Inama means ‘wild animals’ in the language of the Zambian Bemba tribe. The WCO INAMA Project was initiated in 2014 under the Environment Programme to tackle Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), with the objective of mitigating this global scourge by strengthening the capacities of targeted Customs administrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia, to ensure an enhanced enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
IWT has a devastating impact on the environment, the social and economic development of the affected countries, and international security. Wildlife crime is one of the largest organized criminal activities, and finances transnational organized crime groups that are often involved in other illegal commodities such as narcotics and weapons.
Current phase
The INAMA Project is composed of two sub-projects: INAMA Global, comprising 15 Customs administrations1 , and INAMA India and South Asia, which targets 3 countries2. The current phase, initiated in October 2023, is set to run for two years and is funded by the United States Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (US DoS INL). This phase is the continuation of the preceding four-year phase, which spanned from 2019 to 2023.
With 18 beneficiary Administrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia, it aims at combatting IWT, by:
- Enhancing training capacity;
- Improving risk management and case selection;
- Fostering interagency and international cooperation;
- Strengthening operational capacities.
The expected enhanced enforcement capacity in the targeted Administrations should lead to more successful IWT enforcement operations and seizures.
Several national and regional capacity building activities are envisaged, such as:
- Regional IWT workshops;
- Pre-accreditation workshops;
- Enforcement operation related trainings;
- Risk Management technical support national missions;
- Regional workshops on interagency cooperation in the field of IWT.
Some of the activities are implemented with the support of the COPES Programme, and the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC).
Previous phases
The INAMA Project builds on the Great Apes and Integrity Project (GAPIN), which ran between 2010 and 2013.
Since its inception in 2014, and in a joint effort to tackle IWT, the INAMA Project has provided support to more than 30 countries and has benefitted from funding from:
- The US Department of State;
- Swedish International Development Agency (Sida);
- The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ);
- The CITES Secretariat.
1 Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, DRC, Guyana, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Republic of the Congo, and Togo.
2 India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.