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Merely a transit country? Examining the role of Uganda in the transnational illegal ivory trade

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Abstract

Uganda is repeatedly implicated in the illegal ivory trade as a transit territory for ivory destined for Asia. Interviews with law enforcement officers reveal that the size of seizures and means of concealment and transportation are varied, showing diversity in the trade’s level of organization and sophistication. Arguably, considerable processing takes place within Uganda in terms of stockpiling, repacking and organization of exports but investigations rarely lead to prosecution and conviction of those responsible. Findings demonstrate the intricate role and responsibility of transit countries and illustrate how the transnational ivory trade operates locally.

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Notes

  1. The species covered by CITES are listed in three Appendices according to the degree of protection they need. All African elephant populations have ‘appendix I’ listing, except for the elephants in Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, which are listed under “appendix II” (CITES 2017).

  2. The Uganda Wildlife Act, Cap 200 of 2000, section 76.

  3. ‘Organized criminal group’ shall mean a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time with the aim of committing one or more serious offences in order to gain financial reward’. A ‘structured group’ need not have ‘formally defined roles for its members, continuity of its membership or a developed structure’ (UNODC 2004).

  4. Elephant ivory in itself is not contraband, and illegally harvested ivory can be laundered into existing legal ivory markets. The legality of individual ivory pieces comes down to paperwork and is susceptible to weaknesses such as corruption (UNODC 2010; Bennett 2015).

  5. Part I, Article 2 (1)

  6. Part XII, Article 153 (1)

  7. Detection dogs are now in training and drive-through x-ray devices are being built at some locations.

  8. The Uganda Wildlife Act is currently being reviewed by the Government (CITES 2016).

  9. The UN General Assembly (2015) recently upgraded the seriousness of wildlife crime, calling upon member states to make trafficking in protected species involving organized criminal groups a ‘serious crime’. ‘Serious crime’ shall mean conduct constituting an offence punishable by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at least four years or a more serious penalty (UNODC 2004).

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Acknowledgements

This paper has benefited greatly from discussions with and feedback from H. I. Gundhus, R. Sollund, J. Gosling and P. Larsson. I am grateful to G. Muwulya for assistance during the data collection and to the Norwegian Embassy in Kampala for writing introduction letters to the relevant organizations. I also thank the respondents for sharing their knowledge, without which the present study could not have been completed.

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Correspondence to Siv Rebekka Runhovde.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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This work was partly financed through a scholarship awarded by the Nordic Africa Institute in 2013.

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The author declares that she has no conflicts of interest.

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Runhovde, S.R. Merely a transit country? Examining the role of Uganda in the transnational illegal ivory trade. Trends Organ Crim 21, 215–234 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-016-9299-7

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