SADC and Germany launch wildlife crime project covering Eswatini
The Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching project will train national authorities and involve communities in protecting elephants, rhinoceroses, lions and pangolins.
Eswatini is among 16 Southern African countries set to benefit from a new regional initiative against wildlife crime, which the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Germany launched in Skukuza, South Africa, on Thursday, November 12, 2026. The Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching (LEAP) Project is fully funded by the German government and implemented by the German development agency GIZ with the SADC Secretariat. It was launched to target cross-border poaching and wildlife trafficking networks.
Professor Kula Ishmael Theletsane, director of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs at the SADC Secretariat, said the region no longer lacks strategies but needs them turned into coordinated action and measurable results. He said wildlife populations and the criminal networks that exploit them do not recognise political boundaries. The project supports the SADC Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching Strategy for 2022 to 2032.
The project will focus on regional coordination, national law enforcement capacity and community-based prevention. National authorities, wildlife agencies and security institutions will be trained to detect, investigate and prosecute wildlife offences. The community component will address human-wildlife conflict around selected Transfrontier Conservation Areas, with communities encouraged to take an active part in conservation.
Why it mattersEswatini's wildlife agencies and security institutions will receive training to detect, investigate and prosecute wildlife offences under the project.