UN-Supported Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Uganda Helps Turn Ivory Seizures Into Convictions, UN News Reports

A wildlife forensics laboratory in Entebbe, Uganda, supported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is helping prosecutors turn ivory seizures into convictions, according to a report by UN News published on 3 October 2026. The Uganda Wildlife Forensics and Timber Laboratory has been supported by UNODC since 2019, the report said.

From Seizure to Sentence

UN News described a case from January 2025, when police intercepted a package originating in Entebbe and bound for Cairo, containing 10 kilograms of thumb-sized pieces of ivory. DNA testing later confirmed that the material came from an elephant, the report said. Two months after the seizure, police arrested the man who had sent the package. According to UN News, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison or a fine equivalent to 140 million Ugandan shillings, which it put at more than $35,000.

The laboratory officially opened in April with support from Denmark, the European Union and UNODC, UN News reported. Lab manager Patrick Chiyo told the outlet that poachers are removing identification features from wildlife carcasses to evade detection.

What Officials Said

Bashir Hangi of the Uganda Wildlife Authority said elephants, pangolins, primates and some bird species are among the animals most threatened by illegal poaching and trade in Uganda, according to UN News. Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu said the forensic laboratory is critical to the criminal justice system, according to the report. UN News also noted that Uganda’s forest cover has fallen from 24 per cent in 1990 to roughly 13 per cent in 2025.

Why It Matters

The case described by UN News shows a chain that has to hold at every link: a seizure, a scientific identification, an arrest and a court willing to rely on the evidence. The comments from the lab manager and the magistrate suggest that forensic capacity is part of what makes that chain work. The report describes a single case, so it should be read as an illustration of how the laboratory is used rather than as evidence of overall trends.