Cited by 149Corporate Taxation and AvoidanceCrime, Illicit Activities, and GovernanceConservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

Tax havens and global environmental degradation

Galaz, Victor, Crona, Beatrice, Dauriach, Alice, Jouffray, Jean-Baptiste, Österblom, Henrik, Fichtner, Jan·2018·Nature Ecology & Evolution

Abstract

The release of classified documents in the past years have offered a rare glimpse into the opaque world of tax havens and their role in the global economy. Although the political, economic and social implications related to these financial secrecy jurisdictions are known, their role in supporting economic activities with potentially detrimental environmental consequences have until now been largely ignored. Here, we combine quantitative analysis with case descriptions to elaborate and quantify the connections between tax havens and the environment, both in global fisheries and the Brazilian Amazon. We show that while only 4% of all registered fishing vessels are currently flagged in a tax haven, 70% of the known vessels implicated in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing are, or have been, flagged under a tax haven jurisdiction. We also find that between October 2000 and August 2011, 68% of all investigated foreign capital to nine focal companies in the soy and beef sectors in the Brazilian Amazon was transferred through one, or several, known tax havens. This represents as much as 90-100% of foreign capital for some companies investigated. We highlight key research challenges for the academic community that emerge from our findings and present a set of proposed actions for policy that would put tax havens on the global sustainability agenda.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41559-018-0497-3

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Authors
Galaz, V., Crona, B., Dauriach, A., Jouffray, J.-B., Österblom, H., & Fichtner, J.
Affiliations
  • Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (SE)
  • Stockholm Resilience Centre (SE)
  • University of Amsterdam (NL)
Corresponding author
Galaz, Victor
Venue
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Published
2018-08-13
Volume
2
Issue
9
Pages
1352-1357
ISSN
2397-334X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2883298128
Cited by
149
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 5
FWCI
15.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Ocean Foundation
  • Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning
  • European Commission
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Accounting › Corporate Taxation and Avoidance
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
Keywords
tax havens, financial secrecy, environmental degradation, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, fisheries, Brazilian Amazon, beef industry, foreign capital flows, corporate sustainability, environmental policy
MeSH terms
Agriculture, Animals, Brazil, Conservation of Natural Resources, Taxes

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