Background & Establishment

Uganda sits at the crossroads of some of Africa's richest biodiversity — and some of its busiest wildlife trafficking routes. By the late 2010s it was clear that poaching, ivory and pangolin trafficking, illegal logging and forest encroachment could not be defeated by any single institution acting alone: intelligence sat in one agency, powers of arrest in another, customs control in a third and prosecution in a fourth.

The National Wildlife Crime Coordination Task Force (NWCCTF) is an umbrella body with the overall command to combat wildlife crime in Uganda. It was established in 2018 with the facilitation of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Uganda — a standing mechanism binding the ministries, departments and agencies whose mandates touch wildlife and forest crime into one coordinated front.

The Task Force was formally inaugurated by the Government of Uganda on 11 February 2020. It comprises thirteen (13) law-enforcement agencies — from the Uganda Wildlife Authority to the Police Criminal Investigations Directorate and INTERPOL, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Uganda Revenue Authority, immigration, intelligence services, the National Forestry Authority and the armed forces. Each member institution brings different technical and technological expertise and networks to the table, and nominates focal persons to carry the work. The Task Force's goal is to promote cooperation and coordination among the member institutions through information sharing, joint operations and expedited prosecutions aimed at combating wildlife crime in Uganda.

The Task Force was born out of the need to tackle an illegal wildlife trade that is becoming increasingly sophisticated — especially now, with free and easy access to the internet. The trade is a major funder of insurgency and is today a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry whose annual proceeds are estimated at 36 trillion Uganda shillings, with poverty the biggest poaching driver among other factors.

Since inauguration, the Task Force has adopted Standard Operating Procedures and Terms of Reference, held ten quarterly coordination meetings, conducted nine regional awareness workshops, supported major seizures and landmark convictions, and championed campaigns such as the protection of Bugoma Central Forest Reserve. Its work is supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society and UNODC, with funding from the European Union and the Government of Denmark.