The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS) with funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Pan-African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) on Friday, March 17, 2023, concluded a three-day training for the judiciary at the Sierra Bay Hotel, Aberdeen in Freetown.
The 25 participants were drawn from the Law Officers Department, National Protected Area Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency and private legal practitioners.
Action for Chimpanzee (AFC) is a multifaceted, two-year regional program (2021-2023) in West Africa which is funded by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), using local and international expertise and a targeted, data-driven approach to reduce trafficking of chimpanzees and other wildlife in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Ivory Coast.
Chimpanzees are a high-value spices in the illegal wildlife trade, trafficked and exported by organized transnational criminal networks.
AFC is overseen by the US based Pan-African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) in partnership with frontline organizations in the four targeted countries including TCS as well as international experts from Legal Atlas and Global Alliance for Animals and the Environment.
The goal of AFC is to reduce the poaching and trafficking of chimpanzees originating from or transiting through West Africa. Building on the existing partnerships between PASA, local chimpanzee rescue centers and conservation organizations and governmental agencies, the program will utilize innovation and data-driven approaches to improve the prevention, interdiction and prosecution of wildlife trafficking as well as increase transparency and collaboration between agencies and organizations in the region.
AFC will also use innovative genetic mapping of confiscated chimpanzees to identify poaching and trafficking hotspots. The increased capacity of local frontline groups and government agencies will ensure greater protection for chimpanzees and other wildlife from the threat of poaching and trafficking.
The training is to increase the capacity of law enforcement in Sierra Leone and the other countries to detect and interdict chimpanzee trafficking; enhance the ability of national and regional wildlife law enforcement to prevent, detect and investigate chimpanzee trafficking in Sierra Leone and the other countries through improved habitat protection, increased information sharing and the genetic evaluation of confiscated chimpanzees living in rescue centers to establish origins and possible trade routes; improve national capacities for the prosecution and adjudication of chimpanzees and other wildlife trafficking cases and the delivery of appropriate sentencing; and strengthen regional cooperation within and between relevant agencies in Sierra Leone and the other countries to enhance government response, accountability and transparency related to chimpanzee trafficking through innovative response, accountability and transparency related to chimpanzee trafficking through innovative communication mechanisms and cross-border protocols.