Last week, Issue 16 of Ubuntu Magazine was published, and I’m excited to share that it features an article I wrote titled:

“The Quiet Revolution: Inside Africa’s Grassroots Fight Against Wildlife Crime.”

For those of us working in conservation, law enforcement, research, or community advocacy, this story speaks directly to the challenges we see every day – and the solutions we know are possible.

Why this matters to our conservation community

Wildlife crime is often framed as a distant poaching crisis or a trafficking headline. But as the article explores, it is far more than that. It is:

• A security issue that fuels armed conflict

• A corruption issue that weakens institutions

• A justice issue where cases collapse due to fragmented systems

• And ultimately, a community issue that affects livelihoods, stability, and biodiversity

In the piece, I take readers inside courtrooms in Kenya where wildlife trafficking cases quietly fall apart — not because suspects are innocent, but because information is scattered across agencies, courts, and borders. Criminal networks are coordinated. Our systems often are not.

But this is not a story about failure.

It is a story about leadership, collaboration, and African-led innovation.

Women Leading the Charge

At the heart of the article are two remarkable women reshaping the fight against wildlife crime:

• Judy Muriithi, a lawyer and co-founder of Lawyers for Animal Protection in Africa (LAPA), who shifted from private legal practice to animal law after recognising how deeply crime, justice, and conservation are intertwined.

• Tabitha Agaba, a crime analyst at Transparency Advocacy, who tracks wildlife trafficking networks across East Africa and frames wildlife crime for what it truly is: transnational organized crime.

Their partnership led to the development of the Wildlife Information & Tracking System (WITS) — an Africa-wide platform designed to consolidate wildlife crime data across agencies and borders.

Instead of cases living in silos, WITS connects the dots:

• Repeat offenders can be profiled.

• Crime networks can be mapped.

• Prosecutors can build stronger cases.

• Courts can see the full picture.

For those of us in conservation, this represents something powerful: a shift from reactive protection to coordinated, intelligence-led enforcement.

Why You’ll Find This Especially Relevant

As members of a conservation community, you understand that protecting wildlife isn’t just about fieldwork. It’s about governance, policy, justice systems, and community trust.

This article highlights:

• The urgent need to treat wildlife crime as a security and governance issue, not just a conservation problem.

• The importance of cross-border collaboration in tackling transnational trafficking.

• The role of data transparency and institutional cooperation in strengthening prosecutions.

• The emergence of African-led solutions built from lived experience, not external templates.

• The increasing leadership of African women at the forefront of conservation justice.

It also touches on an important future direction: expanding data systems to include human-wildlife conflict cases, ensuring that rural community realities are not sidelined in global conservation discussions.

A Quiet Revolution Worth Amplifying

What inspired me most while writing this piece is that this revolution is not loud. It’s not dramatic raids or viral headlines.

It’s:

• A lawyer refusing to accept dismissed cases as “normal.”

• A crime analyst connecting patterns others overlook.

• Organizations choosing collaboration over secrecy.

• Women leading institutional reform in spaces historically dominated by men.

This is conservation evolving — becoming smarter, more coordinated, and more locally driven.

If you’re interested in wildlife crime, conservation governance, African-led innovation, or the role of women in reshaping environmental justice, I believe you’ll find this issue of Ubuntu Magazine particularly compelling.

Issue 16 is out now, and I’d love for our community to read it, reflect on it, and continue the conversation about how we strengthen the systems protecting Africa’s wildlife.

Because wildlife crime is not a side issue.
And this quiet revolution is only just beginning.

👉 Read the full article here (pp. 8–15): https://issuu.com/ubuntumagazine/docs/ubuntu_magazine_winter_2026