This entry in Mongabay’s free webinar series for journalists unpacks how to cover the illegal wildlife trade. The panel includes Simone Haysom from The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Dwi N. Adhiasto, formerly with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and author/reporter Bryan Christy, formerly with National Geographic. Topics covered include cybercrime and online marketplaces, poaching, pandemic effects, legal loopholes and other important topics related to the illegal wildlife trade.
Event details
When: Dec. 1, 2022
Recording: YouTube
Register: Closed
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The experts
Simone Haysom
Simone Haysom is the Thematic Lead on Environmental Crime at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. She leads the work of the Market Monitoring and Friction Unit, which uses digital technology, including machine-learning enabled processes, to understand and respond to illegal online marketing of wildlife products. With a background working on drug trafficking and conflict-induced urban displacement, she has over a decade of experience conducting qualitative fieldwork in challenging environments and analyzing how urban development, corruption and organized crime evolve and intersect. She is the author of The Last Words of Rowan du Preez: Murder and Conspiracy on the Cape Flats, published by Jonathan Ball.
Bryan Christy
Bryan Christy is the author of the novel In the Company of Killers and the non-fiction The Lizard King. He is the founder and former head of Special Investigations at National Geographic and a National Geographic Society Rolex Explorer of the Year. He introduced wildlife crime reporting to National Geographic and developed a number of important investigative and storytelling techniques that contributed to the arrest and prosecution of important wildlife traffickers, the passage of new laws around the world, and the closing of China’s ivory market, saving tens of thousands of African elephants. He has testified before Congress on terrorism in Africa, and he has lectured to investigative journalism programs, law enforcement, INTERPOL, CITES, and national government officials around the world, emphasizing his “results-oriented reporting” technique.
Dwi N. Adhiasto
Dwi has over 16 years experience in combating wildlife trafficking, specializing in tiger, elephant, primates, pangolin, reptiles, birds and manta rays. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Center For Transdisciplinary and Sustainability Sciences, and was formerly a Counter Wildlife Trafficking Specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Society. His expertise includes: illegal wildlife trade crime prevention, crime scene investigation, community-based investigative techniques, data analysis, cybercrime monitoring, market surveys, law enforcement agency capacity building and much more.
About Mongabay
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