Scientists joining the fight against Asian wildlife crime

SCIENTISTS from Edinburgh have been helping to fight wildlife criminals posing one of the biggest threats to wildlife in south east Asia, by using genetics to directly target the lucrative black market.

A Darwin Initiative project is helping to advance practical enforcement of wildlife trade laws in countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

A team from the Capital attended the first regional wildlife forensic workshop in Kuala Lumpur recently, and the hope is that shared techniques will allow greater accuracy in the collecting and processing of forensic data which could help bring about more prosecutions.

Dr Rob Ogden said: "In Europe, where resources and techniques have advanced significantly in DNA analysis and genetics, forensic analysis is now an established enforcement tool in fighting wildlife crime. We hope we can share our knowledge to help investigators."