Anne-Marie Weeden

Anne-Marie Weeden is an expert on environmental crime, corruption and organised crime. Her work contributes to an improved understanding of the multi-dimensional security, economic and environmental risks posed by large-scale criminal and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, as well as strengthening best practice in policy, enforcement and criminal justice responses to these issues. 

During her career, she spent 12 years based in Uganda, where she managed a conservation NGO and supported national and international enforcement actors in the investigation and prosecution of transnational wildlife and drug trafficking syndicates and collaborated with RUSI to conduct the first ever capacity building intervention for ‘following the money’ in the illegal wildlife trade. In 2022, after returning to the UK, she joined RUSI’s Organised Crime and Policing research group full-time, where she proceeded to lead the environmental crime work of the institute for the next four years. Today, she works as an independent consultant and subject matter expert, but remains a Senior Associate Fellow of RUSI. 

Anne-Marie is also an active member of various initiatives engaging civil society, governments and the private sector in advancing dialogue and capacity-building on environmental offending and related illicit financial flows, including the Scientific Advisory Committee for the UNODC’s World Wildlife Crime report; the UNICRI Expert Working Group on Criminal and Violent Backlash to Sustainability Transitions; and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Working Group on Environmental Crime. She is based in North Devon and holds a Master’s in Economic Crime (Distinction) from the University of Portsmouth.