Toolkit In Progress On Deforestation And Land Conversion-Linked Financial Crimes

On October 17, 2023, Themis, a technology platform that helps its clients manage their financial crime risk exposure, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) UK, announced that they are working together to produce a Deforestation and Land Conversion-Linked Financial Crimes Toolkit to be launched next year.

As the statement announcing the toolkit explains, deforestation, in particular of tropical forests and ecosystems in the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia, and land conversion, when land is converted from its primary use, such as a forest, savannah or grassland, for agriculture or infrastructure uses, have significant environmental impact globally. Earlier this year, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics estimated that land use change and, in particular, deforestation, may contribute up to 20% of global greenhouse emissions. Forest degradation—in which total forest area remains unchanged but its