Building Stronger Systems for Wildlife Stockpile Security
‘If we can ensure that government stockpiles of ivory and other wildlife products are safe and secure’, says the EPI Foundation’s Director of Programmes, Ruth Musgrave, ‘we will play a key role in curbing the illegal wildlife trade.’ Stockpile security has been one of the EPI Foundation’s priorities for many years and is an area in which it has built up expertise and unique trust with our government partners.
In the past few months alone the EPI Foundation has worked closely with the wildlife authorities in Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Mozambique, assisting in comprehensive audits of the central storerooms in each of these diverse countries, as well as some of their provincial storerooms. ‘What is most gratifying’, says Ruth, ‘is that in all these countries, the audit was successful, meaning that nothing had gone missing since the previous count. That is a tribute to the hard work and integrity of wildlife officials, but also the robustness of the systems we have helped to put in place.’
Stockpile audit at the central storeroom in Kinshasa at the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN)
These audits do not only involve ivory, but the whole range of illegal wildlife products, such as rhino horn, pangolin scales, lion bones, big cat skins etc, meaning the EPI Foundation makes an important contribution to the conservation of numerous endangered species. Successful audits ensure the brave and dangerous work performed by law enforcement agencies in the field- seizures from criminal gangs for example- does not subsequently go to waste, as they help to prevent the reappearance of wildlife products on the illegal market.
Alex Chunga, with Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), echoed Ruth’s sentiments. He said ‘The work we have been doing with the EPI Foundation gives us confidence that nothing has gone missing. It gives us at DNPW a sense of purpose and encourages us that we are playing our part to stop the illegal wildlife trade.’
In Côte d’Ivoire, the Director of Wildlife and Hunting Resources, Madame Salimata Koné, spoke at the successful conclusion of her department’s recent audit ‘This audit strengthens the confidence we place in our mechanisms for securing and tracing ivory stocks. It reassures us of the integrity of these stocks and our ability to prevent their diversion into illegal trade channels. It also constitutes a recognition of the work accomplished by our teams, and we would like to acknowledge the valuable support of the EPI Foundation in this process.’
Stockpile audit at the Department for National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) storeroom
There is no single solution, however, to the illicit flow of ivory and other wildlife products. Elephant conservationists all over the world will have been dismayed by the news from Vietnam in August that the authorities had discovered more than 1,000 kgs of ivory, hidden in a container which had travelled on a series of ships from Matadi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We await further details on the age and likely origins of the tusks, which could have come from a variety of sources; recently killed elephants, or illegal and official stockpiles, which often contain tusks of animals which died many years ago.
Nonetheless, the EPI Foundation, by helping African governments to keep their stockpiles safe, is narrowing the options and increasing the obstacles for those who seek to illegally buy and sell ivory and other wildlife products. In recent years, our work has been generously supported by a grant from the US government’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). This grant is now coming to an end, but we hope that donors and benefactors will support us so we can carry on playing such an essential role in wildlife conservation.
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