New Nigerian law poised to ruffle wildlife crime networks

The landmark Wildlife Protection Bill foresees a most ambitious overhaul of environmental law

- By Don Pinnock

When Dr Mark Ofua's father was a boy, he would sometimes be late to school not because he was lazy, but because he had to wait for herds of elephants to finish crossing the road. That was only a generation ago. "I grew up in the same community," says Ofua, a Nigerian wildlife veterinarian, "and there is not a single elephant left.

On 28 May, Nigeria took a critical step towards preventing more such losses when its House of Representatives passed the Endangered Species Conservation and Protection Bill, 2024. The bill now moves to the Senate with widespread support.

It's a historic move for the country and, according to experts, for all of West Africa. Nigeria has become a major global hub for wildlife trafficking. According to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the country has been linked to the smuggling of more than 30 tonnes of ivory since 2015 and over half the pangolin scales seized globally between 2016 and 2019. These products often flow through Nigeria from countries in West and Central Africa and are exported to markets in Asia.

"It all comes back to Nigeria," says Ofua, who helped draft the bill. "Traffickers bring ivory and pangolin scales from all over West Africa, even the Congo, and ship it out from Nigeria. If we can change the game here, we can change the game for the whole region."

Until now, wildlife crime in Nigeria has thrived under toothless legislation. According to Ofua, previous laws offered fines so paltry - less than a dollar in some cases that traffickers saw them as little more than business costs. "I would rather traffic elephant tusks, pay the fine when caught and continue," he says. "There were no jail terms, no deterrents."