Countering Wildlife Trafficking in Central Africa

The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a project to counter wildlife trafficking in Central Africa. Central Africa is a hot spot for poaching and trafficking of illegal wildlife and products such as ivory and pangolin scales. In order to help dismantle the criminal organizations trafficking in these illegal products and reduce wildlife trafficking in the region, INL seeks to support counter-wildlife trafficking projects in Central Africa including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), and Gabon.

Wildlife trafficking and natural resource crimes are lucrative forms of transnational organized crime (TOC) that have decimated populations of species, such as elephants, rhinos, pangolins, and more. Wildlife trafficking and natural resource crimes fuel corruption, threaten the rule of law and peace and security, spread disease, and destabilize communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism revenues. Criminal organizations are increasingly involved in this illicit trade, especially the illegal movement of wildlife from source countries to demand countries, such as the movement of ivory from Africa to Asia. Traffickers exploit porous borders and weak institutions to profit from trading in illegal wildlife. Wildlife and wildlife products are transported through multilevel illicit networks of criminal intermediaries and government officials.

With improved enforcement efforts in East and Southern Africa as well as a shift in demand of wildlife products (i.e. increasing demand for pangolin scales), poaching and trafficking trends are increasingly moving toward lower enforcement areas in Central Africa. These areas are generally under-developed and wildlife enforcement is challenging to execute.

This project seeks to enhance law enforcement and justice sector efforts to counter wildlife trafficking, ultimately assisting in the disruption of wildlife trafficking operations, and removing opportunities for illicit proceeds derived from the wildlife trade to channel to criminal organizations.

Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. Interested applicants from within Duke should contact dukeiln@duke.edu as early as possible.

Deadline: June 1, 2022