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UNODC launches ICCWC toolkit in Nigeria to combat wildlife crime

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2 years ago

THE United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has launched the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) toolkit in Nigeria.

“Wildlife is not only threatened by the continuous shrinking of their habitat but also by professional poachers as well as local hunter. At UNODC, we are therefore particularly pleased to be joining you today for the launch of the ICCWC Toolkit Assessment, UNODC country representative, Oliver Stope, said at the event held on Tuesday in Abuja.

“Excessive, unsustainable and mostly illegal extraction threatens the livelihoods of local communities as well as of species who called these woods their home. Wildlife is not only threatened by the continuous shrinking of their habitat but also by professional poachers as well as local hunters,” he said.

“The adoption of the first National Strategy to Combat Wildlife and Forest Crime, the recent establishment of the Wildlife Enforcement Task Force as well as the ongoing efforts to review the legislative framework and to build the capacity of the criminal justice system to tackle wildlife and forest crime – all constitute important initiatives.”

Stope further stated that such initiatives have started to yield results in the area of Nigerian law enforcement to seize illegally traded wildlife and forest products.

However, these efforts have not yet been able to reverse the trend of excessive illegal extraction or to put an end to the role of Nigeria as a regional hub for the illegal trade in wildlife and forest products.

He said, “International cooperation with both source and destination countries would seem to constitute another largely untapped potential game changer. At present, it remains difficult to avoid the general impression that wildlife and forest crime are a low risk high reward criminal market.”

Stope said that a more thorough analysis is required in order to provide the government as well as its international partners with the necessary insights to understand the most relevant shortcomings and to address them.

“At UNODC, we are therefore particularly pleased to be joining you today for the launch of the ICCWC Toolkit Assessment. We do so together with our partners in the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, composed of the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, the World Customs Organisation, and the World Bank, as well as with the supporters of our ongoing work in Nigeria, namely the Governments of Germany, the United States and the European Union.

“To date, this Toolkit has assisted 20 governments around the globe in conducting comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of their national preventive and criminal justice responses to wildlife and forest crime,” he added.

The ICCWC has developed two complementary tools to assess a country’s response to wildlife and forest crime, and for which implementation support is available through ICCWC upon request: the ICCWC Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit and the ICCWC Indicator Framework for Combating Wildlife and Forest Crime.

The toolkit is a technical resource that enables countries to undertake a comprehensive assessment of their preventive and criminal justice responses to wildlife and forest crimes. The toolkit consists of five parts, aimed to help evaluate the following elements of the national response relevant to wildlife and forest crime: legislation, law enforcement measures, prosecutorial and judicial capacities, drivers and prevention, and data and analysis.

The Indicator Framework is a self-assessment tool that countries may choose to undertake in combination with the Toolkit or as a stand-alone exercise. Designed to be completed by national enforcement authorities, the Indicator Framework enables countries to measure the effectiveness of their law enforcement responses to wildlife and forest crime. It encompasses 50 indicators and provides a baseline for the monitoring of national actions to counter these crimes over time.

Based on the results of these assessments, key areas for improvement in the national response to wildlife and forest crime can be identified, and a tailor-made action plan for national capacity-building and technical assistance can be developed. While the implementation of the Toolkit and Indicator Framework is government-led, ICCWC can provide support through all stages of the process upon request.

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