EASTERN AFRICA-TWIX: A TOOL TO FACILITATE INFORMATION EXCHANGE ON ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE IN THE EASTERN AFRICA REGION

The mandate for the establishment of an Eastern Africa-TWIX emanates from the East Africa Timber Trade Stakeholders’ Forum in 2016 and is in line with the East African Community’s strategy of 2017 to Combat Poaching and Illegal Trade and Trafficking of Wildlife and Wildlife Products.

National law enforcement agencies in Eastern Africa play a crucial role in implementing legislation to support the implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The Eastern Africa-TWIX tool consists of two components: a secure mailing list enabling agencies engaged in the fight against illegal wildlife trade to communicate with one another in real time, as well as a website that holds useful resources, such as training materials, identification guides and a centralized database of wildlife seizures made by the participating East Africa countries.

The Eastern Africa-TWIX has been developed following the EU-TWIX (European Union Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange), AFRICA-TWIX and SADC-TWIX (Southern African Development Community Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange) models. The EU-TWIX platform has been operating in Europe since 2005, the AFRICA-TWIX platform has connected officials from the COMIFAC region (Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale) since 2016, while the SADC-TWIX has been operational since 2019.

The success of Eastern Africa-TWIX will largely depend on the regular input of information relating to new seizures and offences by national law enforcement agencies. The involvement of all designated enforcement officers in each participating country is therefore strongly encouraged.

Eastern Africa-TWIX is developed and managed by TRAFFIC on behalf of law enforcement agencies of Eastern Africa Countries.

The initiation and implementation of Eastern Africa-TWIX has been made possible through the support of the USAID-funded projects, Wildlife Trafficking, Response, Assessment, and Priority Setting (Wildlife TRAPS) and Conserving Natural Capital and Enhancing Collaborative Management of Transboundary Resources in East Africa (CONNECT), together with WWF Finland through its support to the East Africa Wildlife Crime Hub of WWF and TRAFFIC.