During the first week of September, the ABA ROLI’s Peru program, Combating Wildlife Trafficking program, hosted a Peruvian delegation to the state of Oregon, consisting of judges, prosecutors, investigators and police specializing in investigating and prosecuting wildlife crimes in Peru.
Peru has been identified as a country of origin, transit and destination of illegally trafficked wildlife species. Notwithstanding this problem, the response provided by administrative and judicial authorities, and even by civil society, does not correspond to the complexity and magnitude of this existing criminal phenomenon. Therefore, in 2020, ABA ROLI commenced the Combatting Wildlife Trafficking (CWT) program to assist the government of Peru in its efforts to combat wildlife trafficking—a form of criminal activity that has become an important fixture in the illicit operations of transnational criminal organizations across Latin America. ABA ROLI supports Peruvian partners from government entities at the national and sub-national levels, including specialized units of the prosecution, judiciary, and police tasked with combating environmental crimes. Specifically, ABA ROLI helps build the capacity of these entities and strengthens inter-institutional coordination.