Internal Controls and Illegal Wildlife Trade: A Systemic Approach to Corruption Prevention and Law Enforcement Integrity
This brief highlights the importance and potential of robust internal controls in helping achieve the objectives of agencies tasked with protecting wildlife and the environment by identifying performance gaps and opportunities for improvement, enabling oversight, and fostering accountability.
However, in some countries, internal controls are not always applied to wildlife-related corruption or even natural resource management. Conservation or anti-corruption partners can help government institutions strengthen their systems of internal controls, building on procedures already in place. Well-designed systems of internal controls can discourage corrupt behavior and mitigate other risks to wildlife and natural resources. While no system can completely eliminate the potential for corrupt behavior, enhancing internal controls can help close the implementation gap between agency objectives and what happens in practice.
