April 16, 2009
Lecture on using DNA to thwart ivory trading April 22
Biology Professor Sam Wasser will present a lecture titled Using DNA Forensics to Combat the Burgeoning Illegal Ivory Trade from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, in A102 Physics/Astronomy. Wasser holds the Endowed Chair in Conservation Biology and is the director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the UW.
The illegal ivory trade has returned with a vengeance, Wasser says. A higher percentage of the remaining elephants are now being killed from poaching than at any time in history. The trade has taken on a new face, being driven primarily by large organized crime syndicates. The UW center has developed genetic tools to track the origin of poached ivory across Africa and is using these methods in collaborative investigations with INTERPOL to determine the origins of large ivory seizures that bear the signature of organized crime. This enables the center to transfer responsibility for policing the trade back to source countries.
This strategy prevents new ivory from entering the global market where the complex web of criminality makes it nearly impossible to trace, Wasser says. It allows poor countries to focus their limited law enforcement resources on the most critical poaching hotspots. And it forces key source countries to take responsibility for the extent of poaching in their countries. Perhaps most important, it is one of the few methods that can keep the elephants from being killed in the first place.
The lecture is free and open to the public, but the department asks that you RSVP by calling 206-685-2185 or sending e-mail to uwbio@u.washington.edu.
