Confronting Nature Crime in the Amazon: How Can Law Make a Difference?

By Yogi Bratajaya, Legal Fellow

The environmental branch of Ecuador's police, the Unidad de Protección del Medio Ambiente (UPMA) in action.

Photo credit: Amazon Conservation Association

Nature crimes across the Amazon rainforest, including illegal deforestation, logging, mining, mercury pollution, and violence against environmental defenders, pose a unique and challenging threat for legal enforcement authorities. Over the last 20 years, the Amazon has lost over 54.2 million hectares, or almost 9% of its forests, an area the size of France. Estimates place the current deforestation level of the Amazon at 17% with it tipping point at 20-25%, which, if surpassed, could turn the largest rainforest on Earth into a dry grassland.

Addressing the scale and complexity of these nature crimes, which often have a transboundary nature, requires a cohesive understanding of the civil society and government actors involved, their capability to identify and respond to nature crime, and relevant environmental data, including that obtained through remote sensing technologies. This data can be used to establish evidence of nature crimes: example, real-time satellite imagery can detect and analyse illegal deforestation. Over the last 12 months, ILP has provided legal research support to Amazon Conservation, a non-profit organisation utilising scientific innovation to protect the Amazon, with their study Confronting Nature Crime in the Amazon, examining these issues. This three part publication examines how manifestations of nature crime are detected, documented and sanctioned across the eight countries of the Amazon basin, and the role civil society plays in tackling nature crimes where state capacity falls short.

The following blog provides a summary of the findings from Chapter III of the study, which presents a comparative assessment of the conditions which will enable civil society to engage with governments to combat nature crime across eight Amazonian countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. This chapter also comprises detailed country profiles, containing information about each country’s national context and legal framework, concluding with case examples of notable litigation and the use of remote sensing evidence.

Enabling Conditions for Government Engagement on Nature Crime

The assessment contained within this chapter draws on country profile research conducted by ILP through its global network of pro bono legal experts. ILP mobilised over two dozen volunteer lawyers from leading international law firms and country-based legal practitioners to produce an analysis of the legal pathways available to civil society organisations (CSOs) and indigenous communities in Amazon countries to combat nature crimes. This legal research was complemented by qualitative input from interviews with CSOs and environmental practitioners active in each jurisdiction, providing ground-level evidence on enabling conditions for collaboration with governments and the continuity of nature crime enforcement across different administrations.

Based on this input, the table below classifies each Amazon country’s performance across four dimensions: civil society status under the law, challenges in engagement with authorities, legal pathways available, and admissibility of remote sensing evidence. Green denotes a highly enabling environment, orange a moderately enabling environment, and red a challenging environment. A fuller explanation of the thresholds applied to each dimension and the methodology utilised in this chapter is provided in the report.

Country	Civil Society Status		Legal pathways	Admissibility of remote sensing evidence
	de jure	de facto
Bolivia	Challenging	Challenging	Partial	Emerging
Brazil	Moderately protective	Challenging	Robust	Firmly established
Colombia	Highly protective	Challenging	Robust	Emerging
Ecuador	Highly protective	Challenging	Robust	Emerging
Guyana	Moderately protective	Highly protective	Partial	Emerging
Peru	Challenging	Challenging	Partial	Emerging
Suriname	Moderately protective	Moderately protective	Partial	Emerging
Venezuela	Challenging	Challenging	Restricted	Untested

The comparative assessment, along with the detailed country profiles, shows that strong formal legal architecture does not automatically guarantee effective CSO engagement to address and enforce nature crimes. Countries may possess laws that recognise the status of CSOs and guarantee the enjoyment of human rights (such as freedoms of association, expression and participation), yet there are factors beyond the law that inhibit CSOs from carrying out their work. These include guarantees for meaningful public participation in environmental decision-making processes, the security of those who do the work, the institutional capacity to act on the evidence produced, and the continuity of the legal framework itself. In fact, the countries with the most developed enforcement and litigation tools (Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador) are those recording the highest numbers of defender killings. A driving factor behind these figures may be the prevalence of corruption within environmental agencies and law enforcement bodies, generating a climate of impunity that fails to adequately prevent and punish human rights violations. Transparency International Brazil highlights that almost all of the 1,013 murders of environmental defenders committed from 2019 to 2024 have occurred in countries with scores below 50 on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

Overall, the study demonstrates that capable civil society organisations exist in all eight countries. What has created this enforcement gap is the lack of legal and institutional infrastructure  to enable effective collaboration between state authorities and CSOs, share evidence securely across borders, access legal expertise and demonstrate enforcement outcomes.

Moreover, analysis of emblematic case studies across the Amazon countries shows that the recognition of the rights of nature, where non-human elements like rivers and forests are recognised as legal entities bearing rights, can significantly widen the scope for legal action from civil society. Where the rights of nature have been recognised, whether through legislation or jurisprudence, this framework has widened legal standing, enabled constitutional actions on behalf of nature, and created powerful hooks for international advocacy. This presents a valuable opportunity for environmental organisations in Amazon countries to utilise these provisions as part of strategic litigation efforts to combat nature crimes and advance environmental protection.

Next steps

The study’s in-depth legal analysis coupled with qualitative assessments of in-ground conditions by CSO partners demonstrates that enforcing accountability for nature crimes in the Amazon is unlikely to be achieved through state action alone nor through isolated efforts by CSOs. It demands a highly articulated, well-resourced and technically proficient civil society network, working in strategic coordination with state institutions. Furthermore, it must be supported by donors and governments who understand that meaningful change can only be achieved through sustained long-term and structural measures.

International Lawyers Project provides pro bono legal support to more than 100 civil society organisations, communities and individuals each year. Through our Governance and Accountability programme, ILP works with our partners to strengthen enforcement against environmental crime and corruption, promote public procurement integrity, and ensure accountability for international corruption, among many other focus areas aimed at supporting greater transparency and accountability.

For more information on ILP’s work on the intersection of corruption environmental harm and how we can help your organisation advance anti-corruption measures and pursue legal accountability, please contact us at contact@internationallawyersproject.org.