Counteract Illegal Wildlife Trade

Help requests / Solicitudes de ayuda
#1

Habari za asubuh, Hello everyone, Olá tod@s,

illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a cross-border issue that plagues all of the territories we are defending. Solutions to the poaching and IWT crisis must support and include indigenous peoples and local communities, must be grounded in local context and local evidence, and must be owned and driven by local people.

Some community groups and earth defenders are developing a mechanism for reporting these environmental crimes, in order to create where permitted and required forensic evidences to be filed at the local court. But so is writing stories, building collective knowledge, questioning one’s relationship with wildlife, and many other benefits.

What tools could be used to facilitate these operations (report environmental crimes in particular), considering for example that the information collected is sensitive, fieldwork safety issues, enable online or local/offline control of data, and so on.

In solidarity

#2

The kinship of Indigenous peoples needs to be solidified in the creation of Citizens’ Assemblies - or as I like to call them - Guardian’s Assemblies. Have a look at my book Guardians of Eden Manual in the Earth Defenders Gallery. Individuals get nowhere; it requires group action. A committee to deal with criminal acts should be established in the Assembly. It then reports in an appropriate manner to the Assembly, to the traditional leadership, to spiritual Guardians, and to the government.

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#3

Thanks for writing @chiroxiphiacaudata! Mapeo, Sapelli, and TIMBY come to mind as tools that may be useful for this issue. There are some pros and cons to consider for each, listed in the Toolfinder.

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#4

Thanks @ian , I agree with you. This is not something that can be done individually.
In some contexts, it happens that community-leaded groups do this reporting at the traditional courts (or native courts), which may already have among their members some of the individuals you list. Obviously generating contradictions at the judiciary level with the specialized environmental courts (for example on right of communities to use wildlife according to their traditional practices).