Horn of Africa Conservation Alliance (HOACA)

THE PROBLEM ● The UN estimates that Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) is valued at between US $7 and $23 billion dollars per year.

● The Horn of Africa (HOA) corridor is the largest live cheetah smuggling corridor in the world and is responsible for trafficking many other illicit animal and forestry products.

● HOA’s post-conflict status, complex political relations and complicated natural and human geography have made it nearly impossible for international conservation organizations to conduct work in the region and, as such, funding for IWT is almost non-existent.

● There is a paramount need for external support and capacity building at the local, regional, and national level to destabilize IWT syndicates and dismantle IWT routes across the HOA.

● IWT in the HOA region and Africa at large is not only putting animal populations at risk but contributes to larger economic instability and social disturbance, diverts national budgets away from needed social and development programs, compromises security and threatens legitimate livelihoods. OUR SOLUTION @PETER CHADWICK www.peterchadwick.co.za OUR SOLUTION ● The Horn of Africa Conservation Alliance (HOACA) was established to provide targeted support and direct interventions to mitigate IWT and IUU fishing in the HOA.  

● The lack of local, national, and regional capacity to handle the threats posed by IWT in the HOA region, coupled with the lack of international NGO and donor involvement requires direct intervention by external actor(s) that possess the experience, networks, and political leverage capable of undermining illegal trade operations.

● HOACA promises to fill a needed gap as one of the few trusted international entities focused on combating illegal wildlife trade in the HOA region.

● HOACA is the only entity of its kind that is able to provide a multi-faceted approach to stop IWT in the HOA, involving both top-down solutions tailored to building capacity at national and regional levels and bottom up community-based conservation solutions secured by trusted local partnerships.
OUR VALUE The Mission of the Horn of Africa Conservation Alliance is to Counter Wildlife Trafficking (CWT) in the HOA region by delivering community-based conservation solutions supported by capacity building at the governmental level, while striving to ensure accountability and adaptability through evidence-based results.

OUR VALUE ● HOACA has spent years building and fortifying extensive networks on the ground, backed by local knowledge, political relations, and trusted community partnerships.
 
● HOACA works by coming in on the ground, mapping out the individual needs of the host country and designing solutions to meet that need.

● HOACA then taps its extensive networks as channels to deliver on HOACA recommendations at the local, national, and regional level, supported by implementing partners.

● The size and expertise of the HOACA team also allows it to adjust quickly to evolving conditions, enabling the HOACA to disrupt and dismantle IWT activities as they originate.

● HOACA has garnered international recognition for its work mapping extensive IWT channels and providing intelligence to bring criminal activity to justice, and for its recovery of significant numbers of animals and other trade items from the IWT.

Back to Problem

What We Do The Team -- Build capacity of the government to address the illegal trade of wildlife and timber from extinction in Somaliland and the wider HOA Region.

-- Form inclusive conservation partnerships and enforcement networks.

The HOACA team comprises three organizations, each bringing extensive knowledge and experience managing and mitigating IWT risk across a multitude of regions and sectors. Together, Torrid Analytics, Agile and TerraNautics works to ensure that environmental management and protection of wildlife is on the forefront of post-conflict recovery in the HOA. Torrid Analytics is an HOA-based social enterprise specializing in research, government relations, and environmental programming. Their team of experts comes from varied backgrounds, including law enforcement, UN organizations, NGOs, and the private sector. They bring decades of combined experience in conflict and post-conflict contexts in Africa and the Middle East to the HOACA.
Agile Services Group performs environmental crime investigations, enhances institutional security and develops customized capacity-building training courses to limit the negative impacts and influence of criminal actors, networks and activities on the health of protected areas and local workforces. Agile Services Group is committed to supporting the Governments of Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea to enhance their wildlife crime and intelligence-led activities, strengthening current and future wildlife, landscape and maritime conservation policies and legal frameworks, promoting good governance and sound management of protected areas, amongst others. were for sale or sold illegally worldwide, with only about 10%
intercepted by law enforcement.
-- Colorado State University From 2010-2019, more than -- Build mutual trust between communities and enforcement entities through key leader engagements and take action toward addressing grievances and economic impacts related to Cheetahs.

-- Partner with Somaliland and other Regional Governments, to ensure all avenues of the crime spectrum, conservation, enforcement support and donor engagement are addressed.

HOACA Successes: The Somaliland Example Since 2017, HOACA members have been working to uncover IWT networks operating in Somaliland and the wider HOA region. A focus on identifying Cheetah trafficking networks led to the discovery of large transnational crime networks moving IWT and other commodities reaching from South Sudan to Ethiopia, onward to Yemen and the Gulf states. Numerous cheetah cubs, leopards, other animals, and other contraband have been recovered because of this work.
The success of the initial mapping project was met with a request from the Somaliland government to ramp up operations, including bringing in technical experts, trainers, and policy specialists to build a Somaliland Wildlife Protection Force. Illegal Wildlife Trade is now on the top of the agenda among key influencers in Somaliland, including the Attorney General, High court chairman, Somaliland prosecution service and MoI, and HOACA members continue to provide insight and legal assistance, when needed.
Our efforts in Somaliland have been featured in National Geographic Magazine 3,600 live
cheetahs Our Partners @ PETER CHADWICK www.peterchadwick.co.za Related Links: From The National Geographic Article: "Fewer than 7,000 adult cheetahs are left in the wild, according to recent estimates, most in southern and eastern Africa. International commercial trade of cheetahs has been banned since 1975. Even so, from 2010 through 2019, more than 3,600 live cheetahs were for sale or sold illegally worldwide, with only about 10 percent intercepted by law enforcement, says Patricia Tricorache, a researcher with Colorado State University who’s been tracking the cheetah trade for 15 years. Taking cheetahs from the wild has been illegal in Somaliland since 1969."
"Habitat loss and retaliatory killings by herders when cats prey on their livestock are the biggest threats to the cheetah’s survival, compounded by the illegal trade in cubs. Babies, often still nursing and dependent, are snatched from the wild while their mothers are hunting or when a lactating mother is tracked back to her den. On foot and by camel, car, and boat, traffickers move the cubs through the Horn of Africa and across the narrow Read the Article Here Read the Article in Arabic Here Read the Article in Somali Here Photos show why Cheetas are at risk - and how people are working to protect them Episode 3: Cracking Down on Cheetah Traffickers Photographing the sleepless, three-day effort to save an injured Cheetah Photo by
Nichole
Sobecki
Nat Geo Gulf of Aden to Yemen, a journey of 200 miles or more that can take weeks. Cubs that survive are sold as pets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Kuwait, and other Gulf countries." "Today Instagram is the place to see and be seen with a cheetah. Many public posts of pet cheetahs are from wealthy people in Persian Gulf states who use cheetahs as prestige props. Instagram is also where many dealers post photos of cubs for sale, Tricorache says. (Snapchat, where posts disappear after a certain period, and TikTok, which hosts mainly short videos, are also used now, she says.) Instagram did not respond to requests for comment." View Our Two Pager Here

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