4466 Environmental Crimes in Ethiopia.indd

Environmental crimes in Ethiopia
countries 2 and result in the publication of the first ever
report on the nature and extent of environmental crime in
eastern Africa.
METHODOLOGY FOR THE STUDY
The basic methodology used to gather information for this
report was twofold: a review of relevant literature and indepth
interviews with key informants and with relevant
authorities at the national level.
The ECP aims to enhance law enforcement and policymaking
against environmental crimes. As such, the target
group for the study was designated government entities,
or track-one decision- makers in the law-enforcement and
the policy-making fraternities concerned with protection
of the environment. However, entities outside government,
including official statutory organisations, were
also targeted in order to reinforce the official findings. In
depth interviews were conducted with the help of a question
guideline developed by the researchers to facilitate
open-ended but structured interviews.
The questions addressed to interviewees fell into two
distinct categories. The first set of questions was aimed
at investigating the nature and extent of environmental
crime in Ethiopia, while the second set focused on
establishing capacity problems and the needs of relevant
government institutions and officials concerned with
environmental crime enforcement, as well as management,
procedural and substantive practices. Questions
to the latter category of interviewees also focused on
crime-information management systems employed at different
governmental institutions responsible for enforcing
environmental laws.
The people interviewed in the first category included
law enforcement officers from the Central Bureau of
Ethiopia, which also acts as Interpol’s representative in
the country, the criminal investigations department, the
legal and human resources department of the police, the
investigative/research arm of the police and governmental
agencies responsible for environment management in
Ethiopia.
The second set of interviewees was designated as an
essential, but not a primary target for the study because of
their significant role in the enforcement of environmental
law. This category included the judiciary, the bench and/
or law society, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civil
society. It was realised that in order to obtain a better
understanding of environmental crimes and enforcement
measures in Ethiopia, it was necessary to examine the role
played by these non-core, but complementary institutions.
2 Institute for Security Studies