UNCOVERING THE TRADE OF WILD-COLLECTED ORNAMANTAL PLANTS IN THAILAND, INCLUDING IMPORTS FROM MYAN MAR AND LAO PDR

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Tools and terms for understanding illegal wildlife trade

Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a global conservation issue that threatens thousands of species, including fish, fungi, medicinal plants, and charismatic mammals. Despite widespread recognition of the problem, debates on the science and policy of IWT generally concentrate on a few high- profile species (eg rhinoceros, tigers, elephants) and often overlook or conflate complex IWT products, actors, networks, and contexts. A poor understanding of IWT is aggravated by the lack of systematic vocabulary and conceptual tools with which to analyze complex phenomena in a more structured way. We synthesize the available evidence on IWT across taxa and contexts into a typology- based framework that considers (1) the diversity of wildlife products; (2) the roles of various actors involved with IWT, including harvesters, intermediaries, and consumers; and (3) common IWT network configurations. We propose ways in which these tools can inform structured analyses of IWT, to help ensure more nuanced, appropriate, targeted, and effective responses to illegal wildlife harvest, trade, and use

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Off-stage ecosystem service burdens:a blind spot for global sustainability

The connected nature of social-ecological systems has never been more apparent than in today's globalized world. The ecosystem service framework and associated ecosystem assessments aim to better inform the science–policy response to sustainability challenges. Such assessments, however, often overlook distant, diffuse and delayed impacts that are critical for global sustainability. Ecosystem-services science must better recognise the off-stage impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services of place-based ecosystem management, which we term 'ecosystem service burdens'. These are particularly important since they are often negative, and have a potentially significant effect on ecosystem management decisions. Ecosystem-services research can better recognise these off-stage burdens through integration with other analytical approaches, such as life cycle analysis and risk-based approaches that better account for the uncertainties involved. We argue that off-stage ecosystem service burdens should be incorporated in ecosystem assessments such as those led by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Taking better account of these off-stage burdens is essential to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of cross-scale interactions, a pre-requisite for any sustainability transition

“Invisible” wildlife trades:Southeast Asia’s undocumented illegal trade in wild ornamental plants

Conservation and environmental management often rely heavily on official statistics, but there are often concerns over accuracy and reliability, particularly true when dealing with sensitive issues such as illegal harvest and trade. A growing number of cases highlight commercial trades in wild flora and fauna that have been undocumented in official data. Here we present the first in-depth study of the trade of wild-collected ornamental plants in continental Southeast Asia, focusing on the four largest wildlife markets in Thailand. Botanical surveys revealed a massive, previously undocumented commercial trade in wild, protected ornamental plants involving Thailand, Lao PDR and Myanmar, focusing primarily on the Orchidaceae. The results indicate that illegal trade threatens not only charismatic Southeast Asian mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but also hundreds of tropical plant species. Trade surveys identified 347 orchid species in 93 genera, including many listed as threatened. The observed cross-border trade moves plants at a rate orders of magnitude larger than government-reported statistics, and directly conflicts with official policy statement. Harvester interviews strongly indicated that wild collection was negatively affecting the majority of species they traded. Despite three decades of broad restrictions on the international trade of all wild orchids, these results highlight a major conservation challenge that has been almost completely overlooked. There is urgent need to improve botanical trade monitoring, to operationalize existing conservation commitments, and as part of a broader, multifaceted response to illegal trade. We call for increased attention to botanical trade and conservation in Southeast Asia, and argue that efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade must ensure they include flora

Does REDD+ threaten to recentralize forest governance?

Over the past 25 years, developing countries have transitioned toward decentralized forest management that allows local actors increased rights and responsibilities (1–4), and has helped protect forests in many regions (5, 6). A new approach to mitigating terrestrial emissions associated with climate change, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), is poised to interrupt this trend. Given the implications for tropical forest management, REDD+ governance links should be a research priority (7)