Nomvelo Siziba, Chronicle Reporter

THE country’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is in the process of setting up a wildlife crime directorate to help fight wildlife related offences.

Prosecutor General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi said the country needs to upgrade its system to be able to fully investigate wildlife crimes. 

“We in the NPA are in the process of establishing a wildlife and environmental crime directorate. It is envisaged that this crime directorate will be a centre of excellence in the prosecution of wildlife crimes,” said Mr Hodzi.

He said the directorate will be manned by dedicated professionals to close gaps in the justice system. Mr Hodzi was speaking at the wildlife law enforcement workshop which started here on Monday and ends tomorrow.

The workshop is being attended by prosecutors, the Financial Intelligence Unit members, the police, Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Judicial Service Commission officials.

Mr Hodzi called for teamwork.

“This is a pilot strategy that recognises gaps in wildlife justice system. For law enforcement agencies to make meaningful impact against the offence, it is now recognised that we need to work as a team or even as a multi-agency team,” he said.

“There has been a tendency of arresting offenders on the low end of the chain who in most cases are local poachers who do the dirty work while there has been very little impact in accounting for those wildlife criminals who are the high end of the chain, they plan and mastermind the offences and reap all the rewards. This has been highly caused by our lack of use of systematic financial investigative tools.” 

Mr Hodzi said despite that, the criminal justice system has to a greater extent risen to the occasion as evidenced by the high conviction rate. 

He, however, said the country’s law system has rarely used the Financial Intelligence Unit hence the need to make sure wildlife investigation is premised on aggressive strategies that follow the money and use of financial investigations.The Prosecutor General said wildlife crime now has transnational and global attributes. 

He called for continuous training for prosecutors and investigators so that they adopt new investigative skills. 

“We need all stakeholders and legislation to recognise that wildlife crime is an organised transnational crime. We need to use anti-money laundering and anti-corruption provision in our law to ensure that wildlife offences are treated as predictive offences to money laundering and elevate the severity of the offences to high risk low benefits activation,” he said.

He said in most cases investigations stop at seizure without looking at the money flows, profits and financial gains. 

Rangers and police must now develop skills to be able to identify and preserve finance-related evidence at a wildlife crime scene. We need to develop the skills and expertise to be able to meticulously read a crime scene, analyse evidence and be able to follow the money and disrupt the organisers through an aggressive asset forfeiture regime. — @nomvelosiziba