Strengthening national commitment and response to combating elephant poaching and ivory.trafficking in the Republic of Congo

The purpose of this project is to support a conservation effort in Republic of Congo by implementing a national-level law enforcement monitoring program (i.e., SMART).

This project is intended to conserve Congos forest elephants by improving communication and law enforcement responses to poaching and ivory trafficking.

Specific activities include: (1) establishment of a national coordinator to work with ministry and parks authority staff on law enforcement monitoring and a crime database to track arrests and prosecutions; (2) expansion of SMART to protected areas and forestry management units beyond where it is already deployed in Congo (i.e., Nouabal Ndoki National Park); (3) training in intelligence data management for NGO and government protected area staff to better contribute to prosecutions of wildlife crime; and (4) formal meetings twice a year with government partners to share results and work toward better communication, transparency, and data sharing at the national level.