Washington-Based Think-Tank Recommends Collaboration In Fighting Wildlife Crime

Karl Edison Karugaba: Ugandan Wildlife Law Enforcement Officer, “We must all contribute to save our wildlife.”

Forty percent of funding for terrorist activities around the world today are obtained from participation in the global wildlife trade says a newly published report “Killing Animals, Buying Arms: Setting the Stage for Collaborative Solutions to Poaching + Wildlife Crime.

The report, published by a Washington-based think tank, The Stimson Center, equally says that the illegal wildlife trade is larger than the illicit trafficking of small arms, diamonds and oil. The report states that "Wildlife crime is no longer only a challenge to conservation, biodiversity and development. Poaching is — just as the illegal trade in arms, drugs and counterfeit goods — a serious threat to national and international security and economic development,"

The report further underlines that the most valuable poaching victims are elephants and rhinos. In 2012 and 2013 around 60.000 elephants and 1.650 rhinos were poached, according to the report. In, Kenya, the number of black rhinos has fallen from about 20.000 in the 1970s to approximately 650 today. The illegal killing is highly profitable. Tusks and horns are most frequently used as ingredients in traditional medicinal products and to make expensive handicrafts and consumer goods.

The report goes further to describe solutions that have been sought to handle these problems and says poaching and wildlife crimes have been primarily handled by environmental and development groups and calls for a significantly effective assistance and partnership from worldwide security and law enforcement organisations. It equally advises that if we combine the knowhow and capacity and resources of conservation organisations with security resources then we will have a real force multiplier. This entails collaboration and sharing. And just as this report advises, Karl Edison Karugaba, a Ugandan wildlife law enforcement official, who was recently in Cameroon under the framework of the sharing of experiences in wildlife law enforcement, says “My mission here in Cameroon is to learn about Cameroon efforts in fighting poaching and illegal trade in wild fauna. One of the major problems we have in Uganda is illegal trade in wildlife which fuels poaching and I have come to Cameroon to learn from the successful model based on government-NGO collaboration in fighting wildlife criminality”.

This initiative falls in line with the propositions of The Stimson Centre.

In addition to this initiative of experience, as Karugaba points out, “All stakeholders must come on board to protect our wildlife from extinction”.

Government and NGOs have effectively collaborated in obtaining successful wildlife law enforcement programmes starting with the wildlife law enforcement programme that was launched in Cameroon in 2003 by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife under the terms of a convention signed with a wildlife law enforcement body known as LAGA.

The model has equally been copied in other African countries including Gabon and Congo among others. The two countries kicked the year 2014 with two significant wildlife law enforcement operations. A leopard skin trafficker was recently arrested in Congo Brazzaville by wildlife law enforcement officials who were technically assisted by the wildlife law enforcement support project known as PALF. In Gabon, a major ivory trafficker was arrested on January 10, 2014 in Libreville. The operation was carried out by the Intervention Brigade of the Judicial Police with the support of the Gabonese wildlife law enforcement support project known as AALF.

The suspect, Farouk Alim, was arrested in possession of 16 pieces of ivory corresponding to ten tusks and weighing 34 kg. It seems that the ivory came from southern Gabon according to initial reports of the investigation.

These arrests demonstrate what the report published by The Stimson Centre is talking about, that is the combination of the experience of conservation groups and security and wildlife officials to effectively tackle wildlife crime which, to say the least, is escalating. The replication of the country’s law enforcement model is equally ongoing in West Africa and the young wildlife law enforcement support project known as TALFF is also very active.

On January 11, 2014, three big wildlife traffickers were arrested in Lome, Togo, with 15 leopard skins, seven lion skins, two gorilla skins, two pieces of elephant skins, 10 leopard heads, five lion heads among many other parts of protected wildlife species. The operation was carried out with the technical assistance of TALFF and the Togolese Office for Repression of Illicit Trafficking in Drugs and Laundering.

Experts say this is one of the biggest haul of seized products in a wildlife law enforcement operation in the region and a clear indication what should be done: a combination of efforts by government and conservation groups.