Corruption and Environment

Corruption is a major obstacle to social, economic and environmental development of the third world and transitional countries (Ackerman, 1999; Ades and DiTella, 2001; Bottlier, 1998; Gary and Kaufmann, 1998; Jain, 2001; Mauro, 1994; 1997; Moody-Stuart, 1997; Theobald, 1990; Hawley, 2000; Transparency International, 2001; USAID, 2000; Ward, 1989; World Bank, 2000; Stiglitz, 2002).Environment is threatened when those who are supposed to be its custodians are corrupt. For example, between 1960 and 1990, about 20 % of tropical forests, rivers and farms were lost due to lax environmental laws and corruption (DFID, 2000). In some developing countries in South America, Asia and Africa, people and institutions pay bribes as a way of circumventing or bypassing environmental regulations (Hawley, 2000).

Corruption can have a devastating impact on the environment (Lippe, 1999; Eigen, 2001). Grand corruption of embezzlement has corrosive effect on the environment. For example, natural resources offer a high opportunity for corruption. There are other sources of how corruption affects the environment. Some of these sources are oil spills, gas flaring, industrial pollution, open and decomposing trash dumps (Uzokwe, 2003). The Niger Delta in Nigeria is a classic example of how corruption has helped in making the environment unfriendly (Epstein, 2004). For instance, few people who were appeased with the oil money by the government turn blind eye about the environmental degradation caused by oil spills and gas flaring (James, 2006).

Also, environmental crime such as illegal logging, theft of public funds, lands, diversion of oil revenues or illegal appropriations of public assets is common and has facilitated corruption. A classic case is Nigeria where diversion of revenues from natural resources is rampant (Nwankwo, 1999; Osaghae, 2000; Achebe and Epstein, 2004). The World Resources Report (2005) argues that a combination of economic, social and administrative factors creates favourable conditions for corruption. For instance, in developing countries, low salaries for civil servants especially those responsible for the routine management of natural resources and enforcement of regulations, increases the temptation for corruption. For example, in Cambodia, Indonesia Malaysia and Thailand bribery and corruption are alleged to be contributing to rapid depletion of the natural resources (Cote-Freeman, 1999). In Cambodia for an example, government officials collected bribes estimated at $200 million in 1997 alone (Mock, 2004).

Furthermore, according to Gordon (2001), Cambodia loses yearly an estimated $50 million (12%) of what would have been its annual budget to corruption, as a result of illegal logging of timbers. Similarly, Malaysia destroys about 700,000 hectares of forest yearly because of over- logging of timbers as a result of corruption (WFS, 1992; Gordon, 2001). Indonesia loses about 80 % of its timber trade to illegal logging due to not only bribery and corruption but economic (market) forces and government failure to regulate over-logging, which means that the trees are felled without a licence or under concession that had been secured with a bribe (Peace and Brown, 1994; Paddock, 2003). In most cases senior government officials are bribed to allow companies, big time traders, relatives and friends to deplete the forest reserves by over-logging (New York Times, 13 September, 2002). Also the military commanders and the local policemen collect bribes to allow the trucks, loaded with illegal logs find their ways to illegal sawmills in China, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan and U.S.A.

In Brazil, illegally people pay bribes to log 80 % of the country’s timber (Mock, 2004). In spite of government’s effort to stop illegal over-logging in Russia, bribing to log timbers has con tinued due to widespread abuse by government agencies in regulating the cutting of timber illegally (Gordon, 2001; Mock, 2004). Similarly, anecdotal evidence reported that in some African countries such as Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo, local officials of the Ministry of Forestry due to the delay or non-payment of their salaries for several months were alleged to have collected bribes and allowed people to deplet the forest through over-logging of timber. This is confirmed by the World Bank Extractive Industries Review EIR, (2003).

Morse (2006) echoes that the Environmental Sustaininability Index (ESI) confirmed, that corruption contributes to lax enforcement of environmental regulations and ability by producers and consumers to evade responsibility for the environmental harms they cause. For instance, logging licenses are made available to anyone willing to bribe officials who issue licenses, as many licenses are issued to people who pay bribes (Gordon, 2001). A typical example is Mexico, where some individuals paid bribes to some officials and were granted permission to cut 800,000 cubic meters of timber over several years and (World Press Review, 2001). Similarly, in Honduras, according to Miami Herald (4 November, 2005), some companies colluded with firms in the U.S to bribe the official for logging of timbers, and in most cases these officials enjoy the protection of the politicians.Because they could not be touched and were beyond the reach of law (World Press Review, 2001).

Due to lack of action by governments in the developing countries to regulate laws and corruption, several communities have been displaced and dispossessed of their lands used for sustainable livelihood (World Bank Extractive Industries Review (EIR), 2003). The destruction of forests through over-logging and pollution globally poses environmental problems not only to human beings but also to animals. When officials use public good for private gain by allowing trees to be cut down illegally, it further exposes the land to further deterioration and makes it environmentally unfriendly.