West Africa-TWIX: A TOOL TO FACILITATE INFORMATION EXCHANGE ON ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE IN THE ecowas REGION

National law enforcement agencies in the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) Member States play a crucial role in implementing legislation to support the implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The mandate for the establishment of a West Africa-TWIX system emanates from the ECOWAS meeting on the “Development of a Coordinated Counter Wildlife Trafficking Response in West Africa (Abuja, Nigeria, 2-4 July 2018)”. The fifteen ECOWAS members states agreed on a set of recommendations and priorities for tackling illegal wildlife trade in the region and highlighted the need for an information-sharing system.

The West AFRICA-TWIX is a tool comprising two components: a secure mailing list that enables enforcement agencies who are fighting illegal wildlife trade to communicate with one another in real-time; and a website that is a repository for resources, such as training materials, identification guides and a centralized database of wildlife seizures made by the participating ECOWAS Member States.

The West Africa-TWIX has been developed following the EU-TWIX (European Union Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange), AFRICA-TWIX, SADC-TWIX (Southern African Development Community Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange), and Eastern Africa-TWIX models. The EU-TWIX platform has been operating in Europe since 2005, while the AFRICA-TWIX platform has connected officials from the COMIFAC region (Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale) since 2016. SADC-TWIX has been operational since 2019 in southern Africa, while Eastern Africa-TWIX was established in 2020, connecting member states of the EAC (East Africa Community) and the Horn of Africa.

The success of West Africa-TWIX will largely depend on the regular input of information relating to new seizures and offences by national law enforcement agencies. The involvement of all designated enforcement officers in each participating Member State is therefore strongly encouraged.

West Africa-TWIX is developed and managed by TRAFFIC on behalf of law enforcement agencies of ECOWAS Member States.

The development of West Africa-TWIX has been made possible through the support of the USAID-funded West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development (WABiLED) program.