Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Friday it will launch a forensic and genetic laboratory to help it intensify fight against wildlife crimes in the East African nation.
KWS said the 172 million U.S. dollar state-of-the-art laboratory which is a collaborative project will be commissioned by Kenyan official on Tuesday.
KWS officials said the forensics and molecular biology Wildlife Forensic and Genetics Laboratory is expected to enhance studies in population genetics and reduce poaching activities by providing credible prosecutorial evidence in court.
The forensic laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility and a regional referral centre for molecular diagnostics of wildlife- related crimes.
Conservationists say increasing demand for bush meat, wildlife trophies such as rhino horns and elephant tusks, skins of animals, feathers of birds, as well as live pets such as chameleons and parrots, is alarming and resulting in direct loss of African biodiversity.
They say although many suspects of wildlife crimes in Kenya are usually arrested, their prosecution and convictions are rare due to challenges of accurate identity of the confiscated products to species level.
In some incidences, effective prosecution is hampered by lack of concrete expert evidence that can link a poacher to a confiscated rhino horn or ivory and relate it to a specific poaching incident.
“It is envisaged that the establishment of the laboratory in Kenya will aid in the provision of accurate identification of wildlife and wildlife products in order to strengthen prosecution of wildlife crimes,” KWS said.
This, the wildlife agency said, is critical because the rate of poaching for bush-meat and trophies, is leading to alarming decline of wildlife biodiversity.
The rhino and the elephant which are classified as critically endangered and endangered respectively under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Appendix 1 of CITES are particularly affected.
“The establishment of the laboratory is critical to yielding convictions in courts of law and thus deter wildlife crimes. Already, KWS has both Intelligence and Investigation units that are able to process wildlife crime scenes and collect evidence and samples for laboratory processing,” it said.
According to KWS, prosecutors need concrete scientific evidence to corroborate their allegation that a product is from wildlife of a particular species.
Without scientific evidence, suspects are usually acquitted which tends to encourage repeat offence while law enforcers may become demoralized. Enditem
Source: Xinhua