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what is FIN
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FIN is an innovative and timely new initiative to combat corruption in use of the world's forests. It is a multi-stakeholder global coalition seeking to bring together non-governmental organisations, governments, international organizations, the private sector and academics to deal with corruption and its impact on sustainable forest use. FIN seeks to foster information exchange on programs, models and best practices to fight forest corruption. It is based on its members' shared concern for sustainable forest use and for the welfare of those most dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods. |
Spotlight!
Workshop Announcement
TI Asia Pacific Forestry and Corruption Programme Development Workshop, 25th – 27th July 2007, Bangkok, Thailand
Click on link for Workshop Description, Agenda and Information on Participation
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"What these incomparable set of maps, and the accompanying report show, however, is that while there is more than sufficient unspoiled area in the Amazon to meet our preservation goals, we must be vigilant |
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to the pressure on the Basin that radiates out from settlements, and, as importantly, the impact of isolated development that disrupts intact ecosystems and does damage in ways we have yet to fully understand.
Degradation of the world's forest resources is one of the most pressing human development challenges facing the planet today. Forest degradation impacts the daily life of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Increasing insecurity of access to forest goods and services impacts the poorest most severely, since they rely on such goods and services for their subsistence. Forest degradation also has catastrophic consequences for the Earth's ecosystems, given that forests are major reservoirs of biological diversity, regulators of the hydrological cycle and storers of carbon.
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One of the most important underlying causes of forest degradation is corruption. Forest-related corruption has many manifestations, ranging from fraudulent logging concessions, to log smuggling and illegal logging, to the laundering of illicit proceeds, fraud, tax evasion and illegal |
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trade. Yet, in a search for global sustainability, corruption remains one of the hardest challenges to address. Researchers and reformers at all levels-national and international, official and non-governmental, public and private-see their efforts to tackle corruption frustrated by lack of political will and lack of information, as well as lack of common methodologies, appropriate tools of analysis and concerted action. Combating forest corruption thus urgently requires multi-strategy, multi-stakeholder and multi-level action in order to be successful in the short and long run. FIN, born from this sense of urgency, seeks to respond to this pressing challenge.
Transparency International brings to FIN its expertise in working with multiple actors to fight corruption. TI does this through coalition building, through its global network of national chapters, and through its efforts to increase awareness of the negative impact of corruption on the lives of the poorest.
FIN will draw upon TI's strengths, including:
- its growing base of knowledge about the nature of corruption and techniques to expose and tackle it, including ways to mobilise civil society to oppose corruption
- its status as a international NGO independent of other organisations or interests
- its global access, influence and high standing, as well as its country-level presence
TI has developed ways to survey and measure corruption and publishes a Corruption Perception Index, which has been effective in alerting the public to perceived levels of corruption in different countries. TI's expertise in forging Integrity Pacts, whistleblowers' protection and toolkits on fighting corruption are all highly relevant to tackling forestry corruption. In turn, an initiative such as FIN is a very important new extension of TI's work, the significance of which goes beyond forests. FIN can serve as a model for how TI's tools and strategies to combat corruption can be used in particular issue-areas, and it can help to extend the analytical frontiers of TI's general work on corruption.
FIN's uniqueness derives from the following:
- It is the only international network that focuses exclusively on curbing corruption in the forest sector
- It aims to be inclusive, incorporating all stakeholders, official and non-official, national and international, and both public and private
- It aims to create a unique pool of knowledge on the subject of forestry corruption
- It aims to bring together ongoing field experience and thematic and case study research to achieve more effective country and local level action to curb forestry corruption-it is action and results oriented. FIN's success will be judged by whether effective action is actually taken within countries to curb forest corruption.
