A new paper from New America and the Igarapé Institute examines the global gap in responsible artificial intelligence (AI) frameworks and the risks that emerge when AI policies and practices developed primarily for the Global North are exported to the Global South where socioeconomic context is different and regulation and infrastructure tend to be less advanced Most artificial intelligence (AI) policies and practices have been developed in and for the Global North—contributing to a growing divide between the countries that influence global AI governance and the countries that do not If global AI governance continues to predominantly exclude the Global South then economic and developmental disparities between upper-income and lower-income countries will worsen according to a new policy brief by New America and the Igarapé Institute The brief calls on the G20 to narrow this “AI governance divide” by taking the following three steps “The G20 can help bridge the global AI governance divide—especially with Brazil holding the presidency now and soon South Africa taking those reins,” said Gordon LaForge a senior policy analyst at New America and co-author of the report “The members of this intergovernmental forum are the most influential countries in the Global North and Global South representing more than 80 percent of the world’s economy.” New America and the Igarapé Institute describe the current AI governance divide and list the possible consequences that can stem from it The brief stresses that without having a say in AI governance developing countries may not be able to create homegrown AI ecosystems that advance sustainable development and AI tools and policies made in and for the Global North would be ill-suited for the local circumstances of many countries in the Global South “Unless developing countries have more power to shape AI governance the technology will solely reflect the national and commercial interests of wealthy nations businesses and societies with less power and fewer resources,” said Robert Muggah co-founder of the Igarapé Institute and co-author of the brief “The potential consequences of the AI governance divide are not confined to lower- and middle-income countries alone—they are global,” said Gabriella Seiler AI and digital security advisor at the Igarapé Institute and co-author of the brief political destabilization—these and other factors will drive conflicts and migration that will not stay neatly confined within national borders.” The brief is published by the Think Tanks 20 a constellation of hundreds of organizations that produce and consolidate ideas on emerging challenges for the Group of 20 The issues featured in the brief were also developed as part of a Global Task Force on Predictive Analytics established by the Igarape Institute and New America The Global Task Force assembled some of the leading technologists and Europe to develop principles for the safe and ethical design Learn more about the Global Task Force on Predictive AI and read the full brief Dr Robert Muggah is affiliated with the Igarapé Institute an independent think and do tank that develops research solutions and partnerships to influence public and corporate policies and practices to address key global challenges in the areas of public security Dr Muggah is also an advisor to the United Nations Dr Muggah is currently working on a major report for the UNDP on climate mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean Melina Risso is Research Director at the Igarapé Institute a member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum and a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) provides funding as a partner of The Conversation BR View all partners Nature crimes include a cluster of activities that enable illegal deforestation, degradation and biodiversity loss. Among the most common are land grabbing, illegal logging, illicit mining and irregular agriculture and ranching – all of which are prolific across the 6 million km² Amazon basin. As noted in the US’s latest strategy on fighting terrorist and other financing nature crimes are perpetrated by a bewildering array of actors and corrupt land brokers to legitimate companies in the agriculture and cattle sector and large Nature crimes are part of a wider ecosystem of criminality affecting the eight countries sharing the Amazon rainforest and wildlife trafficking are other criminal practices such as targeted assassinations The interconnectedness of nature crime with these other illegal activities make the former particularly hard to police and prosecute especially when committed by hardened criminal syndicates that operate across borders The latest initiative announced by the US builds on the growing determination of several Amazon basin countries and western partners to “follow the money” rather than simply throwing more police and military assets at the problem. Groups such as the UN Office for Drugs and Crime and the Igarape Institute are already training law enforcement agencies and financial crimes units of Brazil and Peru to improve evidence collection and operational responses to crimes involving the environment While several types of environmental crime can be curbed by financial penalties and sanctions on legal and illegal groups involved in criminal activities the effectiveness of such measures depends on the quality of enforcement This is a challenge in the Amazon Basin where security and justice institutions are weak and many actors involved in committing nature crime go unpunished much less pay fines when they are prosecuted Owing to deeply entrenched corruption and informality there are often strong political and economic disincentives to take action at the local level The scaling-up of counter-money laundering efforts related to nature crime also depends heavily on smooth transnational cooperation. Yet cross-border cooperation is in frustratingly short supply across Latin America, especially among Amazon basin countries where political spats are routine Ideological tensions and mistrust routinely hamper regional efforts to fight environmental crime even where there are clear converging interests as well as governance and sustainable development There is a marked shift in tone and a sense of urgency The US announcement to target money laundering and transnational criminal organizations is not coincidental At the regional level, governments appear determined to strengthen the fledgling Amazon Treaty Cooperation Organization(ACTO), though this is a slow moving process. Brazil also launched an international police center (the CCPI- Amazon) in early 2024 to foment cooperation Alongside the US commitment,ad hoccoalitions have emerged to expand police and prosecutorial cooperation including to counter financial crimes and money laundering with support from the EU Law enforcement agencies across the Amazon basin face multiple obstacles to preventing and reducing nature crimes including tackling the complex illicit financial networks and practices that enable them A persistent challenge facing all countries is the deficit in technical expertise: there is a chronic shortage of experts in anti-money laundering and illicit financial flows While they have some experience in disrupting money laundering related to drug proceeds most police agencies and criminal justice institutions have limited expertise in countering money laundering related specifically to natural assets Another challenge facing law enforcement relates to the patchwork of money laundering norms and laws across the region The definition of offenses varies from place to place involves harmonizing money laundering legislation and policies across jurisdictions police are simply unable to pursue cases across borders This applies not just to countries in the Amazon basin There are other obstacles to disrupting illicit finance networks driving nature crime many of the actors involved in financing it are not based in the Amazon the most significant impediments to disrupting illegal financial flows connected to nature crime are political and economic elected politicians and civil servants may directly and indirectly benefit from nature crimes such as logging and poaching and have limited incentive to cooperate with police and criminal justice authorities large numbers of local businesses and residents are often heavily dependent on illegal and informal practices linked to nature crimes linked to forestry presenting a challenge for law enforcement and prosecutors Dr Melina Risso, Director of Research at the Igarapé Institute Mongabay caught up with Igarapé Institute co-founder Robert Muggah this week to discuss Ecocrime, a new data visualization platform that combines visual storytelling with access to raw data on environmental crime in the Amazon This interview has been edited for style and clarity Mongabay: What prompted you to create the platform Robert Muggah: The Amazon is facing a catastrophic tipping point Levels of deforestation and degradation – most of it illegal – are accelerating Global attention to it is episodic at best The COVID-19 crisis has reduced visibility of the issue business and civil societies are preoccupied with their own challenges The Igarape Institute is determined to ensure there is a more regular drumbeat of information available about the range of environmental crimes that are being committed in the region we hope to strengthen accountability and action to pull the Amazon back from the brink There are still tremendous knowledge gaps when it comes to environmental crime in the Amazon businesses and advocacy groups are focused on just one part of a very complex problem Understanding the ways in which different types of crimes – land grabbing the wildlife trade – and the networks that sustain them is a first step Recognizing the different types of illegalities occurring at every stage of the criminal supply chain is no less important The Institute has drawn on a combination of remote sensing tools and investigative research to help present data in an accessible format to reduce these information asymmetries Addressing environment crime is about enforcing the rule of law well over 95% of all deforestation is illegal Less than 5% of people convicted of environmental crime end up paying any fines The only way to sustainably address these challenges is by ensuring there is a lawful green economy one that places a higher value on conservation and protection than on extraction and exploitation The good news is that there are many incredible international national and hyper-local initiatives underway to provide solutions We hope to strengthen their efforts and safety by exposing the dark underside of what’s happening in the Amazon How do you envisage a typical user interacting with EcoCrime It is critical that mapping tools such as EcoCrime provide an immersive and accessible experience when it comes to data on environmental crime It is not enough just to layer fields on a map journalists and advocates do not know exactly what they are looking for or how best to interpret findings The Institute has considerable experience developing data visualization platforms – from mapping homicide and city fragility around the world to predicting crime at the city scale the Institute worked to provide a highly accessible and curated experience bringing raw data and human stories to the forefront The first consists of the actual data which features open source information on specific types of environmental crime The second includes short stories that provide short summaries of specific types of crime that are present on the map The goal is to provide users with a short ‘guided tour’ before they dive into the maps The Igarape Institute will be uploading new data fields regularly short stories will be changing every month with users invited to submit examples from their experience that will be vetted by the Igarape Institute Additional stories will be supplied by core partners such as InSight Crime and Interpol or presenting the data from so many disparate sources There is a fair amount of heterogeneity when it comes to data on environmental crimes in the Amazon Basin Some of the datasets had to be created from scratch while others are developed by leading research institutes not least because the issue has not been at the forefront of the climate action agenda data requires some time to clean and standardize The Institute has a data science team that is expert in vetting and rendering information on geospatial layers After a round of consultations with prospective users the Institute detected a very strong demand for a centralized data visualization platform law-enforcement agencies are desperate for more systematic datasets and analysis of key trends Environmental and indigenous activists groups are keen to have a centralized data repository for advocacy and research purposes Governments and businesses are also calling for data to inform decisions on everything from regulatory policy to impact investment The Institute has formed a partnership with Brazil’s public prosecutors to also test their data we hope to build out a leading ‘one-stop-shop’ as a public good What plans do you have to add to the data used on the platform with its focus on providing timely high-resolution data on among other things We are working with partners in the law enforcement climate action and investigative journalism spaces to populate the platform with many more data fields over the coming year We’ll be visualizing criminal networks that sustain environmental crime across all eight countries in the Amazon Basin We’re also working with partners to map out other types of ancillary crime One area the Institute hopes to make real strides is in relation to high-resolution geospatial analytics we’re using conventional map-based software The Institute is exploring a deeper partnership with Planet a satellite-based earth observation company the Institute is reviewing possibilities to undertake more advanced analytics including forecasting and predictive mapping Our goal is to become a primary source of reliable verified and action-oriented data for disrupting environmental crime across the region there are many people benefiting from environmental crime cattle washing and illegal mining is hugely complex and multiple players are involved and of course individuals involved directly in extracting resources and protecting their assets what role do you hope Ecocrime can play in addressing the lack of accountability regarding environmental crime in the Amazon The first step to solving any complex problem such as rampant deforestation of the Amazon is understanding what it is and what’s driving it. This is first a conceptual challenge, which is why the Institute worked with partners to develop a typology of environmental crime A third step is to ensure that relevant analysis is effectively communicated to the right audiences from decision-makers and opinion-shapers to environmental and indigenous defenders on the frontlines The Ecocrime platform is itself part of a much wider ecosystem focused on protecting the Amazon and the roughly 30 million people who depend on it for survival The Igarape Institute is working with a broad constellation of partners to draw attention to environmental crime and mobilize pinprick interventions to disrupt it The data platform is used to help get allies literally and figuratively on the same page The Institute is working with governments on strengthening regional cooperation to prevent environmental crime at source The Institute’s partnered with international organizations to track criminality across global supply chains The Institute is supporting non-governmental and grassroots organizations helping build local capacity to capture and communicate data the Institute is working with private sector actors – traders and retailers – to enhance compliance with respect to social impact It is only through impact-oriented partnerships that we’ll change the game Banner image: IBAMA agents on a raid against illegal loggers in Jamanxim National forest The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] secretariat@globalinitiative.net Avenue de France 23 – Geneva, CH-1202 – Switzerland In 2013 he was named one of the top 100 most influential people in violence reduction and his work on new technology has been featured in the BBC Robert has extensive experience overseeing large-scale research projects in more than 50 countries and has worked closely with dozens of multilateral and bilateral agencies on humanitarian action He is a regular columnist to several leading magazines including the Atlantic he was the research director of the Small Arms Survey (2000-2011) in Switzerland He has authored or edited over a dozen books and hundreds of chapters He earned a doctorate from the University of Oxford and an MPhil from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex University In 2014 he was invited to speak at TED Global on the future of cities and violence *Over 100 peer-review articles and chapters including two chapters to Small Arms Survey 2011 (Cambridge University Press) two chapters to Small Arms Survey 2009 (Cambridge University Press) three chapters to Small Arms Survey 2006 (Cambridge University Press) and chapters to Small Arms Survey editions in 2005 Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime Legal Practitioner; African Consultant for International Drug Policy Consortium Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Frente Gremialista por la Transparencia and Coordinator of Thematic Groups Head of Security Operations and Investigations Central America / Mexico Policy Initiative secretariat@globalinitiative.net Avenue de France 23 – Geneva, CH-1202 – Switzerland Design e Creative Coding by Café Both, or neither – depends on how you count. The truth behind headline-grabbing superlatives is that counting the dead is an inexact science Debate is ongoing over how and to what purpose we classify the planet’s most dangerous cities Despite being home to 43 of the world’s 50 most dangerous cities (according to most counts including those of both SJP and Igarapé) our understanding of violence in Latin America remains incomplete more lists are so vital to understanding and curbing violence and homicide The challenge of accurately comparing violence across cities is clear from taking a closer look at the differences between SJP and Igarapé Institute data Click here to see the full lists Decisions about how and where to include cities on a given list depend on the information available These decisions can have profound effects on policy Cities featuring prominently at the top of these lists may be downgraded by financial services companies and avoided by tourists When cities are excluded from (or fall off) the ranking politicians may avoid prioritizing and investing in homicide prevention and reduction This does not mean that listing and comparing violence across borders should be avoided – quite the contrary But it does mean that anyone hoping to draw conclusions from a given list should understand where those differences in measurement reside The first big difference between the SJP and Igarapé Institute lists comes down to how cities are defined It turns out that there is no internationally agreed definition of what constitutes a city The way a city is defined influences how homicide rates are determined the SJP may combine multiple municipalities into a single sprawling city An example is their classification of Cali which using the SJP definition includes Yumbo the Igarapé Institute includes cities such as Ananinadeua (Brazil) Soyapango (El Salvador) and Villa Nueva (Guatemala) The second major discrepancy relates to the underlying data on homicide There are many sources of information on murder ranging from public health and crime statistics to media articles limits its information to a tighter selection of authoritative sources it excludes some data that cannot be verified The third challenge relates to data availability more generally. Comparative information on cities is already uneven even more so in the case of homicidal violence Even in information-rich environments such as North America and Europe it is difficult to generate reliable data on murder over time at the municipal and metropolitan scale The challenges are orders of magnitude higher elsewhere in the world there are inevitably holes in our knowledge There is nothing wrong with multiple platforms to rank homicide in cities this is to be encouraged since it generates opportunities to triangulate and verify data and sources But it’s also critical that organizations are clear about how the unit of analysis is defined how their data is collected and the criterion for exclusion and inclusion Failure to do so not only misleads the media but it also can generate misguided policy prescriptions on the ground The SJP and Igarapé Institute provide reasonably clear methodological notes This article series supports the Instinto de Vida (Instinct for Life) campaign an effort by more than 20 civil society groups and international organizations to reduce homicide in seven Latin American countries by 50 percent over 10 years the campaign promotes annual homicide reductions of 7.5 percent in Brazil Mexico and Venezuela – a reduction that would prevent the loss of 364,000 lives Americas Quarterly (AQ) is the premier publication on politics We are an independent publication of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas PUBLISHED BY AMERICAS SOCIETY/ COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS There are hundreds of thousands of homicides a year around the world but strangely limited public debate on the issue A new online data visualization launched by the Igarapé Institute intends to change this It detects between 437,000 and 468,000 homicides a year homicide is the leading cause of death for young people The Homicide Monitor is a digital application that shows the global spread of homicide It reveals that just a small number of countries account for a disproportionately large share of the global burden of murder 2 out of every 5 people violently killed each year around the world was a Brazilian Latin America and the Caribbean are at the epicenter of the homicide problem with just 8% of the world´s population The Homicide Monitor exhibits the distribution dimensions and dynamics of homicide around the world It describes the total number of homicides per country the breakdown by gender and type of weapon It includes data for more than 219 countries and territories from between 2000-2012 it includes subnational data on states and cities with populations over 250,000 people There the homicide count in 2012 was 56,337 people or a rate of 29 per 100,000 Approximately 92% of the victims were male and 54% concentrated in the 15-29 age group Homicide is the number one cause of death for that age group research director of the Igarapé Institute "the country is ground zero for homicide in the world - one in ten people killed annually is a Brazilian." Northeastern Brazil is particularly badly affected The most violent state by homicide rate is Alagoas with 2,046 homicides or a rate of 64 per 100,000 in 2012 the latest year for which data is available The state´s rate has also been increasing steadily since 2000 fast growing and densely populated medium- and large-cities like Ananindeua registered the highest rate of 125.7 per 100,000 (608 killings) in the latest year These rates between 10 and 12 times the global average in 2012 The Homicide Monitor is intended to provoke reflection and stimulate debate "security is the number one responsibility of governments and the first right of citizens.” The tool is intended to target decision makers But for the 40 countries and territories of Latin American and the Caribbean - the most violent region in the world - multiple levels of data are exhibited The idea is to draw attention of leader and decision-makers to the epidemic of murder affecting large parts of the world especially Latin America and the Caribbean While the Monitor includes data on all countries around the world this year the Monitor will focus on those areas most badly affected In the coming years we will be adding subnational data for Africa and other parts of the world where homicide rates are high The Homicide Monitor will also devote special attention to "what works" in preventing and reducing murder Already the Igarapé Institute has lined up some of the world´s leading criminologists and public health experts to analyze the challenge but also solutions with a solid track-record short articles will consider the evidence from across Latin America and the Caribbean but also other parts of the world like North America and Western Europe where homicide has dropped by 40% over the past two decades there are several factors that explain the decline in homicide in wealthy On the one hand there are structural causes - reductions in family size not least improvements in law enforcement and the effective application of "hot spot policing" Hot spot policing employs data to identify high-crime areas of a city allowing human and material resources to be deployed to specific neighborhoods streets and even buildings where homicide has or is likely to occur For more information on the Homicide Monitor For access to the Homicide Monitor, visit www.igarape.org.br/homicidemonitor The Homicide Monitor is an online interactive data visualization that features longitudinal information on murder on a three dimension globe from 219 countries and territories It breaks information down according to the absolute number of homicides by country the gender and age distribution of victims and the types of weapons used in committing murder The Homicide Monitor also includes subnational data for more than 40 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean The issue of homicide is still considered taboo in many countries and cities around the world many governments were reluctant to publicize information on murder for fear of negatively affecting their country´s reputation attitudes are changing and there is growing openness and transparency about the scale and distribution of homicidal violence is that information on lethal violence is dispersed and often not comparable The Homicide Monitor brings together all publicly available information on homicide into a single interface and is intended to help policy makers scholars and activists help identify problem areas and possible solutions The Homicide Monitor is a user-friendly data visualization tool which features a three dimensional spinning globe It is open source and draws on the WebGL platform Users can navigate the globe by placing their curser over countries (and in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean Information on the total number of homicides the homicide rate and ratios related to gender age and weapons is featured on the left-hand side of the screen Underlying datasets are also available to users unless indicated as unavailable or incomplete What kinds of limitations are there in the data There are several challenges in developing international datasets on homicide different countries categorize and count homicide differently many statistical offices distinguish between intentional and unintentional homicide homicides are only counted after an arrest and prosecution is made homicide counts are based on coronary reports in some settings homicide data may also include other types of violent death including accidents terrorist incidents and even war-related deaths it is important to standardize the definition of homicide across countries though every effort was made to only include “intentional” homicides in the Homicide Monitor information included in the Homicide Monitor corresponds to the “official” count registered in primary sources Igarapé Institute researchers often triangulated multiple counts virtually always selecting the most conservative registered figures there is a possibility that the Homicide Monitor undercounts the total scale of homicide These estimates should be treated with caution The Homicide Monitor is fully transparent about the sources of the data together with their completeness Where data is from the WHO as compared to the UNODC where data quality or availability is uncertain as is the case in some countries affected by armed conflict or where publicly available information is collected in non-transparent fashion The Igarapé Institute welcomes comments and clarifications on alternative information sources and datasets Since the data has been compiled using different methods and sources it is not directly comparable to the data used in the Homicide Monitor While the Homicide Monitor provides information on trends and pattern it does not interpret or analyze the data for users the Homicide Dispatches will be prepared by international experts to explain the story behind the data and other social sciences will contribute short analytical contributions highlighting the underlying causes and far-reaching consequences of murder and innovative strategies to prevent and reduce intentional violence The underlying dataset of the Homicide Monitor is overseen by the Igarapé Institute and will be periodically updated to ensure that the tool is up-to-date An aerial picture shows an illegal mining camp during an operation by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources against Amazon deforestation at the Yanomami territory in Roraima state Robert Muggah is co-founder of the Brazil-based Igarapé Institute and SecDev Group the Chicago Council for Global Affairs and the World Economic Forum His latest book is Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years He received his PhD at the University of Oxford Mac Margolis is a research editor at the Igarapé Institute and columnist with The Washington Post He is the author of The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier he sent three ministers to the region to assess the damage Brazil's latest rhetorical pivot from plunder to preservation drew accolades at home and abroad. At the COP27 climate conference last year, Lula declared Brazil was back as a climate champion and would not tolerate any illegal deforestation Whether the world's largest tropical forest can survive Lula's broader ambitions — to remake his country into a regional power broker bolster the clout of developing countries and help ring in a new multipolar world order — is another matter and offered to set up a "peace club" to resolve the war in Ukraine the dollar has tumbled on international markets gold — that age-old safe harbor of security and wealth in troubled times — has soared Having risen nearlysixfold in the last 20 years, the troy ounce recently breached $2,000 andmay reach $2,200 by year's end.Central banks are leading the scramble for gold; nine of the top 10 official buyers are in the developing world Cue the acceleration of the 21st century Amazon gold rush whose global ambitions may well ride on the fate of the rainforest Illegal mining may not be the biggest environmental threat to the Amazon basin bootleg timber operations and land-grabbing are by far the region's leading drivers of deforestation which has spiked in recent years and now threatens to push the world's signature tropical forest beyond the ecological tipping point of regrowth and natural recovery Yet the dirty secret of the Amazon is that predation isn't just an accumulation of transgressions but an ecosystem of criminality with interdependent accomplices who flourish in the shadows, studies by the Igarapé Institute have shown Beyond the prospector is an elaborate web of buyers many who conspire to usurp the rule of law for private gain Ask the Brazilian authorities who are struggling to crack down on illegal gold miners and their moneyed enablers. A recent writ before theBrazilian Supreme Court shows that which rendered 1,527 investigations into illegal gold prospecting and trade Federal police found that roughly 30% of all the gold produced in Brazil is illegal that production has spiked on nominally off-limits Indigenous land and conservation units and that the whole enterprise is built on fraudulent financial certificates Such lenience, in the name of slashing red tape and job creation, created a regulatory fast lane for dirty gold by relaxing controls over buyers and sellers. In the process it weakened the "traceability of gold production and commerce, increasing opportunities for illicit practices," the federal police's Amazon and environment divisionconcluded last month The new Lula government did the right thing not just by clamping down on the legions of wildcat miners but also in targeting the shadowy network of buyers and sellers who work the institutional blind spots co-opt local officials and game the porous legal code to trade in tainted gold Recent investigations show that much of this gold finds its way to foreign buyers Taking back the Amazon from bad-faith dealers and resource pirates who profit by putting rainforest inhabitants in jeopardy is crucial to restore Brazil's tarnished sovereignty and rule of law That Lula's wider geopolitical ambitions for Brazil in a de-dollarized multipolar world order could also help usher in the next Amazon gold rush also shows just how complicated that mission will be Become an NPR sponsor Diálogo Américas eight out of every 10 women human and environmental rights defenders in the Brazilian Amazon were victims of violence a Brazilian think tank that specializes in public Illegal activities from transnational criminal organizations and illegal mining fuel much of this violence “Violence against activists in the Brazilian Amazon has worsened in recent years,” Renata Giannini senior researcher at the Igarapé Institute and coordinator of the research many times it isn’t even noticed […] Many of them have to leave their territories to protect themselves.” Brazil has been the country with the most murders of environmentalists Of the 1,733 deaths of environmental defenders recorded between 2012 and 2021 worldwide 342 (nearly 20 percent) occurred in Brazil a United Kingdom-based nongovernmental organization that monitors natural resource-related conflict more than 85 percent of the murders in the period happened in the [Brazilian] Amazon Most of the victims were indigenous or black,” Brazilian news site G1 reported is the world’s most lethal region for environmentalists Of the 227 people murdered in 2020 for defending their territories 165 (72.7 percent) were killed in Latin American countries women defenders speak out and act against situations or actions that can harm the lives of the people around them or the place where they live They act for the protection of human rights and the environment and are not necessarily linked to an organization or social movement “The objective of violence against women defenders is precisely to dissuade them from continuing to act with serious consequences,” the Igarapé Institute says researchers interviewed 132 women defenders from five Brazilian states: Acre Of the 125 women who identified themselves as women defenders is indigenous and said that “the flow of alcoholic beverages and other drugs has increased with the invasions of miners looking for gold.” According to Maria fish and game have become scarce because of illegal activities an Afro-Brazilian resident of the settlements established by escaped slaves in Brazil She says that criminal groups linked to narcotrafficking hide in the territory “Flávia says that it is difficult to work on the land and defend it because she receives threats from these groups,” the research indicated 27 had been victims of more than one type of violence and 12 said they suffered violence from more than one aggressor To combat environmental crimes in the Amazon the Brazilian government has intensified its activities in the region the Brazilian Army (EB) has been carrying out Operation Amazon 2022 with troops from the Amazon Military Command (CMA) and the Parachute Infantry Brigade “The actions of Operation Amazon 2022 aim to contribute to the preservation of national sovereignty by increasing the presence and deterrence from the Land Force in the border reducing cross-border and environmental crimes,” the EB said in a statement EB is also refurbishing its infrastructure the 21st Construction Engineering Company renovated the runway of the 7th Special Border Platoon in the Amazon region known as Cabeça do Cachorro the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Safety (MJSP) is continuously running Operation Guardians of the Biome to dismantle criminal organizations operating in the Amazon “There are three lines of action: combat illegal deforestation and protect indigenous lands,” the MJSP said in a statement Brazil also has the support of partner nations through the Department of Justice and the U.S provides training to its counterparts in Brazil to support the fight against wildlife trafficking also uses a variety of programs from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to train Brazilian partners to combat transnational criminal organizations 312 members of Brazilian security forces and the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) participated in the Detection of Transborder Trafficking in Wild Species training conducted in partnership with the INL For more on security and defense issues around the globe Brazil’s federal agency for Indigenous affairs snubbed new evidence of uncontacted Indigenous groups found by two expeditions in the Amazon last year heightening concerns about political interference in the government body and the growing threat to the survival of Indigenous groups in voluntary isolation Critics say it’s increasingly clear that the agency is acting against the interests of isolated Indigenous groups Documents leaked in January show an apparent political ruse to discredit evidence about the uncontacted Igarapé-Ipiaçava Indigenous people in Pará state Another investigation revealed that Funai has ignored reports of a previously unknown isolated Indigenous group in Amazonas state A now-overturned decision by the government body attempted to increase the burden of proof required for protecting uncontacted Indigenous groups We’re not talking about human rights as a broad concept here it’s their right to survival as human beings that is being denied,” Angela Kaxuyana an executive member of the Brazilian Amazon Indigenous organization COIAB Funai’s line of action is completely at odds with our interests.” Isolated groups actively avoid contact with the outside world and reside in remote areas so collecting information about them is tricky Most groups are identified through indirect evidence of human activity: artifacts as well as small clearings in the forest that usually can’t be seen from above The Funai-led task force found a ceramic pot and a hand-hunted tortoise shell in their September expedition in the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Reserve in Pará This adds to a decade-long collection of residual evidence pointing to the uncontacted Igarapé-Ipiaçava Indigenous group But top officials did not take kindly to the report to discuss the technical report’s findings According to a leaked internal memo shared with Mongabay Xavier and Marinho describing the report as “ideologically fueled” and “worthless.” who openly advocates for terminating the Land Protection Order a temporary directive to protect uncontacted tribes’ territories from logging and invaders the meeting was to discuss the property rights of 150 families who were relocated to the area where the reserve now stands That relocation took place a year before the Land Protection Order was issued “The senator is fighting for land regularization in the state and defends the rural families relocated to those lands by the government,” Marinho’s team said in a statement adding that the senator doesn’t believe the Igarapé-Ipiaçava Indigenous people exist “The goal is to secure private property on these lands for the invaders and not the constitutionally guaranteed rights for Indigenous people,” said Leonardo Lenin executive secretary of the Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Human Rights Observatory only 28 of 114 uncontacted Indigenous groups have been confirmed by Funai are directed toward ensuring a life safe from death But under Bolsonaro’s self-declared “New Funai” — a version of the Indigenous affairs agency that refuses to recognize new Indigenous land but spends millions on industrial tractors — this is changing They are stooping to new depths,” Fiona Watson director of research and advocacy at Survival International the Indigenous advocacy nonprofit that received Funai’s leaked internal documents “Funai is under massive pressure and is caving in People like the president [Xavier] are political appointees experienced people have left or have been sidelined or silenced It is now totally in the hands of the agribusiness sector and those who are anti-Indigenous.” According to monitoring by Instituto Socioambiental a nonprofit that advocates for environmental and Indigenous rights deforestation has skyrocketed in the Ituna-Itatá reserve since Bolsonaro took power at the start of 2019 Land clearing after 2019 accounts for 85% of all deforestation in the territory the Indigenous chief of the neighboring Koatinemo Indigenous Reserve “I was on the Ituna-Itatá reserve last year and it’s significantly deforested and full of farms We are having a huge issue with land grabbers and loggers moving into our territory too But on the day the Land Protection Order expired Funai’s director of territorial protection instead expressed his concern for private property in a confidential letter sent to Survival International by an anonymous whistleblower “We are preserving the consecrated right to property in the area without discarding the preservation of the supposed group’s expectation of original rights,” he wrote Following legal pressure and a public outcry 1 and the Land Protection Order extended for an additional six months “The criteria for confirming the presence of uncontacted peoples are changing according to external interests The logic has been inverted,” Kaxuyana said a local Funai task force reported closely avoiding contact with a previously unidentified group dubbed Isolados da Mamoriá Grande after hearing voices nearby and encountering bows pots and other objects in a non-Indigenous forested area They forwarded their report with an urgent request to demarcate the region Again, Funai’s response fell short: the Amazonas discovery has been ignored entirely for five months, despite several attempts at getting through to the government body’s headquarters, according to an investigation by Brazilian news agency O Joio e O Trigo “The people ultimately being harmed are isolated Indigenous people Banner image: Indigenous people rally in 2020 criticizing the lack of demarcation of Indigenous lands FUNAI removed protection of unratified indigenous lands but Bolsonaro has still not concluded a single ratification during his term in office at the time Related listening from Mongabay’s podcast: We speak with Scott Wallace a journalism professor at the University of Connecticut and author of a New York Times best-selling book on the importance of protecting uncontacted indigenous groups in the Amazon FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post This paper was originally published by the Igarapé Institute on January 29 The promise and peril of artificial intelligence (AI) dominated the global agenda in 2023 and will be an even more pressing concern in 2024 This Global Futures Bulletin considers the global AI regulatory landscape—asking where AI safety and alignment policies are produced and how they differ across regions The report offers a preliminary review of the scope and distribution of responsible and ethical AI measures AI policies need to be developed in ways that are secure and tailored to the Global South’s political a handful of wealthy countries and technology companies dominate the debate about AI regulation giving them the power to set de jure and de facto standards for the rest of the world Developing countries must increase the speed at which they design This bulletin is based on insights generated from a Global Task Force on Predictive Analytics overseen by the Igarapé Institute and New America it offers a short list of recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders to amplify responsible AI regulation in developing countries Brazil — At the heart of the Brazilian Amazon Jó Farah wades knee-deep through the crystal water of a stream that he claims is the last clean one in the city of Manaus A stream or a little river is called an igarapé in the Amazon region and this specific one is known as Água Branca which means “white water” and stretches over Manaus’s Tarumã neighborhood an area of 100 meters [330 feet] of each side in order to keep the water springs alive,” said Farah a local NGO working in the region for 19 years Manaus is the most populous city in the Brazilian Amazon surrounded by the world’s greatest tropical forest and connected by tributaries to the mighty Amazon River almost all of the city’s 150 igarapés are totally polluted with trash and other waste Experts say that it will take to at least 20 to 30 years for the waterways to recover; some referred to as “dead igarapés,” are nearly beyond saving as their springs have been blocked with trash or soil [But] this igarapé has a voice,” Farah said maintains a website that updates and monitors the state of the igarapé Água Branca a form of online activism that he says helps keep the igarapé “alive.” the igarapé has attracted researchers from across the city and is monitored remotely by the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) Manaus’s population grew rapidly from the 1970s with the opening of its free-trade zone and thousands of factory jobs many migrants built their homes on the edges of the city’s igarapés perhaps the city’s most emblematic example is the Igarapé Educandos the Educandos recedes and it’s possible to see all of the trash that has been dumped in it Another is the Igarapé do 40, which last year was photographed and published in the local media with what was described as a “carpet” of garbage floating on top we are losing opportunities for transport and tourism by not caring adequately for the igarapés,” said Marcos Castro Igarapés are important for natural drainage during rainy season flooding in the city will only get worse over time especially with climate change and related extreme weather conditions “This will lead to greater public health problems in the long run,” he said citing diseases that proliferate with dirty waters Castro’s statement rings true for Manaus resident Cristina Santos who lives in a favela community in the Raiz neighborhood an hour’s drive from Manaus’s famous Amazon Theatre is one of thousands of manauaras — as people from Manaus are called —living in precarious dwellings such as stilt homes by the edges of the city’s igarapés Each year during the Amazon’s rainy season from November to April her wooden shack floods as the igarapé fills and overflows “People’s belongings get damaged … it’s very dirty and full of animals: snakes “We residents have to be more aware and not throw stuff into the igarapé,” she said Manaus has a chronic shortfall of affordable housing and as the richest city in the Amazon it continues to attract thousands of rural migrants from far-flung interior towns as well as recent waves of Haitians and Venezuelans fleeing civil strife Many of the poorest end up living in informal settlements like Cristina’s that lack adequate sewage and waste disposal infrastructure the number of informal settlements grows,” said Antonio Nelson de Oliveira the city’s secretary for the environment and sustainability “This causes great damage to the igarapés.” residents have more immediate concerns than keeping the igarapés clean The night before Mongabay visited Cristina’s neighborhood there was gunfire and rumors that a young man had been killed in a drug gang dispute commanded from the city’s notorious prisons and mainly fought in the city’s poorer communities between gangs vying for control of local markets and trafficking routes low-income buildings built under a state government program to rehouse residents living by the edges of the rivers eject domestic sewage “This is the scenario of Manaus,” said Sergio Bringel a water expert with Brazil’s National Amazon Research Institute (INPA) But it’s not just poor neighborhoods that pollute the igarapés the vast amount of Manaus’ sewage goes untreated “Factories and luxury condominiums also pollute the igarapés,” said Castro is both organic and chemical contamination “This leads to the creation of new bacteria … viruses which can be deadly Polluted igarapés also threaten livelihoods especially in a city that relies on water for many leisure activities the owner of a natural swimming bath that charges for entranceon the northern outskirts of the city said he was worried pollution encroaching into his pool “I don’t know how much longer we will be able to stay open here,” he said Just a 10-minute drive from igarapé Água Branca the Tarumã waterfall provides a frightening contrast Used by Manaus residents up until the 1990s as a leisure option and the preferred spot for the disposal of dead bodies by criminals “They built a road directly over the waterfall’s spring I don’t think anywhere else in the world they would do this,” Farah said came the formation of irregular settlements in the surrounding region “If a heritage site like this with all of its tourist potential doesn’t survive the city,” Farah said “what hope does igarapé Água Branca have?” FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post the fortunes and stability of this region of 365 million people now look to be at the mercy of weather-driven mayhem apparently in fear of opening a meteorological Pandora’s box to big power intervention Niger and 113 other UN member states who backed the resolution are likely to keep the issue on the geopolitical agenda The visualization of the risks facing the Horn was developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s CreateLab and the Igarape Institute and the region’s prospects look desperate even before climate impacts are taken into account many of them fleeing to improvised camps and settlements where social services are strained and armed groups prowl for recruits predatory local elites are weaponizing climate shocks for profit enlisting heavily armed militias to capture ever larger herds to drive up prices across parched South Sudan No wonder water scarcity has become a proxy metric for violent conflict in the weather-beaten grazing areas of Warrap and Unity States and an early warning system to improve farming practices The African Union is starting its own Continental Early Warning System while IGAD has segued with its Conflict Early Warning and Response Network Then there is the East African Community’s transborder strategy to ease tensions by fostering collective management of freshwater ecosystems in Burundi the program had upgraded resource management practices across some 510,000 hectares The success of these initiatives vindicates the premise of confronting climate conflict challenges before disaster strikes learning how to cope and quickly and manage precious natural resources amid growing scarcity is more urgent than ever and community resilience strategies are already under way among the people who have most to lose Global powers have a lot to learn from the countries of the Horn — they should also have their back Robert Muggah is the co-founder of the Igarapé Institute Peter Schmidt and Giovanna Kuele are researchers at Igarapé Institute Related listening from Mongabay’s podcast: A growing wave of researchers are studying Africa with a new tool A new and interactive data visualization of global homicide data the Homicide Monitor provides key insights into the nature of violence around the world The web application, found at homicide.igarape.org.br, was launched at the Stockholm Forum for Security and Development by PRIO's Nicholas Marsh and Renata Giannini of the Brazil-based Igarapé Institute The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) conducts research on the conditions for peaceful relations between states This issue is preventing our website from loading properly. Please review the following troubleshooting tips or contact us at [email protected] By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us Create an FP account to save articles to read later ALREADY AN FP SUBSCRIBER? Downloadable PDFs are a benefit of an FP subscription This article is an Insider exclusive Contact us at [email protected] to learn about upgrade options unlocking the ability to gift this article But has the world really become less safe in recent years A closer look at the most important indicator—rates of lethal violence—reveals a more complicated picture with points of light and plenty of shadow most types of crime declined as much of the world was under lockdown Although homicidal violence has risen again in a handful of countries many more saw murder rates stay the same or even decrease since early 2020—with marked drops in some nations The stubborn exception to the decline in lethal violence is in the Americas—the United States which remain the world’s hotspots for murder murder is just one end of a spectrum of violence that includes physical which are much harder to capture with reliable statistics Violent deaths provide a proxy for the wider problem And that problem includes the fact that we know more than ever about what works and what doesn’t in reducing lethal crime—yet the countries and communities most affected aren’t applying these lessons the murder rate climbed from 6.1 homicides per 100,000 people to 7.8 per 100,000 people but it translates into big numbers: The absolute homicide toll rose from 16,669 victims to more than 21,000 victims !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); If there is any positive news, it is that these spikes in violence have largely been confined to the Americas. Most other countries around the world registered overall declines in homicide since 2019. And it’s not just murder: An assessment of 27 cities around the globe found that most types of crime—such as theft Virtually all types of police-reported crime dropped in the wake of pandemic-related shutdowns which could help explain the lack of wild shifts in most countries especially those with low levels of collective violence murder is still hyper-concentrated in a handful of countries and the United States—account for one-third of the world’s reported murders according to numbers compiled by the Igarapé Institute’s Homicide Monitor If the list is expanded to the top 10 countries to include Colombia then it accounts for 44 percent of all reported intentional killings outside of war zones If global levels of homicide are going to be reduced these countries would be a good place to start The silver lining is that there is growing evidence of what works to curb lethal violence provided the leadership and resources are mustered to deal with it The best way to prevent murder is to make it a political priority rather than an afterthought Rather than flooding communities with more police decision-makers should focus on high-risk places and people—including improvements to the environment like green spaces and more lighting supporting positive opportunities for young people and professionalizing law enforcement and criminal justice providers Another proven strategy involves building up civic infrastructure, including through community-based groups. Princeton University sociologist Patrick Sharkey found that in cities with populations of 100,000 people or more, each new local organization created to prevent violence and build stronger neighborhoods resulted in a 1 percent decline in violent crime and murder The advantage of investing in civic entrepreneurs is that they not only contribute to better safety and security but also improve community resilience in other ways Although evaluations of high-impact strategies to reduce lethal violence have largely been limited to North America and Western Europe most experts agree that strategies targeting specific places and people—such as school-based programming—are especially effective at reducing the risk of violent behavior and employment support can be fast and effective solutions The goal is to generate tangible positive changes in the lives of young people inculcating self-restraint and peer-to-peer socialization These kinds of activities must be complemented with smart and accountable policing as well as alternatives to prison time murder is most contagious in neighborhoods and among residents already facing the highest levels of disadvantage and stress it can be cured with the right combination of leadership Robert Muggah is a principal at the SecDev Group, a co-founder of the Igarapé Institute, a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy, and the author, with Ian Goldin, of Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years. X: @robmuggah Katherine Aguirre is a researcher at the Igarapé Institute Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription View Comments Join the conversation on this and other recent Foreign Policy articles when you subscribe now Please follow our comment guidelines The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account Usernames may be updated at any time and must not contain inappropriate or offensive language FP’s flagship evening newsletter guiding you through the most important world stories of the day Specialty rates for students and faculty. Lock in your rates for longer. Unlock powerful intelligence for your team. Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information crime may return to high levels across Rio is poorly understood by city residents and the Olympics-watching world alike The Igarapé Institute, a Rio-based think tank, is preparing to launch a new tool to help people to understand how and where crime happens in Rio. After the conclusion of the Olympics, the group will formally unveil its CrimeRadar a map-based application that uses open data to track incidences of crime across metropolitan Rio de Janeiro COCAINE is grown primarily in South America and trafficked to the world’s biggest market The land routes originate mainly in Colombia and pass through the small nations of El Salvador Honduras and Guatemala before traversing Mexico that Latin America remains the world′s most violent region not at war According to data from the Igarapé Institute 43 of the 50 most murderous cities in the world last year corruption and weak public institutions all contribute to the high levels of violence across the region In most big cities, the average worker struggles to afford their own place Investors are chasing resilience, not dazzling returns By Donald Trump’s telling it did. The data suggest otherwise It is the most democratic region in the world. But people are increasingly fed up