Corruption

LAGA and the fight against corruption

LAGA took a decade-long baseline of zero prosecutions under the existing wildlife law - a shocking baseline shared with almost all Central and Western African countries with sharp contrast to the amount of public funds poured into conservation - as a symptom of failure of the aid business, and its inability to tackle the first obstacle to development - corruption.

LAGA was an experiment field for methods of fighting corruption within a law enforcement and application process. Bribing attempts are documented in 85% of our field arrest operations, and 80% of all court cases within the legal system. But LAGA is not an observer of corruption, it was created to fight corruption, redirecting the positive pressures existing within the system, usually wasted in large conference, to specific corruption attempts and the field realities that form corruption.

The project is considered to have moved Cameroon from the decade long zero wildlife prosecution baseline to a one per week rate of a major wildlife dealer arrest and prosecution, and achieved legitimacy for an NGO to fight corruption within a governmental process.

Dedicated to LAGA by Activist Roger Peet