Pre-Launch Somaliland Environmental Crime Unit (SECU) Meetings

Cheetah Conservation Fund Somaliland welcomed Mr Roderick Potter to Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland. Mr Potter is an international consultant on environmental crime and he held several individual meetings with members of the Somaliland Environmental Crime Unit (SECU) before hosting a two-day workshop with the SECU group. As a former police officer and conservancy consultant from South Africa his expertise is invaluable. He recently attended the CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Big Cats Taskforce Conference in Entebbe,Uganda, to strengthen law enforcement response to the global illegal trade in big cats.

The SECU pre launch project activity is being funded by the European Union (EU), working in partnership with Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH) and project name SOM1058. The project activity we were covering is mentioned below;

‘Support the Ministry of Environment & Climate Change MoECC in developing ToR, membership, and structure of SECU to reduce wildlife trafficking’

Individual meetings were scheduled before Rod’s arrival. Rod met with several SECU members as some were out of the country on government business. He was invited to attend the Drafting Committee for amending the 69/2015 Wildlife and Forestry Act at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change headquarters in Hargeisa.

The SECU pre-launch workshop was held at the Ambassador Hotel Hargeisa, the workshop was opened by Director General Mohamed Duale from the Ministry of Environment & Climate Change. SECU consists of the following governmental ministries and departments; The Ministry of Interior, Police, Immigration and Border Control, Ministry of Environment & Climate Change, Somaliland Coast Guard, Judicator of Regional Court, Deputy Attorney General and Ministry of Defence.

The workshop was a success, four founding documents were agreed upon; SECU Term of Reference (ToR), Declaration of SECU, Constitution of SECU and Management of SECU. The documentation will be translated into Somali language and will be prepared for the official launch of SECU in September 2023 in Hargeisa, Somaliland.