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Comparing Discourse to Officer Perceptions: The Problems of War and Militarization in Wildlife Crime Enforcement

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Abstract

‘War’ has become a common model and metaphor for biodiversity conservation in Africa. By discussing the specific challenges of wildlife crime enforcement in Uganda, this article challenges the ‘war on wildlife crime’ discourse. It concludes that in the context of Uganda, the discourse is profoundly unhelpful because of a lack of alignment between the problems highlighted by Ugandan law enforcement officers interviewed and the solutions typically favoured in the ‘wars on crime’. Most wildlife crimes are subsistence-driven and interviewees’ requests are for basic equipment and conventional capacity building. Findings demonstrate that the language of war, militarization and securitization should be used with caution as it risks constructing an image of wildlife crime that is misleading—and one that prevents responses that are effective in the long term.

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Notes

  1. For the purposes of this article, ‘wildlife crime’ includes ‘any harm to (or intent to harm or subsequent trade of) non-domesticated wild animals, plants or fungi, in contravention of national and international laws and conventions’ (Harrison et al. 2015). The key international convention is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which pertains to international trade in wildlife species (and their parts or derivatives). ‘Poaching’, in turn, is used in this article to refer to the illegal taking of wildlife (Moreto and Lemieux 2015).

  2. ‘Green militarization’ is defined by Lunstrum (2014, p. 817) as ‘the use of military and paramilitary actors, techniques, technologies and partnerships in the pursuit of conservation’.

  3. The Uganda Wildlife Act, Cap 200 of 2000, charges the Uganda Wildlife Authority with conservation and management of wildlife and wildlife protected areas in Uganda and defines offences relating to wildlife.

  4. Subsistence-providing forest resources include medicinal plants, timber, bamboo, firewood and wild foods, such as honey, mushrooms, fruits and meat (Tumusiime et al. 2011).

  5. Hereafter referred to as Queen, Bwindi, Kidepo and Murchison.

  6. Detection dogs are now being trained (CITES 2015b). During data collection, the author observed drive-through scanning devices being built at some locations.

  7. In accordance with the The Uganda Wildlife Act (2000), offenders are typically fined between 100,000 and 1 million Ugandan shillings, or sentenced to three to 18 months of imprisonment (Habati 2012 cited in Harrison et al. 2015).

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Acknowledgements

This paper has benefited greatly from feedback from H. I. Gundhus, R. Sollund, A. Brisman and J. Gosling. I am also grateful for the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers. I wish to thank the Norwegian Embassy in Kampala for writing introduction letters to the relevant organizations and the Nordic Africa Institute for funding this research in the form of a scholarship. I would also thank the respondents for sharing their knowledge, without which the present study could not have been completed.

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    Siv Rebekka Runhovde

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Runhovde, S.R. Comparing Discourse to Officer Perceptions: The Problems of War and Militarization in Wildlife Crime Enforcement. Crit Crim 25, 275–291 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-017-9360-0

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