Strategic planning and innovative action

In the longer term, interventions to counter wildlife crime can only be effective if they are based on a combination of strategic planning and innovative action. Practical strategies with clearly defined aims are vital to enable coordinated interventions. All interventions must seek to achieve required outcomes that work towards priority goals. To be successful, strategic planning – as well as the resultant interventions – must involve all key role players to ensure a sense of joint ownership. Similarly, strategic interventions must embrace the contributions of all relevant stakeholders to ensure coordinated action. Yet action must remain innovative so that activities can be adapted as unforeseen circumstances are encountered, new needs arise, or parameters shift. In addition, strategies need to be revisited and refined at regular intervals to ensure they remain relevant in a changing environment. This combination of working toward clear aims with effective strategies, while always being willing and able to adapt through innovative changes in approach and action, is an essential building block to effectively counter wildlife crime.

  • Sound systems & approaches must be in place to create an effective framework for strategic planning and innovative action
  • All stakeholders must be involved in strategic planning to ensure a sense of joint ownership & enable successful implementation
  • A strong partnership between conservation & law-enforcement agencies is vital for coordinated strategies to counter wildlife crime
  • Clearly defined overall aims & required outcomes enable strategic planning to be relevant and implementable
  • Strategies are only successful if they are embraced by all key stakeholders & can be implemented effectively
  • Strategies must be realistic, practical and achievable
  • Acknowledgement of all contributions to the implementation of a strategy is important
  • Strategies must be revisited & refined regularly to remain relevant
  • Innovation & adaptability to change strategies as needs dictate is vital for ongoing success
  • Existing systems & approaches may need to be revised to enable the implementation of strategies, or to ensure innovation & adaptability
Use of all available technologies and tools

Criminals constantly adapt their activities to changing circumstances. It is therefore vital that activities to counter crime also adapt. A great variety of modern technologies exist that can significantly enhance initiatives to counter wildlife crime. These can be combined with a range of traditional and novel conservation and law-enforcement tools to provide an operational edge over criminal activities. Constant innovation in the development of technologies and tools requires regular updating to keeping abreast of changes. It is also possible to modify both technologies and tools at a local level to suit unique requirements and applications as these arise.

In the law-enforcement sphere related to wildlife crime, vital technology categories include surveillance, forensics (DNA, ballistics, digital), data capture/management/analysis, and more. Tools include information networks, investigative techniques, prosecution techniques, court-case monitoring, legislative options, and more.

The effective application of these technologies and tools requires capacity building within government, as well as the empowerment of individual staff to apply the technologies and tools as needed.

  • Government parameters to effectively implement the use of available technologies & tools
  • Funding to secure the latest technologies & tools & update these as required
  • Capacity building to ensure technologies & tools are used to best effect
  • Technologies & tools are only valuable if they can be applied by competent, dedicated personnel
  • Technologies & tools must be shared amongst all relevant stakeholders to ensure best application
  • Relationship building amongst personnel from all relevant agencies is important to ensure that technologies & tools are embraced by all relevant actors
  • Elitist attitudes to the use of technologies & tools are often counterproductive
  • The capacity to adapt technologies and tools to local needs & circumstances can be a game changer
Direct, fast and flexible external funding support for law enforcement and related needs

A large portion of international funding support to counter wildlife crime is used for workshops and conferences, awareness creation and community mobilisation, general equipment and infrastructure, and implementing-NGO overheads. The terms of use for such funding are often dictated by the funding agency and the implementing NGO, rather than the government of the target country. While these interventions play an important role, they generally do not directly address the core challenge of countering wildlife crime. Government agencies often operate on limited budgets with restrictive procurement and approval procedures. This can inhibit rapid action, particularly in unforeseen crisis scenarios. Fast and flexible external funding support that is channelled directly into government operations can remove many of these constraints and unlock the full potential of government staff. In the context of countering wildlife crime, this enables government law-enforcement and conservation personnel to respond rapidly to incidents of any nature and effectively carry out their mandated duties. Importantly, funds must be channelled directly into operational activities, ideally via a local support NGO with minimal overheads, rather than becoming part of broader budgets that are prone to bureaucratic pitfalls.

  • Government willingness to receive direct external funding support for wildlife protection & law enforcement activities
  • International funding agency with flexible funding parameters
  • Local support NGO trusted by government & with proven track record in countering wildlife crime to act as conduit for funding with minimal overheads
  • Capacity building & individual empowerment of government law-enforcement & conservation personnel to enable them to effectively carry out mandated duties
  • A trusted local support NGO, with experience & understanding of the operational environment is important to secure international funding & channel this into priority government operations
  • Funding must be disbursed directly to mandated government activities for wildlife protection & law enforcement
  • Funding must be able to be disbursed as needed, 24 hours a day 365 days a year, to ensure rapid response capabilities at all times
  • Small pilot initiatives are valuable in testing systems & approaches
  • Strong relationships between key personnel are vital in achieving desired results
Interagency cooperation

Government agencies often work in isolation from other government agencies, as well as from non-governmental organisations, private-sector entities, local communities and other potential partners. Interagency cooperation ensures that separate agencies with overlapping mandates or interests liaise and collaborate with each other to address common goals. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism is the custodian of wildlife and other terrestrial resources in Namibia, mandated with their conservation and protection. The Namibian Police Force is mandated with maintaining law and order, including laws related to wildlife. The Namibian Defence Force is tasked with defending the state and its resources against threats. The Office of the Prosecutor General is responsible for prosecuting suspects in the name of the state in criminal proceedings. Other government agencies with some overlapping mandate include the Directorate of Customs and Excise, the Financial Intelligence Centre and the Anti-Corruption Commission. Government actions can be considerably strengthened through partnerships with NGOs, the private sector, local communities and international funding agencies. Active collaboration between government agencies, and between government and other stakeholders, facilitates effective countering of wildlife crime in Namibia.

  • Full commitment by all levels of government
  • Clear agency mandates with common goals
  • Active & ongoing communication & sharing of resources
  • Strong working relationships between key individuals
  • Trust in the integrity & competence of individuals & organisations
  • Full recognition of individual contributions
  • Recognition of defined roles at individual & organisational levels
  • Capacity building & empowerment at all levels
  • Fast & flexible external funding & technical support
  • Stakeholder recognition & support of government mandates
  • Interagency cooperation must be formalised through written memorandums outlining aims
  • Interagency cooperation requires clear structures, chains of command & mutual trust
  • Roles and responsibilities at individual & organisational levels must be clearly defined
  • While working together, each agency must remain within & fulfil the requirements of its particular mandate
  • Overreach of agencies or individuals must be avoided
  • Effective cooperation is built through active, ongoing liaison between key individuals of different entities
  • Funding & capacity limitations of government must be overcome
  • Fast & flexible external funding support directly to government law-enforcement operations unlocks full potential & motivates individuals
  • A healthy mix of support from international funding agencies & local funding sources that bridges government gaps is ideal
  • Full recognition of all contributions is vital for broad engagement & support
  • Active communication & sharing of data & resources is vital for success
  • Sharing of resources between units is built on a foundation of trust
autonomous operation thanks to solar panels

The Sunbox has 12 solar panels that allow autonomous operation. In addition, solar panels protect users from rain and sun.

Thanks to the solar panels, it is not compulsory to connect the Sunbox to electricity. However, for 24-hour operation, it is necessary to connect it to electricity.

For better user comfort, we have planned to place the RVMs on each side of the Sunbox. This allows you to create 2 separate queues

Uniform sentencing

Country-level contexts are important to take into consideration as part of efforts to prevent illegal wildlife trafficking. It's really important to bring all the relevant stakeholders together to compare notes, share innovations, and ensure that sentencing guidelines are harmonised within and between jurisdictions. This can be bolstered by trainings and capacity building at the regional and international levels.

Having a knowledgeable judiciary can help establish uniform sentencing, and underscore the point that sentences for wildlife-related crimes seldom reflect the killing of a single animal, but rather must address the damage that wildlife trafficking can do to ecosystems, economies, and the rule of law.

This work has shown that it's important to bring all the relevant stakeholders together. The trainings as part of this solution have brought together law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary, all of which are crucial in effective interdiction and enforcement.

Cooperation – Enhancing information sharing across jurisdictions

Multi-jurisdictional cooperation is a key element of wildlife protection and illegal wildlife trafficking. Strategies to reduce the pressurse of illegal and unsustainable trade on biodiversity - and enhance the benefits to wildlife conservation and human well-being that derive from trade at sustainable levels - require cooperation between conservations, law enforcement, customs, and private industry.

  • Cross-jurisdictional comparisons of wildlife trade trends, patterns, impacts and drivers to bolster the knowledge base on trade in wild animals and plants.
  • Policy-level work to inform, support and encourage action by governments and international bodies to adopt, implement and enforce effective policies

Effective information sharing through formal and informal networks can result in high-level conviction and seizure of assets.

 

Once a baseline level of cooperation is established, individual nations should implement legislation to enable wildlife crime to be treated as serious and organised crime according to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), with penalties of four years or more in prison. Sentences should punish the offender to an extent that is justified by the circumstances, and be comparable with sentences applied to other serious crimes. Sentences should provide conditions that will help the offender to be rehabilitated, deter the offender and other persons from committing the same or a similar offence, and make clear that the community denounces the sort of conduct in which the offender was involved.

 

Information exchange between law enforcement agencies, FIUs, financial institutions, and civil society should be encouraged, to share knowledge, identify targets and patterns of behaviour, and more effectively mitigate wildlife crime risks.

Forensic accounting for wildlife trafficking interdiction

Wildlife crime is not purely a conservation issue, as its adverse impacts also threaten sustainable development, good governance, rule of law, and national security.

 

The aim of this building block is to identify the risks and vulnerabilities of money laundering and how it relates to wildlife crimes. Additionally, this building block endeavours to provide guidance and recommendations to law enforcement and related personnel to enhance the financial aspect of wildlife crime investigations.

 

Fraudulent paperwork can transform wildlife contraband into seemingly legitimate merchandise, enabling it to be openly traded and evade interdiction. There are many schemes that criminals use to create fraudulent wildlife paperwork, including false declarations of captive breeding, purchasing paperwork from corrupt officials, forging paperwork, re-using or altering old permits, etc. Forensic accounting is therefore an important building block

 

 

 

 

Transnational organised crime is found wherever money can be made from illicit dealings, and well-organised criminal groups have turned illegal exploitation of wildlife into a professional business with lucrative revenues. Criminal groups exploit gaps in legislation, law enforcement and the criminal justice system; and the generally weak legislation and inadequate law enforcement in wildlife protection has enabled wildlife criminal groups to flourish. Forensic accounting allows practitioners to close these gaps and bolster wildlife protection.

In order to capitalise on enhanced forensic accounting, complementary legislation should enable wildlife crime to be considered a predicate offence for money laundering, so that anti-money laundering tools can be used. Governments should review their criminal legislation to ensure that law enforcement agencies are fully authorised to follow the financial flows related to wildlife crime and to prosecute money laundering offences.

Domestic multi-agency cooperation should be common practice for wildlife crimes, involving police, customs, environmental authorities, Financial Investigation Units (FIUs), prosecutors, and other relevant domestic agencies for sharing information, intelligence, and conducting joint investigations where appropriate. Joint investigative teams which include FIUs are essential to target criminal networks and not just low-level offenders, and have long been used successfully to address other serious crime types.

Strengthening local skills and knowledge

This component has been transversal to the entire project and included training and workshops on livestock and pasture management, animal health, and planting and harvesting water, carried out in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional del Centro and external specialists. These activities helped to raise awareness among cattle ranchers and managers of the communal farm and testimonies indicate that their skills in these areas have increased.

Local knowledge was key to developing the livestock management strategy and the shed's design and construction. The use of ancestral technologies existing on the ranches, such as stone corrals, and local materials were chosen.

As part of the communication activities, an awareness campaign was developed with the support of the Rare organization to promote sustainable grazing practices within the community. The campaign, which used the slogan "Smart grazing is the pride of my people", included radio soap operas, comics, and plays with the participation of women and men of all ages. This helped raise awareness among the population about the importance of proper pasture and livestock management and helped disseminate information about the project at the community and NYCLR levels.

  • Use of communication tools to disseminate information about the project and raise public awareness about climate change, the importance of adaptation actions, and the sustainable management of natural resources.
  • Dialogue between local knowledge and technical-scientific knowledge, facilitated by specialists in participatory processes.
  • The active collaboration and leadership of the livestock department (committee) were key to achieving active participation of the local population during the workshops.

     

  • Adaptation measures, from their design, must incorporate local knowledge and respond to community priorities and perspectives to ensure their effectiveness, viability, and sustainability.

  • It is essential that the field team is trained in the application of participatory approaches, methods, and tools that contribute to improving the quality of participation and facilitate collective learning and dialogue between local, technical, and scientific knowledge.

  • It is essential to incorporate all community members in communal assemblies to encourage participation.

  • Communication activities help to raise levels of trust and participation, as well as local ownership.

  • Diversify work with local partners, combining workshops with other methods, practical tools, and fieldwork (of the "learning by doing" type).

  • Develop activities that involve women, youth, and other groups within the community.

  • Maintain a high field presence and share daily updates with the community.

Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Climate-Smart Agricultural Measures

The five EbA/CSA measures were the fundamental building block that ensured the project's success.

 

They were selected because of their familiarity to, and suitability for, local people.

 

The measures helped project participants adapt their farming practices to climate change while improving and diversifying their livelihoods.

* Participatory intervention selection with farmers and expert staff

* Supportive local extension and rural-development agencies

* Frequent and regular support by expert staff and farmer-to-farmer approaches

* Familiarity with the intervention increases the likelihood of adoption

* Farmers preferred to modify their farming systems with the enhanced knowledge from the project rather than completely change all at once