NGO-government partnerships in wildlife crime law enforcement and prosecution

opyene vincent

Natural Resource Conservation Network

Pathways Kenya ConferenceJanuary 10-14, 2015Session: Understanding and reducing non-compliance with wildlife laws: From law enforcement to community-based interventionsPresentation Working Title: NGO-Government Partnership in Wildlife Crime Law Enforcement and ProsecutionPresenter: Vincent Opyene, CEO & Founder of Natural Resource Conservation Network (NRCN) and former USFWS MENTOR FellowThe 2008 and 2009 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service MENTOR Fellowship Program (Mentoring for ENvironmental Training in Outreach and Resource conservation) focused on the illegal bushmeat trade in East Africa. The program builds capacity among emerging conservationists through academic and field-based training, mentoring, hands-on experience, and project design and implementation. Vincent Opyene, former USFWS MENTOR Fellow a Ugandan attorney, will talk about his fellowship in which he examined gaps in wildlife crime law enforcement in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan and how his NGO, the Natural Resource Conservation Network (NRCN), works to address these gaps through collaboration with Uganda Wildlife Authority and other law enforcement stakeholders to target commercial traffickers of wildlife products through investigations, operations, prosecution, and reports to media for public awareness. NRCN also works with communities in investigating wildlife crime, capacity building, mediation and law enforcement.