Jerry Mechling
Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization
According to Mechling, Dener Giovanni's story of RENCTAS (the Portuguese acronym for National Network to Fight the Trafficking of Wild Animals) is compelling and inspiring. Using modern communications skillfully and with great personal courage, the leaders of RENCTAS have shown that a few good people can virtually move mountains, even against the money and guns of the third biggest illegal trade in the world (after illegal arms and drugs).
This paper argues that key lessons from RENCTAS are about the power of the
Internet to:
a) make access to services and participation in the counter-trafficking effort
significantly easier and safer than it otherwise would be;
b) improve the transparency of trafficking activities, both for individual cases
and the larger system; and
c) communicate the emotions of the story, supporting adroit use of video and
pictures to mobilize Brazilian pride and their desire to protect their amazing native
animals.
