Where there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a case DoFI is obliged to pursue the most appropriate penalty provision within the limits of the national legislation. This could include re-education, administrative sanctions or referring the matter for prosecution.
An analysis of the available data indicates that DoFI overwhelming favours re-education and administrative sanctions rather than referring cases for prosecution. There may be many reasons for this, such as the fact that the gravity of the offence warrants this response; the environmental damage procured is minimal; or the offenders have shown remorse. The low prosecution referral may be indicative of an enforcement culture that favours expediting matters rather than undertaking a full and comprehensive investigation, or that there is a certain reluctance to refer matters to the Public Prosecutor. It may also suggest that the current legal framework needs to adopt more extensive provisions for the criminalization of these offenses.
Notwithstanding these factors a referral rate of less than 1.4% for prosecution is very small for an organisation that is seen as the primary government response to countering problems associated with illegal logging, land encroachment, smuggling of timber and wildlife and forest related corruption.
Where DoFI appears to be in need of significant improvement is in the area of wildlife crime investigations. Figure 3 illustrates DoFI’s wildlife investigations between 2011 and 2014: