has been classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. It has also been granted Appendix II protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), indicating that its trade must be regulated to prevent exploitation that threatens its survival. In 2011, the head of Bolivia's forests agency warned that the overexploitation of mara wood had left the species on the brink of disappearing. According to an investigation by Eduardo Franco Berton, a Bolivian environmental journalist who has investigated the illicit timber trade, traffickers are still financing the extraction of mara wood. The pilfering requires organized crews that head deep into national parks, crossing rivers and canyons, to reach isolated stands of mara trees. Loggers chop down trees that can reach up to 45 meters in height and then use buzzsaws to cut them into planks measuring 3 to 5 meters in length. Carriers then transport these planks on their backs for up to two miles across challenging terrain. Once the carriers reach a river drop-off point, the timber is strung together by rope to form long rafts called callapos. The rafts carry 150 planks on perilous journeys up to three days on Ambaró's Yapacani, Ichilo, and Mataracu rivers. The trips can earn sailors some $700. Trucks then pick up the timber, bringing it to warehouses. The best wood is selected and smuggled to neighboring countries. From Madidi, located northwest of La Paz, the wood is moved to San Pedro de Putina Punco, Peru, while wood extracted in Ambaró is moved across the long porous border between Bolivia and Brazil's Mato Grosso state. The timber is often concealed in other truck cargo. Timber that reaches Brazil and Peru has been exported to international markets, such as China and the United States.

In 2022, Bolivia lost 245,177 hectares of primary forest, making up 12.4% of total Amazon deforestation. This is largely due to unchecked fires, often human-caused to clear land for agriculture and cattle farming, in a practice known as "chaqueo". These fires emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide, making Bolivia a hotspot for carbon emissions during fire season. The Bolivian government's promotion of agribusiness in the Amazon, particularly for cattle-rearing and farming, has led to increased rates of deforestation. The Authority for the Social Audit and Control of Forests and Lands (ABT) authorised the deforestation of 212,000 hectares annually between 2016 and 2021, accounting for 83% of total deforestation. Legal changes, such as the 2013 Forest Restitution Law, have allowed farmers to legalise land that was illegally cleared for agriculture and cattle farming. Land titling laws further promote deforestation by requiring landowners to show productive use of the land within two years or risk confiscation.

The Verit� report investigates forced labour indicators within Bolivia's Brazil nut, cattle, corn, and peanut sectors. Human trafficking emerges as a critical issue, particularly in remote rural areas where workers face coercion and exploitation. Vulnerable individuals, often from marginalised communities, are trafficked and subjected to abusive recruitment practices, debt bondage, and inadequate living conditions. The report highlights that victims are frequently misled about the nature of their work, wages, and living conditions, leading to situations where they cannot freely leave or seek help. It underscores the necessity of stringent enforcement of labour laws, enhanced labour inspections, and support systems for victims to combat trafficking. The study calls for collaboration between governmental, non-governmental, and international entities to address the root causes and provide comprehensive support to affected workers. Ending trafficking and forced labour requires a multifaceted approach that includes regulatory oversight, victim protection, and education initiatives to raise awareness about these issues.

Bolivia's Minister for Rural Development and Land, Edwin Characayo Villega, was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe related to land trafficking, according to InSight Crime. Edwin Characayo is accused of accepting a cash bribe of $20,000. This bribe was part of a larger scheme in which he and other public officials were expected to receive a total of $380,000 to facilitate the transfer of land ownership in the municipality of San Ramon. Characayo also allegedly used his position to coerce individuals seeking to acquire and clear land for agricultural purposes into paying bribes. He is accused of exploiting his role as a minister to influence land transactions in favour of certain individuals, bypassing legal and regulatory processes. Characayo, who denies the charges, follows his predecessor Wilson Coceres, fired for nepotism and influence peddling. The issue of corrupt land trafficking schemes, which often involve government officials, has plagued Bolivia for years. Despite a 2014 law imposing up to eight years' imprisonment for illegal land sales, the practice continues to fuel corruption.

An investigation by Insight Crime in 2024 discovered that prospectors are damaging Bolivia's Tuichi River and Madidi National Park in their search for gold. As miners increasingly breach the reserve, park rangers have reduced their patrols and inspections. The mining is carried out by small-scale cooperatives, known locally as cooperativas, which sometimes act like mafias. These cooperatives control 94% of Bolivia's national gold production. They often operate in a state of near-impunity, thanks to grey areas in Bolivian law and little oversight by the government's mining agency, AJAM. The cooperatives have political power and have been known to hold the government hostage, bribe and coerce mining agency officials, and have dealings with Colombian and Chinese mining outfits. Bolivia is currently experiencing a gold boom, with production increasing from 6.3 tons in 2010 to 42 tons in 2019, fuelled by a distinct lack of controls on the mining, sale, or export of the precious metal.

According to an article by Mongabay, Bolivia is facing a severe deforestation problem due to soy plantations, with satellite data showing that soy plantations were responsible for over 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of deforestation between 2001 and 2021. Nearly quarter of this deforestation was caused by Mennonite communities, who legally purchased the land with the intention of expanding their simple, rural lifestyles. This new understanding of Mennonite activity in Bolivia comes from a new data set from Global Forest Watch, which combined soy plantation mapping with forest loss imagery to determine soy-driven deforestation. Mennonite soy farms have been a main driver of deforestation in the Beni and Santa Cruz departments, where vulnerable areas like the dry forest biome of Chiquitana are already suffering from drought and fires caused by climate change. The figures come from a new Global Forest Watch data set on soy plantations, which was merged with forest loss imagery to determine soy-driven deforestation.

According to an article by Mongabay, Bolivia is facing a severe deforestation problem due to soy plantations, with satellite data showing that soy plantations were responsible for over 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of deforestation between 2001 and 2021. Nearly quarter of this deforestation was caused by Mennonite communities, who legally purchased the land with the intention of expanding their simple, rural lifestyles. This new understanding of Mennonite activity in Bolivia comes from a new data set from Global Forest Watch, which combined soy plantation mapping with forest loss imagery to determine soy-driven deforestation. Mennonite soy farms have been a main driver of deforestation in the Beni and Santa Cruz departments, where vulnerable areas like the dry forest biome of Chiquitan�a are already suffering from drought and fires caused by climate change. The figures come from a new Global Forest Watch data set on soy plantations, which was merged with forest loss imagery to determine soy-driven deforestation.

An investigation by Argentine TV show Periodismo Para Todos (PPT) revealed significant smuggling of soybeans from Argentina to Paraguay. This illicit trade exploits the same cross-border blindspots that are used for drug trafficking. Smugglers transport soybeans into Paraguay to circumvent Argentina's hefty 30% export tariffs. The soybeans are transported via the Paran� River, where Paraguayan boats either collect soybean loads from Argentine boats or dock at clandestine ports to await truck deliveries. Once in Paraguay, the soybeans are recorded as Paraguayan produce and exported. This contraband trade has been fuelled by rising production costs in Argentina and falling global soybean prices, making smuggling a more profitable option for many farmers. The impact of this illicit trade is evident in industry statistics. Between 2011 and 2015, while Argentina's soybean production increased by 8%, exports fell by 6%. In contrast, Paraguay saw a 10% rise in production but a dramatic 62% increase in exports, indicating the scale of the contraband operation.

In February 2022, the Argentine National Gendarmerie intercepted two trucks carrying a total of over 4 tons of marijuana concealed within illegal timber shipments. The first seizure occurred near Nueve de Julio, Buenos Aires province, where a truck was found carrying more than 3 tons of marijuana hidden among wooden beams. The second seizure took place near Puerto Avellaneda, Misiones province. Upon noticing the presence of uniformed personnel, the driver abandoned the vehicle, which was found to contain 1,002 kilograms of cannabis sativa concealed in a timber shipment.