Events Calendar

CS Colloquium - Mahendra Shrestha: Wildlife Crime – Threat to Survival of Endangered Species

Speaker: Dr. Mahendra Shrestha, Government of Nepal

Talk Title: Wildlife Crime – Threat to Survival of Endangered Species

Series: CS Colloquium

Abstract: Many rare and endangered species in the wild are at the brink of extinction due to escalated poaching pressure driven by persistent international market demand representing an international crisis. Conservation area management teams on the ground are fighting a war against the relentless threat from poaching with very limited resources putting their own lives at risk. Poaching is no more committed by poor farmers opportunistically to sustain their livelihood. It has expanded to a well-organized business undertaken by transnational criminal syndicates. This transnational wildlife crime generating billions of dollars in illicit revenues pose risk to national and international securities as well as risk of spread of emerging infectious diseases. Most of the reserves, the source of such crime, are quite often limited with low number of frontline staff, their capacity, equipment, and organizational structure. In contrary, the criminals are far ahead on every one of these - they are well equipped with full financial back up and well organized with a good network of trans-national criminal network. This low risk high gain business is attracting international criminals. Continuous decline in population of wildlife species such as tiger, elephants, rhino, apes, and many others clearly indicates that the existing efforts and strategy against wildlife crime is not working well. This generation will witness permanent disappearance of many species from the face of this earth if the management and enforcement strategy is not improved using latest tools and technology and strong commitment from the world leaders. Capacity building of front line conservation practitioners and enforcement agencies on strategic use of available limited resources in making the law enforcement interventions effective in deterring criminals is essential.

Teamcore is pleased to host this upcoming seminar featuring Dr. Mahendra Shrestha. Seminar details are below. Please RSVP by emailing Benjamin Ford at benjamif@usc.edu.

If you would like to meet with Dr. Shrestha, please email Benjamin Ford at benjamif@usc.edu by October 29.


Biography: Mahendra Shrestha has more than 15 years of experience in reserve management and conservation policy making for the Government of Nepal. His PhD research on the Terai Arc Landscape for Tiger Conservation revealed useful information to facilitate the policy decision by the Government of Nepal on the conservation of a landscape extending more than 50,000 sq km in India and Nepal encompassing 12 protected areas. His support and local leadership development has resulted into establishment of new protected areas and restoration of connectivity in this landscape. He works closely with governments and NGOs in 13 tiger range countries in Asia to enhance reserve management for population recovery of wildlife species and local leadership development. He has played an important role in engaging the World Bank to launch the Global Tiger Initiative leading to the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2010 that helped build the necessary commitment from the political leaders as well as from the conservation community for tiger conservation. He had led the Save The Tiger Fund program of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Washington, DC to support tiger conservation projects in tiger range countries in the past. Currently, he heads the Tiger Conservation Partnership program at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, DC. His program is focused on capacity building in reserve management, institutional capacity building and leadership development.

Host: Milind Tambe

Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Assistant to CS chair