ECO-SOLVE Regional Consultation for Southeast Asia and Oceania

A group of investigative journalists, environmentalists and anti-corruption activists from Southeast Asia and Oceania met in Bangkok, Thailand in February 2024 to discuss the role of corruption and elite protection in environmental crime, as well as the challenges and opportunities for investigative reporting.

The meeting was the second of three regional consultations organised under the ECO-SOLVE project, a three-year global programme funded by the European Union under the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) that aims to monitor and disrupt illegal environmental flows while strengthening community resilience.

The discussion, held under Chatham House Rule, examined how the ecosystem of corruption has evolved over the past decade and how this has affected the work of civil society and environmental activists in the two regions. From this intensive discussion emerged a strategy – a plan on how to increase the chances that corruption cases will come to light and have an impact.