Combatting Wildlife Crime in Uganda

This project aims to strengthen key Ugandan stakeholders’ capacity to detect, deter and prosecute wildlife crime, working with security and law-enforcement agencies in the country.




Ivana Tacikova / Alamy Stock Photo


Through this five-year project (2020–2025), RUSI is partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the Natural Resources Conservation Network (NRCN) to provide research, analysis and expertise to increase the capacity of Ugandan agencies to detect, deter and prosecute wildlife crime.

Ivana Tacikova / Alamy Stock Photo

Project team


Cathy Haenlein

Director of Organised Crime and Policing Studies

Organised Crime and Policing

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Chris Goodenough

Programme Manager

Terrorism and Conflict

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Tom Keatinge

Director, CFS

Centre for Finance and Security

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Mark Williams

Programme Manager | SHOC Network Member - Researcher

Organised Crime and Policing

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Neil Bennett, Specialist financial investigator, independent

Aims and objectives

The goal of this project is to reduce wildlife crime in Uganda. The project aims to achieve this by strengthening the capacity of Ugandan agencies to detect, deter and prosecute wildlife crime, working directly with the security and law-enforcement agencies, private sector companies and communities living adjacent to protected areas.

Specifically, RUSI is enhancing the capacity of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and Financial Intelligence Authority to detect and disrupt illicit financial flows linked to wildlife crime through the provision of targeted, tailored on-the-ground mentorship, under the banner of the National Wildlife Crime Coordination Taskforce. The project also supports operationally-focused regional workshops, with the goal of providing targeted support, enhancing cooperation and allowing effective information-sharing and skills transfer.

RUSI helps the project to ‘Think and Work Politically’ by providing an ongoing political economy analysis of how power and resources are distributed and contested in the Ugandan context, and the implications of this for the proposed interventions under the broader USAID programme.

In addition, in 2021, RUSI published a detailed empirical study on the linkages between wildlife crime, money laundering and the financing of terrorism in Uganda.

Project partners

  • The Wildlife Conservation Society

    The Wildlife Conservation Society

    This project is part of the USAID-funded WCS-led programme ‘Uganda Combatting Wildlife Crime Activity’.

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Project outputs and impact


Review the impact of this project.

Illegal Wildlife Trade in Uganda: Tracking Progress on 'Following the Money'
Illegal Wildlife Trade In Uganda: Following Financial Footprints
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USAID/Uganda Combating Wildlife Crime Activity

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Uganda Combating Wildlife Crime (CWC) is a five-year activity (2020 - 2025) implemented by a consortium of partners including Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Natural Resources Conservation Network (NRCN) and The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

USAID press release

US Government Announces $21.5 Million Investment in Uganda’s Biodiversity


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