Conservation Asia 2016: Join our symposium on illegal wildlife trade

Conservation Asia 2016 (Singapore, 29 June - 02 July) is the first joint meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology and the Association of Tropical Biology's Asia Chapters. I think this is going to be a particularly exciting (and affordable) conerence -- the largest conservation-research meeting of its type in the region to date. (Register now online; Abstracts due before 20 March)

Matt Linkie (WCS Indonesia) and I are organising a symposium entitled "Illegal wildlife trade in Asia: Searching for Solutions". We have an exciting group of speakers already lined up (below), and are inviting more researchers and conservationists to join us. Please get in touch ASAP if you are interested.

Illegal wildlife trade in Asia: Searching for Solutions: Asia is at the centre of global attention on illegal wildlife trade (IWT). Interventions to address the illegal supply for wildlife are often often very polarized: On one hand, responses tend to involve increased restrictions, monitoring and enforcement, central to reducing illegal wild harvest and trade. On the other hand, de-regulation to enable legal captive breeding for trade may also reduce pressures on wild populations. These types of market-driven interventions (also known as wildlife farming, ranching, cultivation, aquaculture) can potentially substitute wild specimens with legal sustainable farmed alternatives. These two broad categories of interventions, however, remain weakly evaluated, and policy decisions are often based on limited data, flawed assumptions and deeply rooted value systems about conservation should look. Amidst growing investment into tackling IWT, there is a need for more systematic understanding, including structured, evidence-based approaches to regulation and enforcement interventions, and critical evaluations of captive breeding. This symposium will consider emerging evidence from a wide range of experts, taxa and perspectives. Comprised of two sets of complementary (but also contrasting) talks, it will first look at contemporary approaches to strengthening regulation, monitoring and enforcement. It will then consider de-regulation and market-based approaches to using and conserving wildlife through captive breeding.

Confirmed speakers:

• Romain Pirard (CIFOR) - Do tree plantations support forest conservation?

• Gary Potter (Lancaster University) - A criminological perspective on the wildlife trade: (what) can we learn from the drug market experience?

• Becky Shu (ZSL China) - Framing the Chinese Giant Salamander

• Brendan Moyle (Masey University) - Wildlife (butterfly) farming in Papua New Guniea: Success against the odds

• Debbie Banks (EIA) - Tiger farming and conservation

• Li Quan (China Tiger Revival) - Captive breeding to re-wild the Amur Tiger

• Chris Shepherd (TRAFFIC SE Asia) - Captive breeding and wildlife laudnering

• Yunita Setyorini (WCS Indonesia) - Monitoring online trade in Indonesia

• Irma Hermawati (WCS Indonesia) - Review of IWT prosecutions in Indonesia

• Scott Robertson (WCS Vietnam) - Crocodile farming and policy in Vietnam

• Benjamin Ho (National University of Singapore) - Evaluating the evidence basis for wildlife farming and conservation

• Jacob Phelps (Lancaster Environment Centre) - Typologies in the illegal wildlife trade to inform conservation interventions