Transparent governance of natural resources in Colombia

The report analyzes the intersection of corruption and organized crime within four primary drivers of environmental degradation in Colombia: illegal gold mining, illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, and land grabbing. It identifies systemic institutional weaknesses, such as deficient traceability systems and the instrumentalization of subsistence regimes, which allow 'invisible' economic and political elites to finance illicit activities through proxies and criminal networks. The document provides detailed recommendations for regulatory reform, including amending the Criminal Code to link environmental crimes to money laundering, improving the interoperability of environmental information systems, and implementing a 'traffic light' security risk assessment for territorial interventions.

• Illegal gold mining in Chocó is facilitated by deficient registration of subsistence miners, where criminal networks instrumentalize local communities to register as miners to inflate production and launder illegal gold.
• The illegal logging value chain relies on 'bosses' or 'proxies' who act as middlemen, tricking local communities into harvesting non-permitted species or volumes, which serves as the first stage of timber laundering.
• Wildlife trafficking is enabled by the abuse of legal subsistence hunting and fishing prerogatives, which are used as mechanisms to illegally obtain specimens and facilitate their laundering into legal markets.
• Land grabbing in the Northwestern Arc of the Amazon is primarily enabled by the development and consolidation of road networks, often through illegal roads promoted by local authorities or Mafia-style groups.
• A class of 'invisible' actors—individuals with significant economic and political power—finance and lead these illegal economies while remaining hidden by using proxies and criminal networks.
• Environmental crimes in Colombia are often underestimated as misdemeanors by law enforcement and judicial authorities, who prioritize other crimes like drug trafficking.
• There is a critical lack of interoperability and quality in environmental information systems, which hinders the ability of the state to track natural resources and prosecute environmental crimes.
• The report identifies a 'criminal dumping' phenomenon where illegal profits from gold, timber, or wildlife are used to import cheap goods (e.g., jewelry or clothing) into Colombia, undermining legal businesses.
• Environmental crimes are linked to national security threats as they provide lucrative funding for organized armed groups (GAO), the ELN, and FARC dissidents to maintain territorial control.
• The report proposes a 'traffic light assessment' to evaluate security risks before intervening in territories, ensuring that actions do not increase the risk to social leaders and local communities.

APA

Hernández, F., Amorocho, D., Barrera, X., Cabrera, M., Carrizosa, J., Gómez, L. F., Herrera, J., Muñoz, N., Pacheco, M., Valenzuela, S., Bargent, J., Botero, R., Cárdenas, J. D., Clavijo, B., Guaramato, F., Hernández, A., Martínez, S., McDermott, J., Laina, A., ... Vásquez, L. G. (2021). Transparent governance of natural resources in Colombia. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/790/44nq21n9tm_Final_Report_TGNR_English.pdf

Chicago

Hernández, Fabiola, Diego Amorocho, Ximena Barrera, Mauricio Cabrera, Joaquín Carrizosa, Luis Fernando Gómez, Johana Herrera, et al. Transparent governance of natural resources in Colombia. WWF International, 2021. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/790/44nq21n9tm_Final_Report_TGNR_English.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{hernndez2021transparent, author = {Hernández, Fabiola and Amorocho, Diego and Barrera, Ximena and Cabrera, Mauricio and Carrizosa, Joaquín and Gómez, Luis Fernando and Herrera, Johana and Muñoz, Natalia and Pacheco, Miguel and Valenzuela, Sandra and Bargent, James and Botero, Rodrigo and Cárdenas, Juan Diego and Clavijo, Bibiana and Guaramato, Fabiana and Hernández, Andrés and Martínez, Sandra and McDermott, Jeremy and Laina, Alejandra and Lizcano, Javier and Ramírez, María Fernanda and Sabbagh, Ana Paulina and Ayala, Juan Sebastian and Guerrero, Gustavo and Martínez, Hobeth and Méndez, Silvia María and Mondragón, Lilian and Rueda, Mauricio and Vásquez, Luis Germán}, title = {{Transparent governance of natural resources in Colombia}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2021}, month = aug, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/790/44nq21n9tm_Final_Report_TGNR_English.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }