1. Background & Justification

In Cameroon and Central Africa at large, access to the current state of wildlife crime from a jurisprudential perspective is still problematic. Although most cases are made public, access to these decisions can be difficult. This can become not only an obstacle, but also a serious problem, as prosecutors, magistrates and judges often need access to decisions in other countries and regions to assist them in rendering effective court decisions in wildlife cases.

As a response to tackling this problem, a publicly accessible online platform called the WILDLEX was developed in 2016 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It aims to provide access to wildlife cases, legislation, training materials and other legal tools to combat wildlife crime. It further serves as a catalyst to discuss varying issues and challenges faced by the judiciary in addressing wildlife issues. These materials could also go further to assist environmental crime researchers and analysts not only in Central Africa, but throughout the African continent and around the world, and as well as act as reference and indicator for improving the judicial response to wildlife crime.

The WILDLEX has information of over 200 wildlife crime cases. In 2019, WWF CCPO piloted the first batch of 100 wildlife court decisions in Cameroon collected, analyzed and made accessible on the WILDLEX. These cases were subject to the first ever national legal analysis on wildlife cases in Cameroon presented during the WILDLEX regional seminar organized on the 26-27 September 2019. However, there is still the need for the collection and analysis of more wildlife cases for a wider availability and outreach in order to improve judicial capacity to combat wildlife crime.

It is in consideration to the above, that WWF CCPO seeks to recruit an intern for wildlife case collection and analysis.

1. II. Specific Objectives of the Intern:

1. Contact and maintain communication with lawyers and court registries of relevant competent courts.
2. Collect wildlife court decisions before relevant competent courts.
3. Analyse wildlife court decisions using both the IUCN Case analysis and Matrix template.
4. Organize system filling of the data collected and analysed.
5. Any other relevant duty as requested in line with this activity.

III. Key areas of intervention

The concerned areas for the data collection are:

• Djoum, Ebolowa, Yokadouma, Bertoua, Kribi, Abong Mbang

1. Expected Results
2. Methodology

1. Court decisions are collected from relevant competent courts
2. Court decisions are analysed and made available for WILDLEX.

The methodology used will include regular communication (through phone calls, e-mails etc.) with lawyers and court registrars of relevant competent court and field travel to relevant competent courts for collection of court decisions. These court decisions will be analysed using the IUCN case analysis and Matrix templates.

VII. Duration of the Internship

This internship is for two (02) months from the 1st of March to 30th April 2020.

VIII. Supervision and reporting

The intern will work under the supervision of the Head of Policy WCP and the Law Enforcement Assistant.

1. Profile

Required qualifications

• Minimum Bachelors of Laws degree,
• Experience working in a Law firm will be an asset

Required Skills and Competencies

• Must be Bilingual- Strong communication skills both written and verbal (English and French)
• Ability to carry out case/legal analysis
• Adhere to WWF's values: Knowledgeable, Optimistic, Determined and Engaging.

1. How to apply

All applications should be sen not later than February 14th, 2020.