Five South American countries on Aug. 6 announced completion of a two-week joint law enforcement operation targeting environmental crimes across the Amazon rainforest. The campaign, dubbed Operation Green Shield 2026, resulted in over 800 arrests and the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in timber, minerals and livestock.
The campaign was coordinated by the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate (I2LEC), a project led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched in 2023 jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) to help countries share intelligence and resources against environmental crimes. A 2024 UNODC resolution formalized new measures to crack down on crimes affecting the environment.
According to the announcement, law enforcement agencies from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru conducted raids throughout the Amazon Basin from July 15 through July 31. The raids mostly took place in remote areas that have long sheltered illegal mining camps, logging routes, and wildlife trafficking corridors. More than 3,600 officers were deployed in the campaign, resulting in the seizure of 280,000 cubic meters of timber along with several hundred tons of mining materials and livestock connected to unlawful land use.
Criminal prosecutions will now move through the domestic legal system of the country where the arrest occurred. Brazil’s Environmental Crimes Law lists offenses against wildlife, forests and natural resources, establishing both individual and corporate liability. Colombia’s Law 2111 of 2021 established provisions in the country’s penal code for offenses such as illegal deforestation. Peru and Ecuador have established similar provisions, with Ecuador’s lawincluding no statute of limitations for environmental damage claims.
Operation Green Shield is the latest in a string of multilateral police actions in the Amazon rainforest. In early 2026, the European Union, through its EL PAACTO 2.0 program, brought INTERPOL and a Dutch police unit together for “Operation Guyana Shield,” with nearly 200 individuals arrested in a coordinated effort to address illegal gold mining.
However, judicial bodies have frequently clashed with executive branches over resource exploitation, including past federal court interventions that explicitly blocked orders permitting commercial mining exploitation inside protected rainforest reserves.
The Belém Declaration, signed on Aug. 8, 2023, acted as the political foundation for cross-border enforcement by unifying the eight member nations of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) with the goal of tackling cross-border crime and protecting the rainforest.
From JURIST, Aug. 6. Used with permission.
Photo: WAM
