EAST MEETS WEST IN A REAL "CSI" FOR WILDLIFE
One of the world's top wildlife crime forensics specialists conducted training for Thai Police and environmental officers in how to detect criminal evidence in Southeast Asia's burgeoning wildlife trade.
Forensics Specialist, Ms. Bonnie Yates from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory, held a one-day training course on how to handle evidence for wildlife crime cases to Thai police, customs, and environmental officers on December 6, 2006, at Mahidol University’s Salaya Campus.
Ms. Yates and her assistant were in Thailand providing assistance to an ongoing investigation of the illegal shahtoosh1 trade by the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division of the Royal Thai Police. While in the country, Ms. Yates also trained her counterparts in modern forensic techniques.
The assistance is part of the US government support to the new ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, which Thailand is leading. ASEAN-WEN is multi-country initiative designed to protect Asia’s wildlife by facilitating cross-border cooperation and the exchange of vital intelligence about wildlife criminals.
Other lecturers included local forensic experts from Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants and Mahidol University.
1Shahtoosh is a cloth woven from the fur of the endangered Chiru, or Tibetan Antelope. The chiru must be killed in order to make it.
Source: WildAid Foundation (Thailand) release - December 2006
|
