25 February 2014: INTERPOL has released a report, titled ‘Elephant Poaching and Ivory Trafficking in East Africa: Assessment for an effective law enforcement response,’ which emphasizes the need for greater information sharing to enable more proactive and effective law enforcement against trafficking syndicates.

The report, developed by INTERPOL’s Environmental Security unit, offers methods to enhance multinational law enforcement responses to elephant poaching and ivory trafficking from East Africa, as well as the identification of persistent law enforcement challenges.

The report was launched at the Canadian High Commissioner’s Residence in Nairobi, Kenya. It recommends that East African elephant range States, and countries through which ivory transits, should create National Environment Security Task Forces (NESTs). It also recommends that East African elephant range States should use the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytical Toolkit to assess their effectiveness in addressing wildlife crimes and create, as needed, intelligence analysis and investigation units dedicated to tackling wildlife crime. David Higgins, Head of INTERPOL’s Environmental Security unit, noted that while there was global recognition of the problem of elephant poaching and ivory smuggling, a more integrated approach was necessary to secure a more effective response.

In 2008, INTERPOL launched Project Wisdom to improve wildlife law enforcement in Africa. Since then, INTERPOL has coordinated six operations targeting ivory and rhinoceros horn traffickers. [INTERPOL News] [Publication: Executive Summary Elephant Poaching and Ivory Trafficking in East Africa: Assessment for an Effective Law Enforcement Response] [Project Wisdom]