The European Union will provide 1.8 billion meticais (28 million dollars) to support an international project aimed at reducing and dismantling organized crime against wildlife in Mozambique, a highly profitable activity with deeply negative ecological, economic, and security impacts, according to the Mozambican News Agency.
The funding was announced on Monday in Maputo by the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio De Vivo, during the launch meeting of the project “Global United Action to Reduce and Dismantle Organized Crime Against Wildlife.”
According to De Vivo, the project — named Guard Wildlife — will last three years and will be implemented in regions of Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. Mozambique has been designated as the number one priority country, guaranteeing a higher level of support in efforts to combat the illegal trafficking of wildlife species. “This is an extremely generous donation, carefully designed as a targeted response to this multidimensional threat. It is a global jurisdiction initiative, with particular emphasis on trafficking corridors in Africa, the Pacific, and Asia,” said the UNODC representative.
The project aims to strengthen coordination, cooperation, and communication among national and international law enforcement institutions in Mozambique. The approach is based on a dual strategy: reducing the poaching and trafficking of wildlife in source and destination countries while simultaneously decreasing the demand for animal-based products in end markets. Project implementation will be carried out in close collaboration with INTERPOL, the World Customs Organization (WCO), and the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), under the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), with participation from civil society organizations.
The initiative will also receive technical and logistical support from specialized entities, such as the Wildlife Justice Commission, in coordination with national institutions.
“The project is perfectly aligned with the strategic guidelines of the European Union, namely the Biodiversity Strategy and the implementation mechanisms of the European Green Deal,” emphasized De Vivo.
Present at the ceremony, Supreme Court judge Luís Mabote stated that the project represents an opportunity for coordinated alignment among all institutions involved in combating wildlife crime.
“This project will support Mozambique and the institutions working in this area. We gain a great added value. We already have actions planned, but with this initiative we can come together, organize a common plan, and act on a unified front,” he said.
Mabote also called for the engagement of all investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial institutions to ensure greater efficiency in results.
“This has to be a joint effort. As is well known, courts intervene at the end of the process. Upstream, all entities investigate, instruct, and prosecute. Only afterwards do these cases reach our jurisdiction,” he concluded.
Source: Diário Económico
