On the case: Identifying corruption by reviewing wildlife crime court cases in southern Africa

Key Takeaways

• Corruption is a key enabler of the illegal wildlife trade and its effects are not widely understood. Reviewing past cases can offer a way to explore this relationship.
• While red flags of potential corruption were identified, the review of closed wildlife crime court cases alone was not sufficient to identify confirmed instances of corruption.
• To obtain useable information, court case reviews must be complemented with additional information obtained from press articles, relevant experts, and members of the criminal justice system. Specifically, these consultations can help ascertain the barriers that prevent the identification, investigation, and charging of corruption offences in wildlife crime court cases.
• Where feasible and appropriate, practitioners should consider partnering with relevant government agencies to ensure access to court records, and to feed back to those agencies any suspicions of corrupt practices worthy of further investigation.

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This content is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or individual TNRC consortium members.