Gibson Nyikadzino-Zimpapers Politics Hub
SOUTHERN African Development Community member states have adopted a revised 10-year strategy to fight poaching and illegal wildlife trade, as organised transnational criminal networks continue to plunder one of the world’s richest repositories of biodiversity.
In a statement on the development, the bloc said the revised SADC Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching (LEAP) strategy for 2022–2032, which replaces an earlier framework that ran from 2016 to 2021, is expected to further protect the region’s governance systems and relieve pressure on the region’s flora and fauna.
“Wildlife crime erodes rule of law and undermines governance, especially in remote areas and border crossings, but also at key ports.
“As a region of high biodiversity and substantial wildlife populations, the SADC region has become a major source of many wildlife products and member states are at the forefront of global efforts to combat wildlife crime, protect vulnerable human populations and strengthen rule of law and governance,” SADC said in a statement.
According to statistics, wildlife crime in Southern Africa operates as a multi-billion-dollar illicit economy driven by transnational organised syndicates, high global demand primarily in Asia, local economic pressures and corruption.
SADC said the overall objective of the first SADC Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching (LEAP) strategy (2016-2021) was “to significantly reduce the level of poaching and illegal trade in wildlife fauna and flora and enhance law enforcement capacity in the SADC Region by 2021”.
The revised LEAP strategy seeks to distinguish wildlife crimes like poaching from trafficking by the location where the crimes occurred, and the actors responsible for prevention.
“This LEAP strategy is structured by crime type, where it occurs, and which actors are involved in preventing it. It lays out principles and current best practices to tackle the issues at these operational scales,” the SADC statement added.
