Born Free USA works with West and Central African governments to provide training and resources to law enforcement officials and other authorities to enable them to detect and rescue trafficked wildlife and bring traffickers to justice. Born Free USA has held dozens of training sessions and missions across the region and, thanks to funding from USAID and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), Born Free USA was able to return to the field to support authorities in their fight against wildlife crime with a needs assessment workshop held in Cotonou, Benin from January 18-20.
About the Benin Needs Assessment Workshop
The Benin needs assessment workshop brought together stakeholders from the judiciary, police, customs officers, Water and Forests officials, scientists, and representatives of NGOs in order to assess the country’s situation regarding wildlife crime and wildlife law enforcement capacity. Stakeholders also identified priority areas of intervention and objectives for the development of their National Wildlife Crime Strategy, as well as benchmarks and processes for establishing a Wildlife Law Enforcement Task Force. Next, national authorities will examine the findings and validate of a list of priority needs and recommendations. This workshop in Benin builds upon the larger threat assessment mission and trainings conducted there in 2019 and helps to further the results of threat assessment missions conducted by Born Free USA from 2017 to 2020 in 12 other countries.
Born Free USA’s Commitment
Born Free USA congratulates the government of Benin for its commitment to combatting wildlife trafficking and looks forward to continuing to work with their dedicated teams to implement the wildlife crime strategy. As mentioned by Born Free USA consultant, Marius Talla, in his inaugural speech, Benin is among the first countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to have realized the importance and complexity of the fight against wildlife crime.
“Our presence here reflects the consistency of the Beninese authorities to fight against wildlife crime. This constancy has been translated at the strategic level by the approval of regional and national provisions to fight wildlife crime and at the operational level, with regular arrests of criminals and especially with the collaboration of international and sub-regional agencies, as well as with NGOs.” Marius Talla, Born Free USA Consultant
Born Free USA will continue to work alongside the national authorities and stakeholders to develop training programs, strengthen and/or develop strategies for intelligence data collection and sharing, identify mentors, develop protocols for collaboration with the West Africa Network to Combat Wildlife Crime, and provide legal support for legislative amendments as determined on a case-by-case basis.
Watch News Coverage of the Benin Workshop
The Benin threat assessment workshop was covered in the news by DB Medias. Click here to watch the coverage (in French).