Strengthening Capacity and Commitment to Combat Wildlife Trafficking in Latin America

Wildlife trafficking and related criminal activity fuels corruption, destabilizes vulnerable populations, and directly funds transnational criminal organizations. Traffickers frequently exploit weakly enforced borders and government bureaucracy to profit from commerce in protected wildlife, timber, and fish as part of a broader criminal enterprise that may include trafficking in persons, drugs, or other illicit goods. 

The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) worked to combat this criminal phenomenon in two strategic areas in Latin America and the Caribbean the Andean region of Bolivia and Peru and the Guatemalan rainforest on the fringe of the Northern Triangle region.

Between 2019-2020, ABA ROLI partnered with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to help combat and put an end to wildlife and wild spaces trafficking in Latin America through the Strengthening Capacity and Commitment to Combat Wildlife Trafficking in Latin America program. “Wildlife trafficking benefits from corruption and weak governance along the trade chain, and it further weakens rule of law and security for communities living alongside wildlife and wild places,” according to WCS. Through the program, ABA ROLI conducted a series of assessments and capacity building activities to help reduce the poaching and trafficking of protected wildlife and their parts originating from, transiting through, and/or sold in Latin America. The program sought to enhance wildlife-related legislative and regulatory frameworks and build the capacity of civilian and law enforcement and justice sector authorities to prevent, investigate, and prosecute wildlife trafficking. The program was funded by the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

The program’s four objectives were to strengthen capacity to combat wildlife trafficking (WT); increase understanding of legislation, investigation and prosecution of WT; enhance commitment and a consolidated response among key stakeholders; and promote increased collaboration between prosecutors, police, and government officials.  

The program sought to achieve these objectives by:

Analyzing the Nexus between Wildlife Trafficking and Transnational Crime

Alongside local legal exports, ABA ROLI conducted a Mesoamerican and Andean regional assessment to analyze the use of ancillary legislation—that is, laws criminalizing similar activity which may have overlapping elements—as a potential strategy for governments to charge and convict traffickers using higher penalties, and thus serve as a more effective deterrent to wildlife trafficking and related crimes. In addition to ancillary legislation, the group also analyzed the investigation of transnational organized crimes, and the prosecution of related illicit activities to respond to wildlife crimes. The findings from this assessment will inform three binational training sessions, and a legal reference toolkit for prosecutors.

Increasing Capacity for Prosecution of Wildlife Trafficking

Through this program, ABA ROLI developed a countering wildlife trafficking curriculum for three binational prosecutorial training sessions for trainees in Belize, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru. ABA ROLI hosted three binational training sessions drawing on the findings of the previous assessments to train justice sector officials and prosecutors on legal tools, forensic techniques, and binational and regional treaties. This work aims to improve the rule of law by enhancing governments’ capacity to prosecute transnational organized crimes, and to respond to wildlife trafficking cases across Mesoamerica and the Andean Region.

After conducting a legal assessment of the region, ABA ROLI produced a wildlife trafficking roadmap report for governments, and local and international organizations to support efforts to combat wildlife trafficking in the region. ABA ROLI hosted and conducted bi-national training sessions for Honduran and Nicaraguan prosecutors, law enforcement officials and key government actors with the knowledge, skills, and tools to help them better respond to wildlife trafficking crimes and its relationship with other types of transnational organized crimes.