The Science Panel for the Amazon’s 2025 Report: Illegal economies in the Amazon Basin—including land grabbing, illicit deforestation, illegal gold mining and logging, drug trafficking, and wildlife trafficking —pose an escalating threat to the region’s ecological integrity, human well-being, and formal economic systems. They are not isolated crimes; they form an interconnected system that fragments forests, displaces Indigenous and Afrodescendant Peoples and Local Communities (hereafter IPs & LCs), and undermines the Amazon’s role in regulating climate and supporting biodiversity. Driven by global demand, weak governance, and entrenched corruption, illicit networks reconfigure land use, concentrate power in criminal hands, and sever critical connections between ecosystems and cultures.
SPA Amazon Assessment Report 2025 Connectivity of the Amazon for a Living Planet | Chapter 2: The Disruptive Connectivity of Illegal Economies: Multidimensional Threats to Human and Ecological Systems in the Amazon
The Science Panel for the Amazon’s 2025 Report: Illegal economies in the Amazon Basin—including land grabbing, illicit deforestation, illegal gold mining and logging, drug trafficking, and wildlife trafficking —pose an escalating threat to the region’s ecological integrity, human well-being, and formal economic systems. They are not isolated crimes; they form an interconnected system that fragments […]
