Nigeria’s anti-corruption body is partnering with the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to address wildlife trafficking. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and EIA signed a memorandum of understanding Sept. 20, which will allow the two bodies to work together and develop a strategy to combat environmental crime. “The EIA will be of assistance to the ICPC in the area of capacity, expertise knowledge sharing as the ICPC focus more on the enforcement of relevant laws and investigation of illegal wildlife trade and other environmental crimes,” the ICPC said in an email statement to Mongabay. ICPC and EIA signed an MoU on Sept. 20. Image courtesy of ICPC. Justin Gosling, EIA’s securing criminal justice program lead, told Mongabay that EIA has been working in Nigeria for the last five years, as it “is widely recognized that Nigeria is a significant hub for wildlife trafficking.” EIA previously released an “Out of Africa” report that showed how Nigeria has become a key country in the packing, sale and export of large amounts of ivory and pangolin scales heading to Vietnamese and Chinese buyers. Between 2015 and 2020, Nigeria was implicated in more than 30 tons of ivory and 167 tons of pangolin scales seized globally, “the equivalent of at least 4,400 elephants and 167,000 pangolins,” the report noted. The ICPC statement said the reason why Nigeria has become a “regional hotspot for wildlife trafficking and other transnational crime” is that “enforcement is weak due to lack of high-level…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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