Page 51 - An Illusion of Complicity: Terrorism and the Illegal Ivory Trade in East Africa

38 An Illusion of Complicity

traffickers with those of cattle-rustling cartels in northern Kenya on the one hand,30 and people-
trafficking networks from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia to southern Africa on the other.

A final gap in knowledge concerns the nature of the interface between high-level East African
OCGs and East Asian syndicate buyers. Here, a particular lack of clarity surrounds whether
or not East Asian syndicates are exerting greater control up the trafficking chain in range
states. Analyses by TRAFFIC’s Tom Milliken, C4ADS and the EIA paint a picture of syndicate
representatives exerting greater influence upstream, placing orders with local kingpins and
organising containerisation and transhipments. Given the importance of this interface to the
global movement of wildlife contraband, this trend could have significant implications for
domestic and international counter-measures.31

Combating the Illegal Ivory Trade

A nuanced understanding of the main actors – and their relative importance – in the illegal
ivory trade is key to the design of effective responses. Equally vital is awareness of the main
areas in which knowledge gaps remain. In this context, the current exaggerated emphasis on
Al-Shabaab may have contributed to skewing responses away from priority areas.32 It is likely to
have done so primarily by helping to perpetuate the current bias towards front-line, militarised
anti-poaching programmes.33

30. Authors’ interview with Western diplomat 1, 26 January 2015. For interplays between cattle-
rustling gangs, pastoralist violence, poaching and ivory trafficking in Kenya, see Vira and
Ewing, ‘Ivory’s Curse’, pp. 59–61; Juliet King and Ian Craig, ‘Engaging Communities in Tackling
Illegal Wildlife Trade: Case Study – Community Conservancies in Northern Kenya’, Northern
Rangelands Trust, n.d. [c. February 2015]; Ian Craig, ‘Update on NRT Anti-Poaching & Security
Operations For Period of May 2014 – March 2015’, Northern Rangelands Trust, 27 February
2015; authors’ interview with community conservancy manager, northern Kenya, 28 April 2015;
authors’ interview with community conservancy security support officer, 28 April 2015; authors’
interview with community conservancy head of monitoring, 29 April 2015; authors’ interview
with community conservancy senior security officer; authors’ interview with senior community
conservancy manager.

31. Jeffrey Gettleman, ‘Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits’, New York
Times, 3 September 2012; Vira, Ewing and Miller, ‘Out of Africa’, p. 14; EIA, ‘Vanishing Point’, pp.
15–25.

32. For how similarly mischaracterised narratives by popular advocacy groups adversely impacted
international engagement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, see Séverine Autesserre,
‘Dangerous Tales: Dominant Narratives on the Congo and Their Unintended Consequences’,
African Affairs (Vol. 111, No. 443, 2012), pp. 202–22.

33. Adam Vaughan, ‘British Army Joins Fight against Elephant and Rhino Poaching’, Guardian, 1
November 2013; USAID, ‘Kenya and East Africa: Partnering with Kenya Wildlife Service’, July 2015,
<https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1860/partnering-kenya-wildlife-service-fact-sheet>, accessed
23 August 2015; Rosaleen Duffy, ‘War, By Conservation’, workshop presentation at ‘Environmental
Crime? Poaching, Security and the Illegal Wildlife Trade’, SOAS, University of London, 18 May 2015.