Pathways for targeting renewable resource corruption: A summary of evidence

The document analyzes corruption in renewable resource management through case studies in Madagascar, Peru, and Vietnam, arguing that technical solutions often fail because they ignore the political ecology and power dynamics of resource control. It recommends strengthening risk analysis, improving donor coordination, supporting human rights defenders, and enhancing transnational law enforcement data.

• In northern Madagascar, community-based resource management failed as an anti-corruption strategy due to externally defined interventions, conflicting understandings of corruption, and insufficient empowerment of local actors. Furthermore, the financial incentives provided to community members were too low to encourage pro-conservation behavior, which allowed a culture of tolerating corrupt and environmentally damaging acts to continue.
• In the Peruvian Amazon, Community Forest Management (CFM) has been undermined by insecure land tenure for Indigenous communities, which is viewed by stakeholders as a manifestation of corruption. This is exacerbated by violence and corruption from criminal organizations engaged in illegal logging, land grabbing, illegal gold mining, and coca leaf production.
• The introduction of digital e-payments in Vietnam's Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) system has the potential to reduce corruption, embezzlement, and local elite capture. However, the current co-existence of e-payments with cash payments limits the actual anti-corruption benefits.
• Anti-corruption objectives are typically secondary in resource governance projects, leading to a lack of specific treatment of corruption and unsound assumptions about how it operates. For instance, project designs in Peru failed to account for the capture of provincial institutions by special interest groups.
• Environmental corruption is driven by competing interests among state, commercial, and societal actors, with subnational state authorities often captured by special economic interests and criminal elements. Aid-funded projects often face a dilemma because they require the support of these same captured authorities to operate.
• Interventions often rely on a technical lens rather than a political one, failing to resolve the underlying political contentions of resource governance. This inadequacy can lead affected populations, such as Indigenous Peoples, to resort to direct protests and risk violent retaliation.
• Because the commerce and financing of renewable resources are global, in-country, timebound aid projects are insufficient. Corrupt networks can simply wait for short-term projects to end before resuming illegal activities, necessitating a response that matches the global and temporal scale of the challenge.

APA

Williams, D. A. (2023). Pathways for targeting renewable resource corruption: A summary of evidence. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/287/4lo1a0ntru_Pathways_Paper_V2.pdf

Chicago

Williams, David Aled. Pathways for targeting renewable resource corruption: A summary of evidence. WWF International, 2023. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/287/4lo1a0ntru_Pathways_Paper_V2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Williams |first1=David Aled |title=Pathways for targeting renewable resource corruption: A summary of evidence |publisher=WWF International |date=June 2023 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/287/4lo1a0ntru_Pathways_Paper_V2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{williams2023pathways, author = {Williams, David Aled}, title = {{Pathways for targeting renewable resource corruption: A summary of evidence}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2023}, month = jun, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/287/4lo1a0ntru_Pathways_Paper_V2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }