Internal controls and illegal wildlife trade

The document advocates for using internal controls—policies, procedures, and practices—to reduce corruption risks in illegal wildlife trade (IWT) enforcement. It highlights a gap where existing government internal control units often focus on financial accounting but neglect wildlife and natural resource management. Drawing on a three-country study in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the briefing outlines a five-component framework (control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring) to move from aspirational goals to practical accountability. It provides practitioners with guidance on leveraging existing national audit systems, improving the valuation of natural resources for legal proceedings, and implementing technological solutions like smart patrol systems to close the 'implementation gap' in IWT enforcement.

• Internal controls—comprising policies, procedures, and practices—can discourage corrupt behavior in IWT enforcement by ensuring physical evidence is accounted for and providing secure channels for anonymous whistleblowing.
• There is a significant 'implementation gap' in IWT enforcement where written guidance is either too vague to be effective, lacks designated accountability, or is simply copied from other documents without practical application.
• A study across three countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa found that while government internal control units are often effective at managing budgetary and accounting issues, they rarely apply this expertise to wildlife and natural resource management.
• The failure to appropriately value natural resources beyond their illicit market price undermines internal controls, such as case prioritization plans and sentencing guidelines, because they often rely on 'public funds lost' as the primary metric of seriousness.
• Technological tools such as smart patrol systems, GPS trackers, and body cameras can strengthen internal controls in remote areas, although these tools themselves require oversight to prevent them from being used for corruption.

APA

Batts, R. A. (2023). Internal controls and illegal wildlife trade. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/268/987znyyj7p_Internal_controls_and_IWT.pdf

Chicago

Batts, Rebecca Anne. Internal controls and illegal wildlife trade. WWF International, 2023. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/268/987znyyj7p_Internal_controls_and_IWT.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Batts |first1=Rebecca Anne |title=Internal controls and illegal wildlife trade |publisher=WWF International |date=February 2023 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/268/987znyyj7p_Internal_controls_and_IWT.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{batts2023internal, author = {Batts, Rebecca Anne}, title = {{Internal controls and illegal wildlife trade}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/268/987znyyj7p_Internal_controls_and_IWT.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }