Forensics Lab joins fight against illegal wildlife and timber trade in Uganda

New forensics facility set to strengthen evidence in Uganda’s Wildlife Court

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | On the edge of Lake Victoria, at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre in Entebbe, the mood on April 29 carried a quiet kind of significance. There were speeches, handshakes, and the formalities that usually come with inaugurations. But for Her Worship, Gladys Kamasanyu, the Chief Magistrate of the Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court, the moment felt more personal than ceremonial.

She had come not just to witness the opening of Uganda’s expanded wildlife and timber forensics laboratory at the centre.  She had come to see, in concrete form, a solution to a problem that has defined much of her judicial career: the absence of proof.

Standing before a facility now equipped to turn fragments of elephant ivory, timber, and bushmeat tissue, into courtroom-ready evidence, Kamasanyu allowed herself a note of optimism.

“When science is applied to the law, the law becomes a more powerful tool for conservation,” she said. “The forensic laboratory is critical to the criminal justice system, significantly enhancing the court’s ability to hold offenders accountable.”

It was the kind of statement that carries weight not because of how it sounds, but because of where it comes from. For nearly a decade, Kamasanyu has presided over a court where the victims do not speak like humans do.

The limits of a young court

When the Uganda government established the Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court in 2017, the first of its kind on the African continent, it was a recognition that environmental crime required specialised attention. Wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and related offences were no longer peripheral; they were organised, transnational, and increasingly sophisticated.

Kamasanyu was the very first judicial officer tasked with building this new court from the ground up. “This is a unique court,” she has often said. “Wildlife cases, environmental cases, do not have a complainant… they don’t have a victim.”  In that vacuum, she has come to see her role as something more than adjudication. “I have an opportunity… to speak out through my decisions on behalf of those (that are) voiceless.”

Over time, that role has translated into volume. More than 2,000 cases have passed through her courtroom; cases involving pangolins, elephant ivory, rhino horns, hippopotamus teeth, African Grey Parrots, a Mountain Gorilla murder and lion massacres. Each one of those cases is part of a wider pattern, especially when you consider Uganda is both a source and transit country in the global wildlife trade.

But if the caseload has grown, so too have the frustrations. “Our investigations rarely would lead to a trafficker, to a kingpin,” she has been quoted as saying by the local press. “If we still run against the small fish…”

The pause that follows is familiar. It reflects a system that has often struggled to move beyond the immediate suspect; the courier, the handler, the person caught with the contraband, toward the networks that organise and profit from the illegal trade.

The evidence gap

The challenge has not been a lack of arrests. Between 2017 and 2021, Uganda recorded nearly 840 people linked to wildlife crimes. Of the 579 prosecuted, only 313 were convicted, a conviction rate of just 37%. For Kamasanyu, those numbers translate into lived experience. Cases collapse. Evidence is contested. Doubt lingers.

Before the introduction of forensic science into wildlife crime investigations, much of the prosecution’s case relied on what could be seen and argued, rather than what could be scientifically proven. A piece of bushmeat might be suspected to come from a protected species such as a hippopotamus or Rothschild giraffe but could that be demonstrated conclusively? A carved ornament might resemble ivory, but could its origin be established beyond dispute? In court, those uncertainties matter. And defence lawyer teams know it.

It is this gap that the laboratory in Entebbe is designed to close. Established initially in 2019 as a pilot initiative by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the country’s topmost conservation agency, the facility has steadily evolved from a modest technical unit into a national and even regional hub for forensic analysis.

Wildlife forensic science plays a vital role in strengthening law enforcement and ensuring compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Advanced techniques such as DNA profiling enable authorities to turn seized wildlife and timber specimens into scientifically robust, court‑admissible evidence – linking illegal products to crime scenes and suspects, supporting successful prosecutions, and disrupting organized criminal networks that profit from wildlife crime.

Now, with funding from the European Union and support from Denmark, its mandate has expanded to include timber forensics, bringing illegal logging into the same evidentiary framework that has begun to transform wildlife prosecutions.  For Giovanni Broussard, the Africa Coordinator for the UNODC Global Programme on Crimes that Affect the Environment, the laboratory represents more than a national investment.

Wildlife and timber trafficking, he noted at the launch, are driven by transnational organised crime networks that operate across borders. Strengthening forensic capacity, he said, is about “closing critical evidence gaps, enhancing accountability and ensuring that criminals who exploit nature for profit are brought to justice.”

It is a message that situates Uganda’s efforts within a global context. Environmental crime is now among the largest forms of organised crime worldwide, and its impacts; on biodiversity, climate, and governance, are increasingly difficult to ignore.

For the European Union, which has funded the laboratory’s expansion, the investment is both strategic and symbolic. “This laboratory represents a powerful investment in science, justice, and sustainability,” said Amb. Jan Sadek, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Uganda.

“By supporting forensic capacity, the European Union is helping Uganda protect its forests and wildlife, safeguard local livelihoods, and uphold the rule of law against environmental crime.”

His remarks point to a growing convergence between environmental protection and legal enforcement. As global regulations tighten, particularly around supply chains and deforestation, countries like Uganda face increasing pressure to demonstrate not just commitment, but capability. And capability, in this context, means evidence.

From the field to the courtroom

For Uganda Wildlife Authority, the laboratory’s impact is already tangible. “This laboratory has transformed how we investigate and prosecute wildlife crime,” said James Musinguzi, the Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.  “It provides our rangers, investigators and prosecutors with credible evidence that stands up in court and delivers real consequences for offenders.”

The emphasis on “credible evidence” is not incidental. For years, enforcement agencies have operated in a space where suspicion was often strong, but proof was weak. The introduction of DNA profiling and other forensic techniques changes that dynamic; allowing investigators to link seized materials to specific species, locations, and, in some cases, crime scenes.

According to Patrick Chiyo, the laboratory manager, the shift is already visible. “As wildlife crime has become very sophisticated, criminals are now using a lot of techniques that conceal the identity of what they are actually trading in,” he explained to a visiting team from UNODC in 2022. “That requires more scientific methods.”

“The forensics help us to connect the suspect to the wildlife victim and the scene of crime,” he added. “As we speak, the number of cases with successful prosecutions is going up because of that laboratory.”

It is a quiet transformation, but a significant one. Cases that once stalled due to lack of evidence are now moving forward. At the same time, forensic analysis has helped exonerate individuals wrongly accused, an outcome that underscores the laboratory’s role not just in securing convictions, but in strengthening fairness.

Timber: the new frontier

If wildlife crime has long been in the spotlight, timber trafficking is emerging as an equally urgent concern. Uganda’s forest cover has declined dramatically, from 24% in 1990 to roughly 13% in 2025, driven in part by illegal logging. Estimates suggest that up to 80% of timber trade in the country may be linked to illegal practices, costing millions of dollars in lost revenue and undermining environmental stability.

For Alfred Okot Okidi, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environment, the laboratory’s expansion into timber forensics marks a turning point.  “Science-based enforcement is a game-changer in protecting our natural resources,” he said at the launch. “The Ministry is committed to working closely with partners to ensure sustainable forest management and to stop illegal logging at its source.”

The science behind this shift is precise. Through DNA barcoding and species identification techniques, analysts can distinguish between protected and non-protected tree species, even when the wood has been processed. This allows authorities to verify claims, trace origins, and build cases that extend beyond the point of seizure. In a trade where misdeclaration and concealment are common, that capability is critical.

 Back to the bench

For Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu, all of this technology, partnerships, global frameworks, ultimately converges in one place: her courtroom. “I took a judicial oath,” she told KFM in 2023. “So, I have to do justice.”

It is a simple statement, but it carries the weight of the complexities she navigates daily. Corruption, she noted, continues to drive illegal wildlife trade. Poverty pulls more people into it. And the networks behind it remain adaptive, often staying just out of reach.  “They take decisions very fast,” she said of the traffickers. “As we are still debating… they’ve taken it and they’ve gone away.”

But if the system has been slow to catch up, the laboratory offers a way to accelerate. By strengthening the chain of custody; from crime scene to courtroom, it allows cases to be built with greater precision. It opens the possibility of tracing connections, identifying patterns, and, perhaps, moving beyond the “small fish” toward those higher up the chain—the so-called kingpins.

A shift in tone

There is, in Kamasanyu’s reflections, a noticeable shift when she speaks about the laboratory. Not triumph, exactly, but something close to assurance. For a long time, her work has involved navigating uncertainty; balancing competing narratives, weighing incomplete evidence, and making decisions in the absence of definitive proof. Science will perhaps change that balance. It will not eliminate complexity but it will reduce ambiguity. And in a court where the victims cannot speak, that reduction matters.

Going forward, Uganda’s fight against wildlife and timber crime is far from over. The country remains a key node in global trafficking networks, and enforcement continues to face structural challenges; from corruption to resource constraints and the social drivers of crime; poverty, inequality, demand, which persist.

But the opening of the forensics laboratory in Entebbe signals a shift in approach. From reactive to proactive; from suspicion to verification and, from fragmented efforts to coordinated, evidence-based action.

For the partners involved, UNODC, the European Union, UWA, it represents years of investment and collaboration. For Kamasanyu, it represents something more immediate;  a tool, a way to do her job better and a way to ensure that when she speaks for the voiceless, she does so with evidence that cannot easily be dismissed.

As the ceremony in Entebbe drew to a close and the guests began to leave, the laboratory stood ready; its high-tech equipment calibrated, its mandate expanded. Kamasanyu hopes that soon enough, its work will begin to flow into case files, into courtrooms, and into judgments. And somewhere in Kampala’s Makindye Division, on the bench of a specialised court, Kamasanyu will begin to see the difference; not in speeches or statistics, but in something far more decisive: evidence.