IUCN program officer Emma Brooks discusses illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam and her research on how commercial farming of a traded species, like porcupines, affects both the species and the trade. She tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme how most animals in Vietnam’s wildlife trade end up on the plates of wealthy restaurant patrons. In Vietnam and elsewhere, commercial wildlife farming, meaning the breeding of wild species for legal sale, is often promoted to supply demand while preventing overhunting in the wild. However, in a study on the conservation impact of commercial wildlife farming of porcupines in Vietnam published in August 2010 in Biological Conservation, IUCN program officer Emma Brooks concluded that commercial porcupine farming is instead having the opposite effect.
Emma Brooks has been involved with numerous conservation projects around the world, from biodiversity surveys in Mozambique to Giant River Otter counts in Bolivia. She first became interested in wildlife trade issues during her MSc at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her research in the trade in porcupines formed her dissertation topic, for which she spent three months collecting data and interviewing locals in northern Viet Nam. Emma now works for the IUCN, as part of the Global Species Programme based in Cambridge, UK. Her work includes assessing the extinction risk of species from around the world for inclusion on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as well as using the information gathered to analyze species richness, major species and habitat threats, and important areas for biodiversity. The importance of species, ecosystems and services to human livelihoods and wellbeing is increasingly being recognized, and she works in a number of areas to provide the information to support decisions for the protection of species and livelihoods. This episode of “The WildLife” was posted on August 15, 2011.
The WildLife is a show that explores the mysteries of the animal world through interviews with scientists, authors and other wildlife investigators. It airs every Monday from 1-2 pm EST on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont.The WildLife: Sounds of Orca Whales, Ari Daniel Shapiro
The WildLife: Once and Future Giants, Sharon Levy
The WildLife: Thailand's Domestic Elephants, John Roberts
The WildLife: Geoducks and Shell Games, Craig Welch
The WildLife: Unlikely Friendships, Jennifer Holland
The WildLife: Biology of Coral Reefs, Kristian Teleki
The WildLife: Howler Monkeys, Robin Brockett
The WildLife: Bear Bile Trade in Asia, Kaitlyn Foley
The WildLife: Dung Beetles, Doug Emlen
The WildLife: Common Terns, Chris Boget
The WildLife: Sun Bears, Siew Te Wong
The WildLife: Vermont Wildlife Stories, Megan Price
The WildLife: Florida State Game Warden, Bob Lee
The WildLife: World Without Fish, Mark Kurlansky (and Talia)
The WildLife: Wildlife Rescue in Cambodia, Nick Marx
The WildLife: Lead Toxicity in Patagonia's Waterfowl, Marcela Uhart
The WildLife: Filmmaking from Jungle Studio in Belize, Carol Foster
The WildLife: Elephant Poaching in Chad, Stephanie Vergniault
The WildLife: Winged Obsession, Jessica Speart
The WildLife: Nature in Iraq, Anna Bachmann & Hana Ahmed Raza
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