Working Paper No. 1/2007 Corruption and Renewable Natural Resources

		by Transparency International  <ti@transparency.org> English Published by Transparency International

There is important evidence to suggest that corruption is a key contributing factor to the degradation of renewable natural resources. Corrupt forestry officials or law enforcement officers who are in the pockets of unscrupulous logging firms will turn a blind eye to illegal forestry activities, threatening sustainable management of the forest's biodiversity storehouse. Similarly, fisheries inspectors endanger the sustainability of fish stocks by accepting bribes from trawling companies intent on ignoring official quotas. More broadly, poor governance may translate into sub-standard environmental policy formulation and implementation, where narrow interest groups determine the common 'environmental good'. And, in extreme cases, high-level political corruption can facilitate the wholesale plunder of a country's natural resource base.

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