Foundation builds capacity to fight against wildlife crime in Africa

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Coastweek

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ADDIS ABABA, (Xinhua) — The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) says it has been taking various measures including capacity building programs to fight against wildlife crime in Africa.

A two-day training organized to improve the judicial, prosecutorial and investigative responses to wildlife trafficking crimes in Ethiopia was wrapped up on Wednesday in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
Law enforcement officials, wildlife protection managers, prosecutors, and judicial officers from the east African country took part in the training hosted by AWF and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA).
EWCA director general Dawud Mume said the training also helped raise awareness of all stakeholders and thus it played a vital role in strengthening wildlife law enforcement and gave the opportunity to reinforce inter-agency collaboration in all matters of wildlife crime.
Dr. Philip Muruthi, Vice President for Species Conservation at AWF, told Xinhua that the capacity building training is among the various measures AFW is taking toward stopping killings of wildlife as well as to stop poaching and trafficking.
He said that such training has been conducted in Kenya and DR. Congo.
He also revealed that the training will be continued in other countries to prevent the illegal wildlife trade.
“Wildlife crime happens in each country; it is also very transnational in nature. So, we also conducted training in Nairobi for the region including countries such as Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, and Uganda, where we work as an organization to make this regional training,” said the vice president.
In order to deal with the increased poaching, said AWF has been supporting countries and communities by providing with advanced equipment such as cameras, phones, binoculars, and night visions for better communication systems, he said.
“We provide government, community scouts with advanced equipment. We do buy cameras for example, we buy tablets. The rangers now, modern rangers must have nice phone to enhance communication; must have binoculars, must have night vision too,” he said.
He also revealed that the Foundation is working with consumer countries such as China and Vietnam to make sure the demand stopped.