USAID VUKANOW ANNUAL REPORT: OCTOBER 2020 - SEPTEMBER 2021

VukaNow's role in achieving this goal is to catalyze learning and sharing of information and best practices and to enhance collaborative efforts to combat wildlife crime in the region. VukaNow, together with its partners, coordinates learning across USAID/Southern Africa's landscape-based combatting wildlife crime (CWC) activities in three Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) – the Great Limpopo (GLTFCA), Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) and Malawi-Zambia TFCAs – and supports strategic regional activities that are necessary to address the wildlife crime challenges that fall outside any discrete landscape. This includes working with international, regional, national, and local stakeholders to garner an integrated and collaborative approach to CWC in the region. In FY 2021, VukaNow began implementing recommendations from studies and assessments undertaken in FY 2020. The Activity facilitated the process of updating mutual legal assistance (MLA) and extradition legislation in Malawi and South Africa, leading to the completion and submission of draft amendments to Malawi's Ministry of Justice and South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority for consideration. VukaNow also virtually trained prosecutors and magistrates from Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, and Namibia on extradition procedures and will convert the course material into an e-learning format and offered through the eVukaLearn platform in FY 2022. VukaNow continued to play a critical role in advancing the use of forensic science in wildlife crime investigation, through several capacity building interventions, to improve the quality of evidence presented in courts to effectively prosecute wildlife crime cases. The Activity supported the hosting of the African Wildlife Forensics Network (AWFN) meeting, which was attended by more than 100 participants and well exceeded participation levels from previous in-person meetings. The event provided an opportunity to move beyond theory by showcasing practical applications of forensics in CWC. Other key highlights in FY 2021 include deepened learning and knowledge sharing to improve the efficacy of CWC initiatives through accelerated utilization of Special Platforms for Action, Reflection, and Collaboration in Combatting Wildlife Crime (SPARCCs). VukaNow hosted five SPARCCs and two SPARCCies, which generated recommendations on financing options to support CWC initiatives, collaboration and partnership models for CWC, effective measures to mitigate human wildlife conflict, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used to measure CWC impact at Protected Area, TFCA, and regional levels. VukaNow also increased the application of effective tools, technologies, and approaches that mitigate wildlife crime as well as monitor impacts of wildlife crime interventions. These included the development of predictive models for identifying high-risk poaching areas, the development of the Image Recognition Algorithm and the automated alerts dashboard for monitoring illegal incursions in Kafue National Park, Zambia, and the development of maps for the GLTFCA Elephant Management Plan and mapping of habitat connectivity to support the identification of wildlife dispersal corridors in the Malawi-Zambia TFCA. In addition, VukaNow increased the uptake of the online course on Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) and the Judicial System on eVukaLearn by magistrates, prosecutors, legal advisors, and relevant NGOs, especially from Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The Activity also hosted two media round tables, the first focused on the threats to pangolins and the work being done to counter them, and the second on human-wildlife conflict in southern Africa. Furthermore, VukaNow launched a quarterly newsletter in October 2020, which is distributed to landscape and consortium partners, USAID missions, and other CWC stakeholders to highlight success stories or milestones, lessons learned, and best practices. VukaNow made significant progress in the implementation of its Grants Under Contract (GUC) program, which aims to support CWC initiatives in the region. The program has provided funding to various projects and activities, including the development of a wildlife crime database, the establishment of a CWC task force, and the provision of training and capacity building for CWC stakeholders.