Jakarta (Indonesia), 1 October 2021 - Criminals continuously exploit opportunities for making money illegally. According to INTERPOL, Environmental crimes generate up to more than 280 billion US dollars each year. Those illegal proceeds are then integrated into the legitimate economy through a further criminal activity: money laundering. UNODC, together with Canada and Ireland has co-led the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) work on money laundering from environmental crimes, which resulted in a FATF report and two handouts published in July 2021. The FATF work focused on forestry crime, illegal mining and waste trafficking which account for up to two-thirds of all illegal profits from environmental crimes.
Due to low penalties, environmental crimes are perceived to be “low risk-high reward” opportunities for criminals. The FATF report highlights that most of jurisdictions are not making proper use of financial intelligence and financial investigations against environmental crimes. In addition, financial institutions have challenges in identifying transactions related to environmental crimes.
"Money laundering is an insidious crime that gives lifeblood to criminals. The masterminds behind environmental crimes are resilient to any law enforcement efforts as long as they have access to their illegal profits. The FATF report confirms that environmental crimes offer high rewarding opportunities to criminals. UNODC, through the Law Enforcement Assistance Programme (LEAP), funded by the Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), is assisting member countries in tackling money laundering to reduce illegal deforestation. We have observed that in areas where LEAP programme has assisted national counterparts in enforcing anti-money laundering measures, deforestation has ceased" stated Mr. Fabrizio Fioroni, UNODC AML/CFT Advisor for South-East Asia and the Pacific. "It is clear that the concept of “low risk-high reward” for criminals cease to apply when anti-money laundering measures are properly enforced. Depriving criminals of their dirty money is an effective way for fighting environmental crimes" Mr. Fioroni added.
The FATF report and two related brief publications for environmental crimes authorities and the private sector provide guidance to countries on measures they can take to effectively combat money laundering from environmental crimes. For achieving the widest use in the public and private sectors as well as for the benefit of non-governmental organizations and the civil society in Indonesia, UNODC has translated the FATF publications on money laundering from environmental crimes in Indonesian language.