South African school takes forensic approach to clamp down on poaching
South African school takes forensic approach to clamp down on poaching
Bill Corcoran, The Irish Times
June 1, 2022
See link
https://www.irishtimes.com/world/africa/2022/06/01/south-african-school-takes-forensic-approach-to-clamp-down-on-poaching/
for photos.
A new specialised academy in South Africa plans to arm conservationists
from around the world with the forensic skills needed to gather crime scene
evidence that can be used to prosecute poachers and traffickers.
Launched in mid-May at its recently built premises in the Buffelsfontein
Nature Reserve, near Cape Town, the Wildlife Forensic Academy (WFA) has
created a variety of realistic wildlife and plant crime scenes to train its
students.
The academy is a state-of-the-art facility that will provide forensic
knowledge, awareness and practical training to game rangers and people who
study wildlife forensics, veterinary medicine, conservation and ecology,
according to its founders.
Forensic science is important in law-enforcement efforts to catch the
perpetrators of human crimes, and a single cell can now be used to form a
DNA profile.
However, Dutch forensic scientist Andro Vos, one of the WFA’s founders,
says its potential in animal-related crimes, which usually have no
witnesses, remains largely untapped even though it could be a game-changer
in solving them.
Vos, a former programme director at the Netherlands Forensic Institute,
says he first conceived of the idea to establish the academy about a decade
ago, following a forensics lecture he gave in South Africa. During the
talk, Vos said he was asked whether forensic science could be used to solve
wildlife crime.
He recalled that although he didn’t know the answer at the time, “the idea
never left my mind”. After learning about the illicit wildlife trade and
how it has driven thousands of species towards extinction, Vos began
working on the idea of a forensic academy that could help bring those
responsible to justice.
Despite ongoing efforts by successive governments and conservation bodies
to keep it in check, the poaching and trafficking of wild animals and
plants by criminal syndicates remains rampant in South Africa. For
instance, a total of 451 rhinos were poached there between January and
December 2021, according to government statistics – a 13 per cent increase
on the number of rhinos killed a year earlier.
Although rhino poachers have been successfully prosecuted in recent years,
the same cannot be said for those involved in the illegal killing and
smuggling of many other animals and plants.
Last year, the government’s portfolio committee on environment, forestry
and fisheries was told there had been about 72 seizures of ivory in the
form of products, tusks and pieces between 2015 and 2019 but no one had
been convicted for elephant poaching during that time. Indeed, the
committee heard that much of South Africa’s wildlife was under threat in
some way from poaching or trafficking, but so too was the country’s rare
plant species, especially its ancient succulents in the Western and
Northern Cape provinces.
In February this year, South African National Biodiversity Institute
(Sanbi) spokesperson Nontsikelelo Mpulo told the Daily Maverick, an online
newspaper, that 1.5 million succulent plants had been illegally removed
over the past three years with a cumulative age of 44,000 years.
According to WFA director and cofounder Dr Greg Simpson, the academy’s
courses teach people how to preserve crime scenes and gather and analyse
different types of evidence, such as human and non-human traces as well as
chemical, physical and digital traces.
The courses, which are one, two and four weeks in duration, also show
recipients how the evidence is analysed in forensic laboratories and then
used in court to secure convictions.
“We aim to teach our students by taking them through the story of a
wildlife crime and its prosecution from start to finish,” explains Simpson,
who is a vet.
“First, they are shown how to isolate a crime scene, then how to look for
evidence and process it in a way that ensures its integrity.”
Aside from housing crime scenes related to the poaching of lions, rhinos,
giraffes, marine animals, birds and plants, the WFA premises also has a
forensic laboratory and a small court room, and an elevated classroom that
overlooks the whole operation.
“Presenting in court can be make-or-break for the prosecution of a wildlife
crime. Here we have a real prosecutor who takes the students through
courtroom scenarios, so they know what to expect if they are required to
give evidence in a case,” Simpson says.
In addition, the facility has a large shipping container in which items
such as pangolin scales are hidden, and a small house that represents the
home of a trafficking middle-man who is hiding abalones prior to dispatch
overseas.
The academy was officially launched on May 13th, and the first students,
who are from Staffordshire University in the UK, will arrive in August. The
international two-week and four-week courses cost €2,500 and €5,000
respectively, which also covers food, accommodation and field trips. Vos
says the fees generated from the overseas students will “allow us to train
local rangers and vets for a much lower fee”. A fund is also being
established to sponsor frontline conservationists in low-to-middle income
countries to attend the academy.
Vos noted that acquiring an in-depth knowledge of forensics took years of
study. However, their courses were designed to give people a basic
understanding of the science and to “motivate and inspire” people to treat
wildlife crime scenes properly.