Highlight 36/2025: How can security sector reform help tackle the illicit trade in natural resources?
Junior Alexander, 22 August 2025
The illicit trade in natural resources is a growing global issue that significantly affects sustainable development, particularly in developing countries. This issue encompasses a wide range of illegal activities, including illegal mining of minerals and precious metals, illegal logging and extraction of forest products, fossil fuel smuggling, and wildlife trafficking. The illicit trade in natural resources is often recognized as a form of environmental crime which undermines economic development and stability in countries already affected by conflict, weak governance and environmental issues such as climate change. According to the World Bank, over $1 trillion is lost annually to illegal logging, fishing, and wildlife trade—a figure that reflects the estimated value of lost ecosystem services. These unlawful activities pose an even greater threat as they increasingly converge with transnational organized crime, including corruption, human rights violations, and money laundering.
A major enabler of environmental crime is corruption, which undermines good governance. In many resource-rich regions, officials may be complicit or turn a blind eye in exchange for bribes or political favours. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, this issue is superimposed by the limited capacity of enforcement agencies, which often lack the training and resources needed to effectively monitor vast areas, investigate complex smuggling operations, and prosecute offenders. Together, these challenges create an environment which incubates and proliferates other form of illegal activities, with devastating consequences for ecosystems and local economies.
Beyond the weak governance, climate change, acting as a ‘threat multiplier’, may increase the impact of these activities. As climate change accelerates environmental degradation and resource scarcity in many regions, competition for natural resources will likely intensify, particularly in regions already afflicted by conflict.
Despite the increase severity of this issue, Security Sector Reform (SSR) may offer a pathway for states to take concrete actions to strengthen good governance and tackle these illegal practices. For instance, SSR promotes good Security Sector Governance, which plays an important role in ensuring that institutions are accountable and operate in a transparent and responsible manner. SSR processes pushes for the development of requisite legislation to address these complex issues, as well as incorporating best practices to strengthen monitoring and enforcement. Equally, robust management and oversight mechanisms are necessary to ensure accountability and transparency at all levels.
It is important to recognize that security sector actors go beyond states actors and include non-states actors such as civil society bodies. Civil society actors help to bolster transparency and accountability in governance, the private sector play a significant role through their Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR) business models. Through the CSR business models, companies should secure their commodity chains from unverifiable raw materials. In addition, companies can support capacity development at the local level through supporting innovative initiatives that help in monitoring and surveillance for illegal activities.
To sum up, tackling the illicit trade in natural requires a wholistic approach through sectoral reforms, inclusive oversight, and active civil society and private sector engagement.
Junior Alexander, Highlight 36/2025: How can security sector reform help tackle the illicit trade in natural resources?, 22 August 2025, available at www.meig.ch
The views expressed in the MEIG Highlights are personal to the authors and neither reflect the positions of the MEIG Programme nor those of the University of Geneva.