Stronger together via collaborative environmental compliance assurance: supporting civil society and institutional actors to join forces in combatting environmental crimes | Environmental Crimes 2026 Workshop

These slides were presented at the Environmental Crimes Joint Workshop with ESA-JRC-UNODC (29 September – 1 October 2026, ESA-ESRIN, Frascati, Italy). Environmental laws are mostly in place, yet pollution, biodiversity loss and deforestation keep worsening, largely because of implementation gaps and insufficient compliance. The presentation introduces collaborative environmental compliance assurance (ECA), in which citizens, communities and civil society work alongside authorities. They contribute data, local knowledge and community-led actions, and can also hold institutions accountable. Drawing on 40 cases in 20 countries, the presentation outlines the more4nature methodology. It helps actors move from parallel action towards co-management and creates space to experiment with new roles in combatting environmental crimes. more4nature is funded by Horizon Europe (grant No. 101133983). www.more4nature.eu