Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen Announces the Amazon Region Initiative Against Illicit Finance to Combat Nature Crimes

BELÉM - Today, at a roundtable in Belém, the gateway to the Amazon, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen announced the Amazon Region Initiative Against Illicit Finance to combat nature crimes, a partnership with the Amazon basin countries of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname. This new initiative will harness the expertise and resources of the United States and regional partners to combat the financing of nature crimes and counter the transnational criminal organizations benefiting from it.“Nature crimes generate hundreds of billions of dollars of illicit revenue while harming local communities and threatening critical ecosystems,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen.