Working to End Wildlife Trafficking: Two Years of Threat Assessments in West Africa

by Aurora Luongo in Blog, West Africa, Wildlife Trade on December 04, 2019

Threat assessment in Ivory Coast in 2019. Photo: Born Free USA.

One of the main challenges to tackling wildlife trafficking in West Africa is the lack of accurate or adequate data on the subject and the related threats to biodiversity. The benefit of conducting threat assessments in the field is that Born Free USA’s experts can interview key stakeholders to gather information in order to establish a regional baseline on the structure, scope, and impacts of wildlife trafficking on biodiversity in the region. The data collected informs efforts led by national authorities to combat trafficking through national and regional action and interventions.

For the past two years, our Africa Policy and Capacity Building team has been travelling regularly to West African countries for weeklong missions with customs and law enforcement experts to collect concrete information and data on the fight against wildlife trafficking in these countries.

To date, our team has led wildlife crime threat assessments in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The next countries assessed, in early 2020, will be Niger and The Gambia.

Photo from Ivory Coast threat assessment 2019.
Wildlife crime threat assessment in Ivory Coast, 2019. Photo: Born Free USA.
Most of the time, the discussions exceed our expectations. People are so grateful that we are taking the time to listen to their recommendations, to understand their priorities and support them in the efforts they lead to tackle the scourge of wildlife crime, that they are glad to answer our questions. They often ask for additional information, such as the police officers we met at the Noé border post – between Ivory Coast and Ghana – who had never seen pangolin scales and asked us to show them pictures so they could help identify them.

When working in West Africa, a visit to the local markets is sometimes not for the faint of heart. You never know what you will find; unfortunately bushmeat, animal skulls, and scaled pangolins are all too common. You have to be vigilant when visiting because illegal goods often are not where you are looking for them. In an Ivory Coast market, saleswomen promptly hid dead pangolins under their stall because they noticed our presence from afar, but later we saw scaled pangolins on stall walls while driving by. When possible, we try to conduct market assessments using covert officials so as not to attract undue attention.

Photo of wild animal parts from a market in Benin.
Illegal wildlife products found in a market during our threat assessment in Benin. Photo: Born Free USA.
After each threat assessment mission, our group writes up a report containing the findings of the interviews and visits, as well as list of recommendations made by the various stakeholders. The report is then made available to national authorities who go through a validation process before turning the report into formal guidance for the development of a national response to wildlife crime. Country guidance then feeds into regional discussions on the measures needed to tackle wildlife crime in the West African region as a whole. Regional findings are then translated into practical actions to strengthen the wildlife law enforcement capacity of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Members through the development of tools and training tailored for all authorities involved in the wildlife law enforcement chain.

Fighting wildlife crime requires cooperation, knowledge, communication, and a great deal of trust. We at Born Free USA are proud to do the critical work of forging partnerships with stakeholders, decision makers, and law enforcement in the West Africa region and look forward to expanding our efforts in 2020 and beyond!

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Aurora

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Aurora Luongo
Africa Policy and Capacity Building Program Associate