Wildlife CSI - Forensic investigation and genetic monitoring of illegal wildlife trade

Illegal wildlife trade was characterized as the 4th most profitable illegal industry in the world in 2008, worth up to $21 billion dollars annually.

Now, more than 10 years later, only illegal fishing alone has an annual worth of up to $23 billion. Alarmingly, wildlife trade, legal and illegal, represents one of the most prominent drivers for vertebrate extinction risk world-wide, surpassing climate change by far.

In this presentation I will outline how illegal wildlife trade is structured, discuss its detrimental effects on biodiversity and how we apply molecular wildlife forensics to monitor and counteract this global illegal phenomenon.