For Immediate Release
Press Release
Innovative digital tools will be used by 120 law enforcement agents in the fight against trafficking.
ANTANANARIVO – An innovative mobile application supported by the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will help Madagascar fight corruption, wildlife trafficking, and money laundering.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Justice, and the independent anti-corruption bureau BIANCO, the U.S.-financed USAID Countering Corruption and Wildlife Trafficking project (CCWT) consortium designed Access to Environmental Laws (ALOE), a new desktop and mobile application that makes it easy for law enforcement agents and magistrates to access key legal texts.
At a July 21 handover event in Antananarivo, USAID Mission Director Anne Williams celebrated the work of developers to create these digital tools and praised this innovative use of technology to improve the justice system. The application will immediately benefit more than 120 law enforcement officers as they confront wildlife trafficking and environmental crimes in their daily work.
“These new digital tools bring us one step closer to ending corruption and wildlife trafficking in Madagascar,” Williams remarked. “Knowledge is power, and once law enforcement is armed with the legal tools necessary to properly identify and report environmental crimes in real time, it will cause criminals to think twice before acting.”
The ALOE app provides easy access to a searchable database of legal texts that can be downloaded on cell phones. Law enforcement agents in the field can check the legality of situations they encounter, promoting the efficient and effective application of Madagascar’s environmental laws.
CCWT is implemented by the World Wildlife Fund and supported by a consortium of organizations including TRAFFIC International, Transparency International - Madagascar, and Alliance Voahary Gasy.
The United States supports the people of Madagascar like "mpirahalahy mianala'' to protect the country's unparalleled biodiversity and precious natural resources with investments of over $72 million since 2014.
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