Tag - Wildlife crime

Justice for Silent Victims X: Investigation, Prosecution and Courtroom Training

A joint press release from Sabah Wildlife Department, Danau Girang Field Centre, Justice for Wildlife Malaysia and the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ)

22–26 August 2022, Kota Kinabalu: 32 representatives of nine state departments, law enforcement agencies and NGOs gathered this week to participate in the Justice for Silent Victims X: Investigation, Prosecution and Courtroom Training. Jointly organized by the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office (USDOJ) of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), Justice for Wildlife Malaysia (JWM), and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), the participants gained experience on arrests, interviewing, prosecution and court decorum methods and techniques through a mix of presentations and practical exercises. 

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) funded the course through the project “Boosting Enforcement and Forensic Capability to Deter Wildlife Trafficking in Sabah,” coordinated by the SWD and DGFC, and through OPDAT. Poaching, hunting, illegal killing and trade, are real threats to the many endangered species in Sabah and have been at the forefront of wildlife enforcement agenda, more so in recent years. 

“We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Justice and to Justice for Wildlife Malaysia for partnering with the Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre to deliver this training,” said the SWD’s Deputy Director, Mr. Mohd Soffian Abu Bakar. “It is important to establish strong cases in order for the prosecution to successfully convict criminals. We have been strengthening our investigation capacity but we still need to improve on consolidating the results of investigations into convincing prosecutions; in the SWD and other state agencies, our officers are not formal lawyers, our prosecutorial capacity is derived from trainings such as this one. We couldn’t do it either without the support of members of the Malaysian Judiciary, especially Sabah’s Judiciary office,” he concluded.

For her part, Ms. Sylvia Shweder, USDOJ’s OPDAT Regional Resident Legal Advisor for Counter Wildlife Trafficking in Southeast Asia, said that “the United States supports workshops like this so the global community can work together to dismantle wildlife trafficking criminal organizations that are endangering our world’s treasured animals.”

Working together with the U.S. Department of Justice and the NGO PANTHERA, Justice for Wildlife Malaysia has been organizing the Justice for Silent Victims workshops, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia. “We are very excited to finally engage with officers from Sabah, in Sabah, for our crime-scene-to-courtroom training. We are happy to see the enthusiasm of the participants and we look forward to working with them in addressing transboundary wildlife crime and fostering a good prosecution network to make sure wildlife criminals can be put behind bars,” commented Dr. Nor Arlina Amirah Ahmad Ghani, Director and Co-founder of Justice of Wildlife Malaysia.

Dr. Milena Salgado Lynn, who is the coordinator of the INL project for DGFC said, “The INL-funded project has allowed us to support a strong inter-agency network that has been training together in several topics including Crime Scene Investigation, Biosafety, and Online Investigations. This prosecution and courtroom training is another next step on the ladder to reach convictions after prosecution cases are presented in court. We are encouraged to keep up with the work when we see the participants fully engaging in the courses and also supporting each other during real-life cases.”

The program “Boosting Enforcement and Forensic Capacity in Sabah to Deter Wildlife Crimes” will enter its final year in October 2022 and it is expected to continue supporting similar trainings until its conclusion.

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For more information on this press release, please contact:

Dr. Milena Salgado Lynn

Danau Girang Field Centre

contact@dgfc.life

Course on Monitoring and Detecting Illegal Wildlife Trade Online or Through Social Media Platforms and Procedures for Seizing Digital Equipment and Digital Evidence to boost enforcement efforts against wildlife crimes

A joint press release from Sabah Wildlife Department and Danau Girang Field Centre

23 January 2022, Kota Kinabalu: Members of the Wildlife Crime Interagency Working Group comprising of representatives of various state departments, law enforcement agencies and NGOs recently completed a two (2) day course earlier last week on how to monitor social media platforms and seize digital equipment and evidence applicable to wildlife trafficking and illegal trade.

Jointly organised by Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), the training provided an opportunity for the working group to improve their knowledge on theoretical and practical aspects related to information gathering using open-source techniques, "First Responder Activity" and also "Data Preservation" that will be used during raid activities carried out against the criminals involved who use Social Media as a platform for criminal conduct.

This course is the 14th in a series funded by the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), through the project “Boosting Enforcement and Forensic Capability to Deter Wildlife Trafficking in Sabah” coordinated by the SWD and DGFC. Poaching, hunting, illegal killing and trade, are real threats to the many endangered species in Sabah and have been at the forefront of wildlife enforcement agenda, more so in recent years.

Mr Augustine Tuuga, Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department explained: “recently the illegal trade of Wildlife species is often carried out virtually or through social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and so on. This presents a huge challenge to enforcement personnel, especially in collecting digital evidence. Cases of departmental arrests involving online sales are still few and often arrests are made when it is ensured that protected wildlife is under the possession of the suspect. Furthermore, under the existing law it is not an offense for a person to display animals that are protected or fully protected on his/her social media platform.”

Meanwhile, DGFC has been working intensely with SWD to combat these criminal activities by organising and facilitating trainings like this one, and also by setting up an Intelligence Unit and a Forensic Unit at the SWD.

Dr. Milena Salgado Lynn who is the coordinator of the INL project for DGFC said, “We are very grateful to MCMC for agreeing to form a close cooperation with the SWD in providing the training courses last week for the Interagency Working Group also set up during this Programme. The feedback from the participants has been very positive. Although for many it was a new topic, they mentioned feeling more confident in doing this type of online investigation. It is the commitment and response of the participating agencies that has enabled us to successfully deliver previous courses, despite the COVID-19 pandemic constraints.”

“It was very encouraging when INL offered to fund the continuation of the project for two more years, after the original end date of October 2021. We look forward to the next two years and seeing the impact it can do to curb these illegal activities,” she concluded.

Almost RM8 million have been funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US State Department towards this enforcement and forensic program which has been running since October 2019.

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For more information on this press release, please contact:

Dr Benoit Goossens
Danau Girang Field Centre

contact@dgfc.life

Workshop on Challenges of Enforcement in Combating Corruption in Wildlife Crimes concluded last week

A joint press release from Sabah Wildlife Department, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Danau Girang Field Centre

21 July 2020, Kota Kinabalu: Sabah and Sarawak representatives of law enforcement agencies met in Kota Kinabalu on the 13 and 14 of July to increase awareness on anti-corruption laws, including witness and whistleblower protection. This workshop was part of the training available for the inter-agency Working Group on Wildlife Crime Intelligence.

The workshop, organised by Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), was a platform for the different agencies to share the difficulties when witnessing and denouncing corruption related to wildlife crimes.

According to the Director of the MACC, Mr Karunanithy A/L Y. Subbiah: “Worldwide, bribery in crimes involving wildlife smuggling is increasingly spreading at a worrying pace and has become one of the driving forces for illicit trade that is still hard to curb at national and international level.” He also emphasized that “bribery is no longer seen as only a local problem but has evolved into trans-boundary crime phenomena which coincides with the main topic of the workshop that focuses on trade and smuggling of wildlife internationally that usually involves bribery, smuggling, money laundering and others”.

“We must be aware that corruption is multifaceted and can occur at every stage of the wildlife, forestry and fisheries value chain. It can include bribes for information on the movement of animals or patrols, or to obtain rights and quotas, or grease the wheels of shipments, to ensure that they are not inspected or seized”, said Mr Augustine Tuuga, Director of the SWD, during the opening ceremony.

“This is the first time an anti-corruption workshop with emphasis on wildlife crimes takes place in Sabah”, remarked Tuuga. He also mentioned that the SWD must work with all possible partners to build understanding and ensure that wildlife, forest and fisheries agencies are trained and equipped to respond to corruption. The department is also looking forward to extend the collaboration with the MACC. “We will work towards the creation of an Organisational Anti-Corruption Plan”, said Tuuga.

DGFC’s Director, Prof Benoit Goossens, said he hopes the workshop will be an opportunity to increase inter-agency collaboration and to work towards the objectives of the Wildlife State Action Plans adopted last year by the State Cabinet.

“During the 2017 international workshops on proboscis monkey, Sunda clouded leopard and Bornean banteng, jointly organised by SWD and DGFC, it was recognised that poaching, hunting, and illegal killing and trade, were real threats to these and other species in Sabah. The information compiled at the workshops was included in the State Action Plans for each species, specifically to increase the capacities of wildlife law enforcement government agencies and of key partners in conservation. In particular, to train crime analysts, investigators and intelligence gatherers, and a certified forensic technician at the Sabah Wildlife Health, Genetic and Forensic Laboratory (WHGFL)”, Goossens added. “We have been working continuously with Sabah Forestry Department and with SWD towards the implementation of the action plans,” Goossens concluded.

This training is part of the program “Boosting enforcement and forensic capacity to deter wildlife crimes in Sabah”. Almost RM4 million have been funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US Department of State through DGFC. The enforcement and forensic program will support a number of specialised training sessions, not only for the units of SWD, but also for the members of the Working Group on Wildlife Crime Intelligence. This week this group is following a training on Crime Scene Management and Advanced Investigative Techniques.

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For more information on this press release, please contact:

Dr. Benoit Goossens
Danau Girang Field Centre

contact@dgfc.life