Kenya Wildlife Service rangers attend their graduation ceremony at the Kenya Wildlife Service Law Enforcement Academy in Tsavo West National Park on March 27, 2015. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Security agencies and wildlife officials from eight African countries and global conservation organizations on Monday launched a new program aimed at increasing wildlife traffickers' risk of detection, arrest and conviction.
The officials, teamed up with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Freeland Foundation and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to launch the program, called Africa's Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking (ARREST) to help sensitize members of the wildlife and law enforcement community to the scale of the global trade.
The program will sensitize the members to improve application of available legal mechanisms to address organized wildlife crime, and provide the latest techniques and technologies for information collection, analysis, surveillance and criminal asset recovery.
ARREST was launched on the first day of a week-long, wildlife trafficking training course in Naivasha, about 90 km northwest of Nairobi.
Speaking during the launch of the program in Kenya, AWF vice president of species protection Philip Muruthi said Africa needs to be innovative in order to stay ahead of the criminals who are taking away the continent's valuable heritage.
"The economic value of Africa's wildlife can only be realized with initiatives like this being driven from within Africa while collaborating with our global partners," Muruthi said.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Deputy Director Security Robert Muasya said the new program will enhance cross-border and regional collaboration in the fight against wildlife crime which has been on the increase in the region.
"The training accords the officers being trained a great opportunity to interact with colleagues whom they can always contact in future when pursuing cross-border wildlife criminal gangs," Muasya said.
Photo taken Aug. 26, 2012. Giraffes stroll in the grasslands of Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserves, one of Africa's famous wildlife reserves. (Xinhua/Chang Lin)
Law enforcement representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia were attending the training, alongside representatives from the INTERPOL, the UN, and the U.S. government.
Investigative teams established under ARREST in Africa will engage with investigative teams under a similar ARREST program in Asia in an effort to jointly disrupt the illicit wildlife trade.
IFAW Program Director for Wildlife Trade Kelvin Alie said given the prevailing levels of wildlife crime in the world, there is a need to improve the capacity for collaboration amongst security agencies through information sharing.
"Fighting wildlife crime requires concerted efforts involving pooling financial, human and information resources. We must share intelligence because this is one of the most critical prerequisites to effectively fight the ever-increasing sophistication in wildlife crime," Alie said.
