Dear Friend,

Illegal logging is a multibillion-dollar enterprise that bankrolls war, enriches the corrupt and criminal, and decimates our ecosystems.

At The Sentry, we’ve actively investigated the role of natural resource exploitation in sustaining violent kleptocratic networks—tracking the illicit trade in oil, gold, diamonds, and ivory, and exposing the looting operations of violent transnational organizations like Russia’s Wagner Group.

Now, we’re doubling down.

In a new Foreign Affairs essay, our Executive Director Justyna Gudzowska and Policy Director Laura Ferris spotlight China’s leading role in this criminal trade, detail how illegal logging bankrolls an array of threats from terrorist financing across East Africa to cartel violence in Mexico, and explain what we can do now to stop it.

This essay marks the start of a deeper phase in The Sentry’s work. In the months ahead, thanks to generous support from the Nationale Postcode Loterij, we’re surging on new investigations to expose the networks behind major forestry crime and pushing for the hard-hitting actions needed to shut them down.

Every day, illegal logging is making life more unstable and dangerous for all of us. And your support today is more important than ever.

With thanks,
Charles Cater
Director of Investigations, The Sentry