15 Nov 2016

Botswana as home to a large population of many wildlife species is an envy to many including criminals who poach and engage in illegal wildlife trade.

This was said by the director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Advocate Abraham Keetshabe during the Wildlife Crimes Prosecution Capacity Building Workshop who also added that the wildlife species included the world’s ‘big five’ and small ones such as pangolins which were rare to find and see.

Advocate Keetshabe said the management and sustainable use of wildlife worldwide among other natural resources was a major challenge facing governments and other national economies.

The workshop, being the first of its kind brought together 20 senior prosecutors from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions offices across the country.

Thus he noted that the participants will have an opportunity to share the platform to talk the walk of the war of sustainable wildlife management, protection and enforcement together as a whole.

Advocate Keetshabe said the reason behind recognition of wildlife in the industry was due to its contribution to the cultural, socio-economic and ecological integrity of the country.

He noted that the primary aim of the workshop was to build the capacity of senior prosecutors in order to enable them to appreciate the value of wildlife management and sustainable utilisation as well as to be able to know what to do in relation to commission and successful prosecution of wildlife crimes.

The workshop also aimed at facilitating the participants to identify common challenges and solutions in the delivery of justice at a high level with particular focus on the prosecution of wildlife crimes.

“The solutions of the challenges of today lie in our ability to focus on the future by cooperating and partnering with the international community in the fight against wildlife crimes,” he said.

He said the society should not fail the next generation by failing to act now when they have a golden opportunity to do so.

Advocate Keetshabe said it was their experience at DPP that they receive more dockets from the Botswana Police Service and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime that need prosecutors to not only assess cases for suitability of prosecution

“Many of our prosecutors neither have knowledge of ‘Prosecutor-led’ investigations nor sufficient capacity to assess cases for successful prosecution sustainability,” he said.

He said a criminal prosecution marred by insufficient evidence has always been an exercise in futility and in some instances may open the prosecuting authority to civil litigation on grounds that such prosecution was malicious hence the importance of a capacity building workshop such as this one.
BOPA