Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, 2017—Inadequate investigative capacity for wildlife crimes has proved to be a major drawback in the fight against poaching and illegal wildlife trade. 

In Kenya and Tanzania, a significant proportion of elephant poaching and ivory trafficking cases either lead to lenient sentences, or are withdrawn or dismissed altogether due to a lack of - or exceedingly weak - evidence .  This eventually leads to a system of justice that fails to adequately deter wildlife crimes, and to provide necessary disincentives for offenders. 

The “training for trainers” format included practical and theoretical tuition on forensic science; crime scene investigation; incident site procedures; evidence collection and transfer; and wildlife forensic applications.

Held in collaboration with TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and the Netherlands Forensic Institute, the workshop was in direct response to a report prepared by the Tanzania Elephant Protection Society (TEPS) Task Force to Tanzania’s Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources, which identified the need for specialist input to address perceived gaps in national training programmes.

Through the financial support of WWF-US, the training course was developed in consultation with KWS, College of African Wildlife Management, TRAFFIC and WWF to institutionalize modules on Wildlife Crime Scene Management and Forensics into the curricula of wildlife training academies in Kenya and Tanzania.

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