On Oct. 3, 2026, the United Nations Forensics Laboratory reported that detectives from the Uganda Police Force and investigators from the Uganda Wildlife Authority intercepted a package in January 2025 that was sent a sample to the Uganda Wildlife Forensics and Timber Laboratory in Entebbe and found a distinctive cross-hatched pattern associated with elephant ivory. DNA testing later confirmed that the material came from an elephant, lab manager Patrick Chiyo told UN News.

Police arrested the man who sent the package. At his residence, investigators found additional elephant ivory, along with warthog ivory. He was charged with attempted trafficking and illegal possession and sentenced to 15 years in prison or a fine equivalent to 140 million Ugandan shillings – or more than $35,000 USD.

For Mr. Chiyo, the case illustrates why forensic evidence matters in the fight against wildlife crime: it can establish what an animal product is when traffickers have cut it into small pieces or removed the physical characteristics that would make it easy to identify.

Evidence from the UN’s 2024 World Wildlife Report shows that Uganda is as a significant hub of organised wildlife trafficking networks – especially of elephant ivory but also pangolin, a scaly anteater.

Their work builds on a national training and technical support centre established in 2019 as a pilot wildlife forensics facility through a partnership involving UNODC, the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and the Ugandan Government. The earlier facility has assisted hundreds of investigations and prosecutions connected to illegal wildlife trade.

The Entebbe lab expanded into timber forensics in April, adding a new capability as Uganda confronts the environmental consequences of illegal logging and timber trafficking. According to Ugandan authorities, Uganda’s forest cover has fallen from 24 per cent in 1990 to roughly 13 per cent in 2025, in large part due to timber trafficking. The new forensic capacity is intended to strengthen efforts to investigate illegal logging.

Timber cases are more complicated than wildlife cases, Mr. Chiyo said, because harvesting is also permitted and regulated in many circumstances. Determining whether a piece of wood was obtained illegally can require additional steps and presents different challenges from identifying animal products. The lab is only beginning to handle timber cases and has not yet seen evidence that illegal timber is moving through the same networks or routes as wildlife products, he said.