Wildlife as a Commodity - A Panel Discussion on Illegal Wildlife Trade

Wildlife as a Commodity - A Panel Discussion on Illegal Wildlife Trade

          

We have moved to a bigger venue Lecture Theatre 1 at 3-5 Woodland Road, Bristol University Arts Complex, Bristol BS8 1TB

You can join in the debate on our Facebook Event

You can listen to an audio recording of the event at http://youtu.be/UysywsZJR1E

Chaired by Ian Redmond OBE with a panel of experts including Ben Garrod, presenter of the acclaimed BBC TV series “Secrets of Bones”

30th April 2014

Lecture Theatre 1 at 3-5 Woodland Road, Bristol University Arts Complex, Bristol BS8 1TB

6pm - 8pm

Admission Free

The illegal wildlife trade is recognised as one of the major threats to biodiversity and is now linked to organised crime and in some cases the funding of rebel militias. What can we as concerned individuals in the UK do to help?

Ian Redmond - since his first day in the field in 1976, when he found himself raiding a poachers’ camp in a Rwandan National Park, Ian has seen the illegal wildlife trade from every angle. As well as anti-poacher patrols, this has ranged from going undercover, playing the role of prospective ape buyer, to speaking at United Nations gatherings to tighten the regulations, strengthen law enforcement and provide alternative livelihoods.

Ben Garrod is an evolutionary biologist and primatologist, with a passion for bones. Not only does he study them and re-articulate skeletons, he recently presented BBC TV’s “Secrets of Bones”. He will speak about how we must guard against a legitimate interest in skeletal specimens leading to commercial trade that could threaten the animals involved.

Professor Vincent Nijman Trained as a biologist Vincent Nijman holds a professorial chair in anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. Over the last two decades he has researched the legal and illegal wildlife trade and is a member of the Dutch CITES Scientific Authority. His initial interest in the trade was sparked by visiting the Indonesian bird markets but his recent work involves a wide range of species and covers numerous countries.

Christoph Schwitzer, Dipl.-Biol., Ph.D. Dr Christoph Schwitzer has been Head of Research at the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation and Bristol Zoo Gardens since 2006. Prior to this he worked as part of the primatological research group at Cologne Zoo and spent two years in Madagascar conducting fieldwork on lemur ecology. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of the West of England.

Will Travers OBE, President of the Born Free Foundation & Born Free USA Will Travers is an internationally renowned wildlife expert who has dedicated his life to wildlife issues, since he lived in Kenya while his parents, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, made the film Born Free (1966). In 1984, he co-founded the wildlife charitable organisation now known as The Born Free Foundation, which works to stop individual wild animal suffering and protect threatened species worldwide.

 

You can join in the debate on our Facebook Event

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