EIA campaigners are in Nigeria this week, facilitating a high-level international workshop to bolster efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade by sharing resources and ideas
This report has been prepared by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK) to provide guidance to Parties and entities engaged with wildlife crime enforcement issues relating to West and Central Africa, including State agencies, intergovernmental (IGOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
A toxic combination of widespread corruption, weak or absent rule of law, low levels of development and hotspots of armed conflict have left several African countries wide open to exploitation by well-organised transnational criminal gangs
West and Central Africa have emerged as major sourcing and export hubs for the illegal trafficking of elephant ivory and pangolin scales to Asia
Demand for pangolin scales in China for traditional medicine drives poaching and trafficking across Africa and Asia