Mr Eliode Bakole is an international PhD candidate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at Willem Pompe Institute of Utrecht University, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance. His PhD research focuses on Rhino Horn laundering: Green Crimes and Criminal Networks in South Africa. It is a fraction of the ERC project ‘Green Crimes and Joint Crime Ventures: Laundering Natural Resources’ under the supervision of Dr Daan Van Uhm. Eliode holds a master's degree in Conflict Analysis and Inclusive Development from Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda since April 2021, and a bachelor’s degree in Environment and Sustainable Development from ISDR-Bukavu in the DRC. His master's thesis focused on Biodiversity Conservation and the Involvement of Indigenous People, the case of the Batwa of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was under a Nuffic-funded project (3C project; NICHE-GLR-264; 2017-2020) on Natural Resource Management and Conflict Resolution. He is a co-author of the article ‘Illegal trade in natural resources -Charcoal-and-Timber-Trade-in-Eastern-DRC’. In 2023, Mr Eliode Bakole contributed to the implementation of target 3 of the Agenda 30x30 of the Global Biodiversity Framework, Kunming-Montreal, as an IUCN consultant in DRC.