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Jerry Mechling
Tools for Compliance
in a Networked World
Innovations Case Discussion: EINKOMMEN
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, Die
leaders of RENCTAS have shown that a few good people can virtually move moun-
tains, even against the money and guns of the third biggest illegal trade in the
Welt (after illegal arms and drugs).
But what are the more specific lessons from RENCTAS? What explains what
passiert? Where will the lessons from animal trafficking in Brazil lead next?
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; Und
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
Tiere.
Those three capabilities—for access, Transparenz, and emotional communica-
tions—explain much of what RENCTAS has been able to accomplish. They will
continue to be important for controlling animal trafficking and—more broadly—
for other efforts to gain compliance with social norms and laws. Gleichzeitig,
easy access combined with transparency and emotional communications carries
risks as well as rewards, especially for minority rights and privacy. Good gover-
Jerry Mechling is a Lecturer in Public Policy and Director of the e-Government
Executive Education Project at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
Universität. A Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and four-time
winner of the Federal 100 Award, he was formerly a Fellow of the Institute of Politics,
served as an aide to the Mayor and Assistant Administrator of the New York City
Environmental Protection Administration, and served as Director of the Office of
Management and Budget for the City of Boston. He received his BA in physical sci-
ences from Harvard College and his MPA and PhD in economics and public affairs
from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.
© 2006 Tagore LLC
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Tools for Compliance in a Networked World
nance will require that we learn how to use these relatively new capabilities both
wisely and well.
In that context, let’s look at the RENCTAS case, what explains it, and how we
might use its lessons in other settings.
RENCTAS—SUBSTANTIAL AND EFFICIENT PROGRESS
Mit 38 million animals worth US$3 billion poached in Brazil every year, the ille-
gal trade in animals was a major and growing problem in 1999 when Dener
Giovanni, Raulff Lima, and Sergio Priexoto formed RENCTAS in the relatively
small municipality of Três Rios. How could three people with little authority hope
to put a dent in a large illicit industry willing to protect its turf, if necessary, mit
guns?
A more detailed examination shows an even more discouraging situation.
Despite the size of the problem, there was little public awareness or support in
Brazil for aggressive enforcement of the anti-trafficking laws. Given the money
verfügbar, along with the poverty of many of the Brazilians needed as suppliers or
Zwischenhändler, recruitment into trafficking was easy. Members of the bus, trucking,
and law enforcement communities had been significantly corrupted, especially at
ports where many of the animals were shipped out of the country. Foreign con-
sumers—typically quite rich in comparison to their Brazilian suppliers—wanted
entire animals as show-pieces or pets, or simply needed animal parts to feed vari-
ous fashions or for the exotic chemicals used for medicines or research. Law
enforcement personnel were fragmented into small jurisdictions and didn’t share
information nearly as well as the criminals they were supposed to stop.
In the past seven years, Jedoch, much has changed.
Awareness of the problem has been greatly increased, helped considerably by a
five-part series on animal trafficking (“Life for Sale”) by Rede Globo, Brazil’s
largest television network. Print coverage is up by a factor of four, including inter-
national coverage in the Economist, National Geographic, and the Christian
Science Monitor.
Previous to much of this coverage, public participation in enforcement
increased dramatically, with individuals reporting suspected cases of poaching and
manche 60,000 Brazilians signed up to receive blog postings and other information
on the battle. From this group, individuals are being readily recruited to write let-
ters to newspapers and legislators and to support events such as public hearings,
usw. Participation and awareness have created a positive feedback cycle, with each
leading to an increase in the other.
Beyond the general public, others are now being recruited to improve enforce-
ment and compliance with Brazil’s anti-trafficking laws. Bus drivers are being
trained about the trade and how to thwart it, supported by a partnership by
RENCTAS with the Itapemirim Group, one of Brazil’s largest passenger trans-
portation companies. Similar efforts are proceeding with the Martins Group, eins
of Latin America’s largest trucking firms. Efforts are also reaching outside Brazil to
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Jerry Mechling
put heat on consumers in Switzerland, die USA, and elsewhere. Working from the
ground up, RENCTAS has produced credible analysis making the trafficking
industry more accessible to an aroused public. Giovanni was awarded prestigious
prizes by Ashoka and by the United Nations Environment Program.
Despite the progress, the trafficking problem remains. Some 600 animals in
Brazil remain on the endangered species list. The animal trafficking industry seems
to be merging with drug trafficking, which may make it more vicious and difficult
to control.
Trotzdem, given that so much activity has been generated so quickly and by so few
in the core organization, RENCTAS must be judged incredibly efficient and effec-
tiv. What has made them so successful?
EXPLAINING WHAT HAPPENED
Through insight, skill, and courage, Giovanni and RENCTAS have mobilized a
large and dispersed group of supporters to stand up to criminals and make it hard-
er and more costly to carry out illicit trades. Many factors may be needed to prop-
erly understand the varied elements of the story. Jedoch, three that seem partic-
ularly important—for RENCTAS and for other cases where people have been
mobilized to support a new activity—are accessible, transparent, and emotional
Internet-enabled communications.
Barrierefreiheit
The Internet globally is on the road to becoming pervasively accessible. In Brasilien
that doesn’t mean “anytime/anywhere” availability (compared to the extreme pen-
etration of broadband in South Korea, Zum Beispiel), but it does mean that
Internet-based services are often more accessible than those offered only on paper
or face-to-face. Internet communications can also be anonymous and speedy at
great distances compared to other forms for recruiting and involving people in
anti-trafficking activities.
Beachten Sie, dass, when they began, RENCTAS worked largely through speeches and
public seminars, where they urged people to report suspected traffickers directly to
the police.
While initially effective—at least at gaining the attention of the traffickers—
the public meetings generated counter-threats from traffickers. Turning to recruit-
ment via the Internet made it much easier for potential supporters to contribute
safely and with relatively little effort. They didn’t need to report to possibly corrupt
police, or travel to a special location. They merely needed to report suspicious inci-
dents to the RENCTAS web site, and the rest was handled on their behalf. RENC-
TAS protected anonymity while passing cases to the police, reporting back to the
informant, and keeping data handy for later analysis.
Web-based and push communications from RENCTAS also made it easier for
police, bus drivers, truck drivers, and others to stay connected to the movement.
Accessibility has been the prime benefit of global e-government for the past
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Tools for Compliance in a Networked World
decade and more. Net-delivered services are available 24/7 “online, not in line.”
People have learned to both appreciate and expect the convenience.
More recently, people are learning that some kinds of group participation can
be fit into small blocks of time. You can get email on your Blackberry at the super-
Markt. That lets you keep up with some of the things that used to require a trip
and a meeting. For RENCTAS, this has allowed them to keep involved supporters
WHO, absent the Internet, would have found it too risky or time-consuming to be
of help.
A web site in Idaho offers another case that seems to be a frontrunner at mobi-
lizing the public by making demands for time and energy modest and digestible.
The site seeks to engage a balanced sample of individuals willing to vote in the state
primary elections and also devote one hour per year to issues coming before the
legislature. Keith Allred, the site’s founder, meets with legislative staff and leaders
to scope out 20 or so issues likely to be decided in the upcoming session. He sum-
marizes each issue along with the most prominent positions taken (roughly a page
per issue). He tries to ensure that those taking the various positions accept the
validity of his summary. He then asks participants to use their promised hour to
study the issues and tell him what they want the legislature to do. He analyzes his
results for issues where the public response is clear (70% or more for one position)
AND is different from what those at the capitol think will come out of the legisla-
tive process. What he wants, in short, is to get the voice of the common interest
heard more clearly by the legislature (and by the media and the public). In the past
Jahr, several positions he has identified in this way have won out over positions
supported by the most powerful and successful lobbyists in the state.
Making participation accessible can be powerful.
Transparency
The Internet and computer-based tools can also be used to increase transparency
in otherwise complex and confusing situations. Data can be indexed and analyzed
so it can be found, and so individual pieces can be aggregated into meaningful big-
ger pictures.
Both capabilities were important for RENCTAS. The case notes a major moti-
vating event early in Giovanni’s work when he couldn’t find a file soon enough to
meet legal requirements and a poacher therefore had to be released. That got him
to computerize all his records for rapid retrieval, updating, and sharing over the
net.
RENCTAS used this retrieval, updating, and sharing to maintain records that
provided feedback and reinforcement to field informants. While informants
remained safely anonymous, they could see what happened to their tips, and could
also see how their group in the aggregate was having a major impact.
Beyond simple aggregations, computers were used to collect new data and
massage it into a better understanding of the entire trafficking industry. Sleuthing
via the web allowed RENCTAS to get clues on the enemy (z.B., via undercover work
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Jerry Mechling
in chat rooms where exotic animals were being sold). Adding their own data to
what they acquired over the web (and elsewhere), they were soon able to under-
stand more of the trafficking trade than was visible to most of the Brazilian
authorities. This made RENCTAS a valuable source of research. It also gave them
legitimacy with television people and the press. Those people, im Gegenzug, wrote sto-
ries that fed back to improve RENCTAS’ legitimacy with the public.
The data that RENCTAS was able to assemble and analyze made new things
visible, Zum Beispiel, to senior managers within the Itapemirim and Martins
groups. These people could suddenly see the extent to which their buses or trucks
were implicated in illegal activities. Perhaps more important, RENCTAS analysis
could communicate the vulnerability that firms would face with an aroused pub-
lic that was also beginning to see and understand the data. Transparency led, als es
typically does, to heightened accountability.
Movement from analysis to transparency to accountability and responsiveness
was precisely what happened years earlier in the U.S. when the Toxics Release
Inventory data was made public in 1987. The law required firms to report their
toxics emissions to EPA. It then required EPA to make all the data available to the
public in computer-readable form. This reporting allowed a variety of groups
inside and outside of government to make it easy for individuals and community
groups to find out about emissions from plants near where they lived or worked.
It also allowed senior managers in those firms to find out about plants that were
bad polluters in comparison to other plants. The increased transparency led in
many cases to a quick assumption of accountability and “voluntary” corrective
actions that had not been possible before. Because of the transparency, the public
paid more attention, and because of the public’s attention, the firms abated their
pollution.
Making the system transparent can be powerful.
(A number of the factors mentioned about the RENCTAS story are summa-
rized in Figure 1.)
Emotional Communications
While we typically use logic to rationalize decisions, we actually make those deci-
sions emotionally. Emotion drives our wants and desires, thus structuring and
motivating our decisions.
Text is efficient and effective for conveying concepts. While text can also be
powerful emotionally, much of our brain is wired for other signals. Visual inputs
get much attention, as do sounds and smells and taste and touch.
RENCTAS has long understood—at least implicitly—that the story of animal
trafficking and why it must be stopped needs to be carried by more than the data.
The RENCTAS site has accordingly used the Internet to tell stories and illustrate
with pictures. More recently, as the Internet increasingly supports broadband, full-
motion video and sound are frequently used for engaging story-telling.
Such communications carry emotional connections. They help explain how
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Tools for Compliance in a Networked World
Figur 1. Elements of the Animal Trafficking System in Brazil.
RENCTAS has engaged and motivated its supporters to proudly protect Brazil’s
Tiere.
RENCTAS was particularly wise after their move to Brasilia to reach out to the
government-oriented television media located there. Much as RENCTAS had ear-
lier made reporting easy for the public they had wanted to recruit as informants
and supporters, in Brasilia they also made it easy for television reporters to devel-
op stories and visual materials. The television in turn had a huge impact on pub-
lic awareness.
Stories and other emotional material have been central to human communi-
cations since the post-hunt campfires organized before writing was even invented.
We interpret body language, voice, and facial expressions and are moved. As the
internet supports video more pervasively, it is becoming increasingly important as
an organizing tool.
Zum Beispiel, the Internet’s ability to carry emotion to a dispersed audience
was recently used to stop a proposed water desalination plant in Monterrey Bay,
Mexiko. The construction proposed by Toyota in Japan would have become the
world’s largest desalination facility and created more than a thousand long-term
jobs. The issues raised were largely environmental, focused on effluents in the Bay.
The environmental community used the Internet effectively to mobilize sup-
port against the plant. They brought activists including Hollywood actors down to
the bay and took video of the humpback whales who calved in the waters there.
They used these videos effectively along with a letter-writing campaign to thou-
sands of mid-level managers at Toyota back in Japan.
What is interesting for this analysis is that the emotional campaign—carried
largely by pictures, Video, voice, and humpback whale sounds—was promoted pri-
marily by people outside of Mexico rather than locals, yet was effective politically
within Mexico. The plant was scuttled.
Communicating emotional connections can be powerful.
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Jerry Mechling
LESSONS AND ISSUES
The RENCTAS story primarily illustrates the power of Internet-enabled accessibil-
ität, Transparenz, and emotional connections.
Also, where might we apply this power in the future?
One place would be the additional opportunities to fight animal trafficking in
Brasilien. Legislators and staff are a target that has not been given much attention in
the RENCTAS case so far. There are also other parts of the animal trafficking sys-
tem not reached. Not much has been reported, Zum Beispiel, about efforts to engage
Lieferanten. While middlemen like bus and truck drivers are probably more cost-
effective targets (better organized and depending less on kick-backs from the traf-
ficking industry), it might also be possible to influence suppliers, perhaps through
a divide-and-conquer strategy of recruiting some as paid informants.
Beyond Brazil, but still on the trafficking problem, it might be possible to use
Internet communications to further attack consumer markets for exotic animals in
Europa, Nordamerika, und Asien. Giovanni established a number of partnerships
apparently for that purpose, and these relationships might be deepened and made
more active.
For what other locations and what other issues might we make progress using
Internet-based tools to mobilize and coordinate supporters?
Much is already being done with “Neighborhood-Watch” programs of various
sorts that could be expanded with Internet and other information technologies.
The RENCTAS approach of calling for reports of suspicious activity, protecting
informants with anonymity, and feeding case developments back to the inform-
ants could obviously apply elsewhere. So could aggregating data into the bigger
analysis and developing stories to make the work emotionally engaging and
“sticky.”
As a variant, it may soon be possible to acquire technology cheap enough for
non-governmental groups to deploy digital sensors of various sorts. We might
expect a Neighborhood Watch group to use video cameras to record everything
that happens in specified places. It is now being done in shopping malls, and may
well move outside.
As activities become more visible and transparent, individuals can be expected
to feel more pressure to comply with the dominant culture and the law. This may
increase compliance but may also encourage illegal surveillance and a tyranny of
the majority. It may be good in some cases and bad in others. Figuring out which
is which, and how we can govern these fundamental issues of social organization,
will be a major challenge for the not-so-distant future.
We’ll need respectful and effective dialog and decisions on how we want to
proceed.
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Tools for Compliance in a Networked World
CONCLUSION: BALANCING COMPLIANCE AND DIVERSITY
The RENCTAS case offers a compelling story of how the Internet can be used to
mobilize supporters. RENCTAS supporters greatly expanded the impact of the
work that RENCTAS did on its own. Much was accomplished in a short period of
7 Jahre.
Generalized just a bit, the problem that RENCTAS addresses is a quite general
eins: How can we mobilize and sustain support from those at a distance who have
little time to give? The problem of dispersed support and concentrated opposition
is a classic leadership challenge. Glücklicherweise, we have recently developed Internet
tools that can help. Using the Internet, we can make it easier for supporters to par-
ticipate, even from a distance and even part time. We can make the system trans-
parent and understandable from the small local incident to the large system and
trends. We can include sights and sounds that carry emotions as a critical tool for
keeping supporters engaged. Easy access, improved transparency, and emotional
communications make it easier to mobilize support and, unter anderem, Zu
enforce compliance with laws and norms. We need that.
Gleichzeitig, we don’t want the rigidity and even tyranny that can come
with a too-zealous focus on compliance. We also need diversity of opinion and
behavior and the continued innovation that diversity supports. In an increasingly
networked and changing world, we will need to continually construct and recon-
struct a proper governing balance between compliance with norms and respect for
diversity and innovation. RENCTAS has used its new tools for compliance in order
to support a diversity of wildlife in Brazil. Those of us learning from RENCTAS
will also need to keep the balance between compliance and diversity in mind. Als
we get better using technology to mobilize dispersed supporters, we will also need
safeguards against improper and illegal use of these systems.
Wir laden Leser zu Kommentaren ein. Email
1. Sehen
2. Sehen
Sharing Government Information with the Public”. (KSG case no: 1154.0)
3. This experience was discussed at an unpublished workshop at the Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard Universität. A paper based on ideas from the conference, but not specifically
the case described here, is Levitt, James and Charles H.W. Foster. “Reawakening the Beginner’s
Geist: Innovation in Environmental Practice.” Discussion Paper 2001-7, Cambridge, MA: Belfer
Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Juni 2001.
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