Beneficial Ownership Transparency and Natural Resource Corruption

The document explains how beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) helps uncover the individuals who ultimately control assets, preventing criminals and corrupt officials from using shell companies to hide profits from illegal wildlife trade, forestry, and fisheries. It highlights the role of public registries in tracing 'dirty money' and provides guidance for NRM practitioners to conduct due diligence and identify signs of obscured ownership to safeguard conservation projects.

• Beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) is designed to reveal the 'natural person(s)' who ultimately control assets, enabling law enforcement and the public to hold individuals accountable for corruption and illicit fund transfers.
• Criminals and corrupt officials use corporate structures like shell companies, front companies, and offshore holding companies to provide an air of legitimacy and shield their identities, which facilitates the laundering of profits from illegal natural resource exploitation.
• Publicly accessible beneficial ownership registries are identified as the most effective BOT regimes because they make it more difficult for individuals to benefit from the proceeds of crime and allow organizations to know who they are doing business with.
• Global adoption of BOT regulations is increasing; between 2018 and April 2020, the number of surveyed countries with some form of BOT regulation rose from 34 of 112 to 81 of 133.
• Specific examples demonstrate the utility of BOT in NRM: the UK Border Force arrested a glass eel trafficker in 2017 by using a beneficial ownership registry, and WWF ended its relationship with Domtar in 2021 after uncovering links to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and its history of hidden ownership.
• NRM practitioners are advised to perform due diligence on the beneficial ownership of companies they hire and the real estate they lease to avoid inadvertently funding corrupt schemes or money laundering operations.

APA

Kinnard, K. (2021). Beneficial Ownership Transparency and Natural Resource Corruption. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1318/937a70so14_TNRC_R4_BOT.pdf

Chicago

Kinnard, Kasey. Beneficial Ownership Transparency and Natural Resource Corruption. WWF International, 2021. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1318/937a70so14_TNRC_R4_BOT.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kinnard |first1=Kasey |title=Beneficial Ownership Transparency and Natural Resource Corruption |publisher=WWF International |date=December 2021 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1318/937a70so14_TNRC_R4_BOT.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kinnard2021beneficial, author = {Kinnard, Kasey}, title = {{Beneficial Ownership Transparency and Natural Resource Corruption}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2021}, month = dec, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1318/937a70so14_TNRC_R4_BOT.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }