This report presents the findings of a novel application of social network analysis (SNA) to study a criminal network surrounding an East Africa-based wildlife trafficker. This technique focuses on understanding structural, functional and sociometric characteristics of networks by mapping social interactions between individuals and groups.
Our Public Governance team will host a virtual event on Harnessing the intangible: enhancing integrity during crises at 13:00 CET on 25 March 2021. All are welcome.
The event is part of the 2021 OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum, for which we are proud to have been selected as Knowledge Partner.
Claudia Baez Camargo, the Basel Institute's Head of Public Governance, will showcase the results of her and her team's research under the UK's East Africa Research Fund (EARF) at an end-of-programme event on 16-17 March 2021.
The research project, entitled “Corruption attitudes, social norms and behaviours in East Africa”, looked at how behavioural factors influence attitudes towards petty corruption in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Research highlights
In (very!) brief, the research illuminates:
Are we at a turning point in the fight to save our planet from the ravages of environmental crime and corruption?
Possibly. The ongoing pandemic, caused by a zoonotic disease, has brought home the fact that environmental degradation is already altering our lives. Hopes that this was a one-off disruption and that we could soon return to the way things were have been dashed. It is now frighteningly clear that the pace of abuse of our planet keeps accelerating and the next crisis looms around the corner.
Turning wildlife trafficking into a high-risk, low-profit trade is challenging. Our recent research on why and how wildlife trafficking happens in Uganda gives some insights into the factors that sustain the supply of large volumes of wildlife products moving from wildlife habitats in Africa to the hands of consumers all over the world.
Our recent policy brief on Curbing wildlife trafficking in Uganda: lessons for practitioners summarises the main findings from extensive field research on the drivers, facilitators and strategies of wildlife trafficking in Uganda.
Our recent policy brief on Curbing wildlife trafficking in Uganda: lessons for practitioners summarises the main findings from extensive field research on the drivers, facilitators and strategies of wildlife trafficking in Uganda.
A new policy brief published as part of our Institute-wide Green Corruption programme offers a fresh perspective for practitioners and policymakers seeking to curb wildlife trafficking in Uganda. It emphasises context-sensitive interventions that are based on understanding the behaviours of individuals and social networks.
My colleagues and I in the Basel Institute's Public Governance team, along with our local research partner Robert Lugolobi, have just released the findings of an 18-month research project into why and how wildlife trafficking happens in Uganda.
Publication
Working Paper 33: A worm’s-eye view of wildlife trafficking in Uganda – the path of least resistance
This Working Paper is a key output of the Basel Institute's Green Corruption programme, a multi-disciplinary engagement that targets environmental degradation through tested anti-corruption, asset recovery and governance methods. The research is funded by PMI Impact as part of a wider project on intelligence-led on financial crime in illegal wildlife trade (IWT).