Registration open for Dec. 1 Mongabay webinar: How to Cover the Illegal Wildlife Trade

Pangolin bust, Medan, Indonesia, April 2015. Over 4000 frozen, 97 live and 77 kg of scale where confiscated during a WCS and national police bust of a wildlife trade. Photo: Paul Hilton for WCS

Are you interested in learning more about the illegal wildlife trade and how to write stories about transnational organized crime centered around wildlife? Do you want to more effectively cover law enforcement and conservation policy of protected species targeted by traffickers?

Focused on the illegal wildlife trade, Mongaby is hosting the final installment in our free 20222 webinar series for journalists on Thursday, Dec.1. This webinar will feature a panel of experts who have worked with National Geographic, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

Topics covered will include cybercrime and online marketplaces, poaching, pandemic effects, legal loopholes and other important topics related to the illegal wildlife trade. Register here.

Event details

When: Dec. 1 at 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST/5 p.m. CET

Wherer: Live on Mongabay’s YouTube Channel.

Register: Click here and tell a friend!

Pitch Mongabay a story

If you have a story idea, please submit your pitch via Mongabay’s Opportunities page. Please select ‘Illegal Wildlife Trade.’

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

Mongabay is a nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform focused on providing cutting-edge independent journalism from nature’s frontline. We pride ourselves in producing reporting that has substantial, tangible impacts around the world.