Topic Overview

Illegal trade in forest products and wildlife contributes 2^nd after the drugs trafficking in global crime. In this context, this topic provides concept, status and trends in illegal forest products and wildlife trade globally and in Asia. It further analyzes the drivers of these issues and discuss about its impact on biodiversity and society along with Asia’s footprint and consequences to this issues through case studies. You will also learn about different policies and practices to address these illegal trade in Asia and abroad, and evaluate its effectiveness.

Learning objectives

• Describe key issues of illegal harvesting of timber and wildlife trade in Asia.
• Identify and analyze drivers of illegal harvesting of timber and wildlife trade in Asia.
• Explain implication of illegal harvesting of timber and wildlife trade in Asia.
• Discuss various multi-or bilateral regulations and actions to address the issues in Asia.

Required & Optional Readings

Required Readings

• Challender, D. W., Heinrich, S., Shepherd, C. R., & Katsis, L. K. (2020). International trade and trafficking in pangolins, 1900–2019. In Pangolins (pp. 259-276). Academic Press.
• Heinrich, S., Ross, J. V., Gray, T. N., Delean, S., Marx, N., & Cassey, P. (2020). Plight of the commons: 17 years of wildlife trafficking in Cambodia. Biological Conservation, 241, 108379.
• Wilmé, L., Innes, J. L., Schuurman, D., Ramamonjisoa, B., Langrand, M., Barber, C. V., ... & Waeber, P. O. (2020). The elephant in the room: Madagascar's rosewood stocks and stockpiles. Conservation Letters, 13(4), e12714.
• Harrison, R. D., Sreekar, R., Brodie, J. F., Brook, S., Luskin, M., O'Kelly, H., ... & Velho, N. (2016). Impacts of hunting on tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Conservation Biology, 30(5), 972-981.

Fundamental Concepts

• Topic 2.3 Illegal Timber and Wildlife Trade in Asia.pdf Download Topic 2.3 Illegal Timber and Wildlife Trade in Asia.pdf

Self-test Quiz (For certificate learning only)

After viewing lecture PPT presentation for this topic, take 10 minutes to take this self-test quiz. It is intended to serve as a quick check points of your learning progress about the factual content for this topic. Immediate feedback or answer key will be provided after your attempt. Click Self-test Quiz 2.3 to start.

Online Discussions (For certificate learning only)

Each week you will participant in the topic discussions of the week. The purpose of these discussions is to enable you to critically discuss and apply the core concepts you learned each week. Each online weekly topic discussion will include two parts: 1) your initial response to topic discussion questions posted by the instructor; and 2) your peer comment on other peer posts. Instructor will post one or two discussion questions related to the assigned module and topic every week. Response to these online discussion question and subsequent peer comment on these responses is mandatory. By doing this, you will enhance your knowledge through multiple perspectives posted by your peers. These questions will be focused on the most important aspect of the assigned module and topic and reflection on how you can apply these concept and tools from the assigned module and topic in your own context. For detailed requirements and grading rubric go to Online Discussions page.

To join the online topic discussions for this week go to Self-test Quiz 2.3.

Graded Assignment for the Week (For certificate learning only)

NA.