Capacity building

To address the threat of IWT and the involvement of organised crime, the WJC works closely with law enforcement agencies and governments to improve the capacity of the mandated agencies to address IWT. We do this by providing technical and operational support based on needs assessments and requests from our law enforcement partners. This support may include undercover support, the provision of equipment or systems and platforms.

Training and mentoring

We also provide specialised intelligence and investigations training ranging from basic to advanced. We then operationalise what is learned in theory with our mentoring programme. This takes the skill sets learnt in the training and applies them to real life cases. We have had outstanding success using this model, particularly in Thailand and Mozambique.

To date we have provided capacity building activities, training and mentoring in 6 countries. We offer the following training courses and modules:

  • Basic Investigations
  • Advanced Investigations
  • Online Investigations
  • Undercover Operations
  • Surveillance
  • Basic Intelligence
  • Advanced Intelligence
  • Open-Source Research
  • Financial Analysis
  • Basic Phone Analysis
  • Advanced Phone Analysis Course
  • Training courses for Judges and Prosecutors

Project Galvanise

In April 2021, the Wildlife Justice Commission commenced a three-year project generously funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery to expand our in-house Intelligence Development Unit (IDU) into a global Intelligence Development Unit to combat and prevent wildlife crime.

As the first of its kind, this global IDU supports multinational efforts to fight wildlife crime in real time and will drive the use of intelligence in Southeast Asia. This initiative, called Project Galvanise, is designed to strategically support law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders who hold important portfolios for safeguarding protected landscapes and wildlife in Southeast Asia.  

In 2022, the following achievements were realised under this project:  

  • Eight intelligence analysts have been recruited and funded by Galvanise to support this work in Lao PDR, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
  • We established a project steering committee that met for the first time in December 2022. The purpose of the group is to bring together key stakeholders who are instrumental for the project for strategic decision making, monitoring progress and addressing any challenges. 
  • We began our intensive training programme for analysts in November 2022 in Malaysia with training provided on topics including open-source intelligence, social media intelligence, online investigations, and the dark web. Three more training courses are planned through to March 2024. After the training, we will support analysts in their agencies with mentoring.