The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced a new initiative aimed at combating illicit finance that supports environmental crimes, such as illegal harvesting of tree, mineral extraction, and wildlife trafficking, in the Amazon basin.
The effort seeks to enhance collaboration among finance ministries, law enforcement, and other stakeholders from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and the United States. This initiative focuses on improving training to detect and disrupt illicit finance networks operating in the region.
Yellen highlighted that the initiative could lead to sanctions against the responsible groups, potentially disconnecting them from the dollar-based financial system. She made this announcement in Belem, Brazil, which is set to host the COP 30 climate conference in 2025.
“Globally, nature crimes are estimated to generate proceeds in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually and often entail misusing and abusing the U.S. financial system,” Yellen said. She emphasised that such activities are damaging the Amazon rainforest’s ecological balance, local livelihoods, and regional economies.
The Amazon Region Initiative Against Illicit Finance will work to enhance training, cooperation, and information-sharing to enable effective money-laundering investigations against transnational criminal organisations, drug cartels, and other offenders.
In the coming months, the U.S. and Brazil will organise a regional meeting to establish priorities, and the Treasury will conduct “follow-the-money” training sessions to strengthen investigators’ capabilities. Additionally, the U.S. Treasury will collaborate on joint investigations with participating countries targeting groups involved in environmental crimes.
Yellen said the Treasury has “no illusions about the challenge facing us. There is much more work to do.”
“But bolstering coordination between the United States and our regional partners will help protect the integrity of the international financial system, while also targeting a major threat to biodiversity,” she added.