Eastern Africa’s rich biodiversity and communities face a dual crisis: Crimes that affect the environment and climate change. From elephant poaching to illegal logging and hazardous waste dumping, these crimes fuel corruption, displace communities, and destabilize ecosystems. Key challenges include:
Wildlife Crime: Africa is home to an estimated 350,000 elephants, but poaching threatens their survival, with 10,000 - 15,000 killed each year by poachers (CITES).
Forest Crimes: Illegal logging drives up to 90% of deforestation in Uganda, with 80% of the timber trade deemed illegal, costing $9.8 million annually in lost taxes (ENACT Africa, 2021).
Crimes in the fisheries sector: Unlawful activities in the fisheries sector threaten millions of livelihoods tied to coastal economies.
These issues are further compounded by global demand for resources, enabling organized crime to exploit weak governance structures. With high profits, low risk of detection and ineffective penalties, environmental crimes are extremely lucrative and converge with other crimes such as economic crimes and corruption. The illicit environmental trade now exceeds $200 billion (Global Environmental Crime Report, 2024), while climate disasters have reduced Africa’s GDP by 12.3% since 2015 (UNDRR, 2024) and displaced 21 million people (IOM, 2024).
Crimes that affect the environment are serious organized crimes with far-reaching impacts for the economy, security, the environment, and human health. They contribute to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately exacerbating climate change issues. These crimes contribute to more frequent and severe extreme weather events, deteriorating health conditions, and increasing food and land insecurity while driving climate-induced mobility and aggravating trafficking in persons and human-wildlife conflict.
Crime → Climate: Illegal deforestation and waste incineration increase CO₂ emissions, while degraded ecosystems lose carbon sequestration capacity.
Climate → Crime: Extreme weather drives vulnerable communities toward illegal mining/poaching.
Consequences
Human Security: Globally, climate-linked conflicts and environmental degradation have displaced approximately 21 million people.
Economic Loss: Kenya loses approximately $10 million annually to illegal cross-border wood trade with Tanzania, while Tanzania loses over $8 million (WWF).
Biodiversity: 35% decline in Lake Victoria’s fish stocks.
Strengthen legal penalties and address related crimes (corruption, money laundering).
Example: EU-backed reforms in Uganda to reduce deforestation rates, safeguarding carbon sinks.
Eastern Africa’s ecosystems are threatened by five key crimes:
1. Wildlife Crime (e.g., poaching of elephants, rhinos bushmeat trade).
2. Forest Crimes (e.g., illegal logging).
3. Crimes in the Fisheries Sector (e.g., unauthorized fishing).
4. Crimes in the Waste Sector (e.g., hazardous waste dumping).
5. Crimes in the Minerals Sector (e.g., illegal mining).
Despite these threats, penalties for crimes that affect the environment are less severe than for other types of crimes. They are often treated as mere violations, overlooking their links to organized and serious criminal activities. As a result, these offences are typically punished with administrative sanctions or minor penalties. Enhancing awareness and building capacity within the criminal justice system is crucial to effectively investigate and prosecute these crimes, while also addressing related offences like corruption, money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. Strengthening enforcement in this way will align penalties with the severity of the offences and help reduce the impunity that criminal syndicates currently benefit from.
1. Legal & Policy Reform
We provide technical assistance to Eastern African countries in developing and/or revising legal frameworks that address crimes that affect the environment.
SDG Focus: Strengthening laws to counter crimes that affect the environment supports both SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water).
2. Capacity Building for Justice Systems
Expertise in Action: To date, more than 19,000 practitioners, including law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges, have been trained in advanced crime scene management, forensic techniques, and cross-border collaboration to enhance the investigation and prosecution of environmental crimes.
Anti-Corruption Measures: We have conducted corruption risk assessments in Uganda’s wildlife sector and in Kenya’s fisheries and wildlife agencies, contributing to improved governance and accountability in natural resource management.
3. Community-Led Resilience
Empower communities through awareness campaigns, youth engagement, and livelihood programs. Initiatives include Uganda’s forestry projects where we are increasing awareness on the impacts of illegal logging and timber trafficking and empowering the youth and communities to identify and report illegal activities in the forest sector.
4. Regional & Transnational Cooperation
Operation SAMA: This initiative united 34 African nations in a coordinated, Customs-led operation that disrupted transnational trafficking networks and led to the recovery of over 1,000 endangered species (2024)
