International conventions & charters

Reaching for a New Approach: A Newcomer NGO Builds a Network to Fight the Modern Slave Trade, 2012-2018

Author
Ann Toews
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, governments and activist organizations around the world set their sights on ending the business of human trafficking. Many groups emerged to assist victims of the crime, but few made progress toward eliminating the roots of the problem. Duncan Jepson, a lawyer for a Hong Kong–based bank, said he believed too little was being done to spotlight the shadowy criminal networks that typically crossed government jurisdictions and sometimes included otherwise legitimate businesses. Jepson decided that disrupting the trade in human beings required new types of collaboration to unravel criminal networks and confront the organizations that abetted their activities. In 2012, he founded a nongovernmental organization called Liberty Asia, which aimed to bridge institutional gaps and approach human trafficking from an economic perspective by using increasingly robust anti-money-laundering tools that were at the disposal of banks and bank regulators. This case profiles Liberty Asia’s efforts and focuses on the challenges associated with coordinating many different types of organizations to confront a common challenge.

Ann Toews drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in March 2017 and January 2018. Case published March 2018.

Forest-Friendly Palm Production: Certifying Small-Scale Farmers in Indonesia, 2011–2016

Author
Blair Cameron
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In 2011, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a global environmental group, launched a pilot project to help 349 Indonesian palm oil farmers reduce the environmental impact of their farms. The initiative was a first step towards ushering more than one million small-scale palm oil farmers into a new era of forest-friendly production that would help to save rain forests across Sumatra, Borneo, and other Southeast Asian islands. While some large plantations had already agreed to engage in sustainable practices, designed to improve yields while reducing social and environmental impacts, about 40% of Indonesia’s production came from growers who cultivated small plots—often in remote areas. Aiming to open the door to widespread adoption of sustainable practices in the palm oil industry, the WWF’s pilot project targeted a small group of farmers, introducing them to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a global organization of palm companies, retailers, financial institutions, and environmental groups. The RSPO operated a voluntary certification system for sustainable palm oil production. In July 2013, the WWF pilot group became the first independent small-scale farmers in Indonesia to get certified under RSPO standards. During the next three years, a handful of similar groups followed, but significant challenges remained ahead for efforts to shift the palm oil industry as a whole toward sustainability. 

Blair Cameron drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Jakarta, Bogor, and Riau, Indonesia, in October 2016 and in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2016. The British Academy-Department for International Development Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) Program funded the development of this case study. Case published January 2017.

Creating a Green Republic: Payments for Environmental Services in Costa Rica, 1994–2005

Author
Blair Cameron
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In 1994, Costa Rica's new minister of the environment, René Castro, faced a difficult task. The finance ministry was planning to cut the funding of a subsidy program that had started to reverse decades of forest loss, and Castro urgently needed a new policy that would sustain the program's progress. First, Castro built a broad-based coalition to press for a revamped national forestry law. The coalition persuaded the legislature to ban the conversion of forested land to other uses and to create incentives for landholder compliance. In 1997, Costa Rica implemented the world's first countrywide payments for environmental services program, which recognized the continuing economic contribution of forests in terms of greenhouse gas mitigation, biodiversity conservation, water protection, and scenic beauty. Funded by a new fossil fuel tax, carbon credit sales, and money from companies that benefited from the forests, the program offered landowners financial incentives to preserve and expand tree cover on their properties. The program helped reduce the destruction of primary forest and encouraged reforestation of degraded land. From 1997 to 2005 Costa Rica's forest cover increased to 51% of total land area from 42%.

Blair Cameron drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Costa Rica in December 2014. The case was funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation in collaboration with the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Case published July 2015.