ABOUT:
the trade and what we do
ILLEGAL OR NOT?
The (Convention for Illegal Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement that determines the legality of species trade globally to ensure that the import, export, re-export and introduction does not threaten species extinction.
Species are categorized into three appendices (I, II, III) by meeting certain criteria, for example by taking into consideration a species' exploitation level in certain countries, as well as its conservation status, as determined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The inclusion of species is discussed in Conference of Parties (CoP) meetings (see here for the proposed changes from the CoP17 meeting, in September 2016).
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Our lab members here at HKU are trained in various tools and techniques for identifying the legality of seized species. Therefore, we have a growing track record in support of wildlife trade law enforcement:
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• listing of endangered species (humphead wrasse) to CITES
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• genetic testing of trafficked eels; led to 40 arrests in EU
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• field research and teaching programs in the Congo Basin
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• AFCD contract for genetic identification of shark fins
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• investigation of fraud and mislabeling of seafood in HK
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• rhino horn DNA analysis with WWF & University of Pretoria
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• market surveys of endangered fish, mammals & turtles
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Suspected illegal catch of Critically Endangered European Eels (Anguilla anguilla) seized by Hong Kong customs. Image by C. Hatten.
Above left and right:
Rhino horn seized by Hong Kong Customs, May 17, 2016. Images from press release.
WILDLIFE TRADE
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On top of the increasing pressure the natural world experiences from an ever-growing human population, thousands of animals and plants are taken from their natural environments every day and are traded as food, souvenirs and exotic pets. In particular, organisms are widely exploited in the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which drives a great deal of the trade in Hong Kong and China.
Although some natural products are traded under the law, many are not.
As global demand increases for these products, endangered species subject to trafficking are pushed closer towards extinction. There is an urgent need for greater public discussion leading to action in both countries of origin and countries of trade and consumption.
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Vast quantities of illegally traded wildlife slip through Hong Kong's borders annually, to be sold within the city and beyond. Important products include iconic endangered species such as elephant ivory and shark fins, as well as less familiar products like pangolins and European eels.
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Dried reptiles in Hong Kong’s markets, sold for use in TCM.
Image by A. Andersson.
OUR TEAM
Prof. Merilä is the Director of the Conservation Forensics Laboratory. He has received >20M HKD in funding to investigate bird trade/disease, the genetic consequences of bird trade, and an AFCD tender to study genomics of incense trees (Aquilaria sinensis). In 2024 research was done in his lab on illegal incense tree harvesting in HK. A genomic approach was applied for individual tree identification and used as forensic evidence in a HK Marine Police case. This work provided critical evidence to prosecute 13 suspects in HK district court, who received 30-50 month jail sentences under the ‘Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance’ – one of the first-ever wildlife cases to be sentenced as such. The case was widely publicised in local/international press. Aside from this, he supervises projects including those studying the critically endangered yellow crested cockatoos (pet trade), hornbills (ornamental trade), and sea cucumbers (TCM trade) in HK. Juha is also a member of the Society of Wildlife Forensic Science.
Prof. Baker is a multi-disciplinary ecologist who studies how humans impact the ecology and evolution of the oceans. His focus is mainly on the declining coral reef ecosystems, combining tools in geochemistry, stable isotope ecology, ecophysiology, and molecular biology to answer questions relating to coral symbiosis and interactions with anthropogenic stressors. He is interested in the on-going work against the illegal trading of marine species such as protected coral, shark fin, and sea cucumber species.
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Prof. Bonebrake studies climate change impacts on tropical biodiversity but also has strong interests in broad aspects of urban ecology and conservation. While doing research in Cameroon, he experienced first hand the devastating impacts of wildlife trade from Africa to Asia, e.g. demand of pangolin scales in China drives the exploitation of pangolins in Cameroon. He has received >7M HKD in funds for a collaborative One Health and Wildlife Trade project on pangolins, and supervises many PhD students and RAs working on a variety of traded taxa. He is keen to work towards the conservation of such traded species, and draw awareness to these matters in both countries of export and import.
Dr. Dingle is an evolutionary ecologist who combines behavioural studies with genetic analysis and other tools to answer questions about the processes that create and maintain biodiversity, particularly in tropical ecosystems. She works primarily with birds, including the critically endangered helmeted hornbill (traded for ornamental purposes) and the critically endangered yellow crested cockatoo (traded as pets) in Hong Kong. She is also currently developing projects on other widely traded species, and is now situated in Capilano University, Vancouver, Canada.
Prof. Sadovy has a strong background in the conservation of fisheries and threatened fish species, particularly, the Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus, in the tropical western Atlantic, and the Napoleon wrasses (Humphead wrasse), Cheilinus undulatus, of the Indo-Pacific region. One of her many achievements in her career has been in the founding and co-chairing of the IUCN World Conservation Union Specialist Group on Groupers and Wrasses, collaborating with conservation groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong, Wildlife Conservation Society, TRAFFIC - East Asia and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to name a few.
Previously a Chair Professor in Ecology & Biodiversity, Prof. Dudgeon is now Emeritus Professor for Ecology & Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong, and sits as an Executive Councilor and Trustee of WWF-Hong Kong. He has spent over 30 years researching the ecology, biodiversity and conservation of the animals that inhabit the streams and rivers of monsoonal Asia. His work includes identification of illegally traded turtles in Hong Kong and mainland China.
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Prof. Alice Hughes
Prof. Amanda Whitfort of HKU’s Law Faculty specialises in wildlife crime. Her research is used to support criminal prosecutions in Hong Kong for wildlife trafficking and animal cruelty. Together with members of the Centre for Conservation Forensics and the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, she has developed over 50 victim impact statements for those endangered species most commonly smuggled into and through the Territory. She has been a member of the Hong Kong Bar since 2006.
Prof. Alice Hughes’ research focuses on wildlife trade and zoonotic disease. For example, she has discovered multiple coronaviruses in Rhinolophus bats in one cave. She has drafted two policy briefs for the Chinese state council and is on the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development biodiversity policy group. She is also on the UNODC advisory committee for OneHealth and Wildlife trade, and the CITES OneHealth and Zoonoses working group, among others.
Prof. Simon Yung Wa Sin
Prof. Celia Schunter
Prof. Simon Sin studies pathogens, zoonotic diseases and public health. He has received multiple grants to detect pathogens in rodents, bats, amphibians, reptiles, pangolins and birds in Hong Kong local environments and in wildlife markets. His interests in conservation forensics lie in using eDNA techniques to understand what is being traded in bird markets.
Prof. Celia Schunter works on ecological genomics and responses to environmental pressures such as trade. She received grants to detect pathogens and antimicrobial resistance in fish markets, and is a member of Fishbase/SealifeBase, the most accessed database on information on marine species. Her work also uses eDNA techniques to understand what fish are being traded in wet markets.
Dr. Chloe Hatten completed her research MRes at University College London and moved over to Hong Kong to work as a Research Assistant in the Conservation Forensics Lab @ HKU. Here she developed molecular protocols and analysed confiscated wildlife specimens for government and NGO casework. She then conducted her PhD on the critically endangered helmeted hornbill bird (Rhinoplax vigil), focusing on the ornamental trade of its casque. Her main interests lie in species identification and origin of traded specimens, as well as understanding human behaviour towards wildlife trade. She uses interdisciplinary methods to understand these trade questions, including genetics, stable isotopes, morphology, case seizures, modelling, and online trade analyses.
Chloe is part of the HKU Conservation Forensics Laboratory, is a member of the IUCN Helmeted Hornbill Specialist Group, a task force of the IUCN-SSC Hornbill specialist group, and of the Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group, collaborating with government and NGOs across HK. She is also an advocate for women in science, and has a keen interest in scientific outreach. In 2024, she lead and organised an international conference on illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade in Hong Kong: Interdisciplinary Conversations on Wildlife Trade and curated and organised a conservation art exhibition also in Hong Kong: Inherent Nature.​
Dr. Astrid Andersson is doing a PhD at the University of Hong Kong on wildlife trade and conservation of the Critically Endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea). Her research involves bird market surveys, trade data analysis, developing forensic tools to tackle laundering in wildlife trade, ranger interviews, and field surveys of introduced and native cockatoo populations in Hong Kong and Komodo National Park, Indonesia.
She is part of the HKU Conservation Forensics Laboratory research team, a National Geographic Explorer, and a member of the Hong Kong Wildlife Trade Working Group. Previously she's worked on counter-wildlife trade projects with a number of NGOs, including Freeland, WildAid, TRAFFIC, and Humane Society International on topics ranging from traditional Chinese medicine to exotic pet trade. She's the founder of the community group Hong Kong for Pangolins and in her journalistic capacity she covers emerging wildlife, environment and conservation issues, and has contributed to TIME Asia, National Geographic China, and more. She tweets @AA_Andersson and instagrams @astrid_alex_andersson
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Tracey is originally from South Africa, where she received her BSc in Zoology and MSc in Genetics from The University of Pretoria. She has worked as a research assistant in our lab for a number of years and is currently undertaking a PhD investigating pangolin trade. Tracey has strong interests in wildlife trade research and is particularly interested in using genetic data in combination with stable isotope analysis for species identification, determination of provenance, and investigations into the health of animals along trafficking pathways. Tracey is the coordinator of the Society for Wildlife Forensic Science (SWFS) Technical Working Group (TWG); a group of wildlife forensic experts from around the world that meet regularly to work on developing and disseminating advice on various aspects of wildlife forensics including technical issues and quality management.
Even obtained her BSc degree at the University of Hong Kong, majoring in Ecology & Biodiversity. She worked on the genome evolution of an endangered plant, Thismia hongkongensis for her final year project. She was trained as an ecologist during her undergraduate studies, then she equipped herself with more molecular skills by being a research assistant at a biotechnology lab at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
She is now a PhD student starting her research on elephant and mammoth ivory trade. She will include both social and ecological perspectives in her research to view the issue holistically, aiming to connect the academia with society and provide practical insights in conserving endangered wildlife and tackling wildlife trafficking.
Originally from the UK, Tilley completed her undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Birmingham and her Masters of Research (MRes) degree in Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation from University College London. She moved to Hong Kong in 2017 to work on the effect of urban noise on birds and wildlife trade. Her trade work focussed on analysing global trade trends for publication with the NGO TRAFFIC and she was also involved in market surveys for the pet trade.
She has just completed her PhD in the Applied Behavioural Ecology and Conservation (ABEC) laboratory studying Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) olfaction and food preferences. She maintains a strong interest in wildlife trade and continues to collaborate with the Conservation Forensics team on various projects.
Taneisha completed her undergraduate (BSc. Biochemistry and Zoology) and graduate studies (MPhil. Zoology) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica. For graduate work, she conducted research in the field of Forensic Entomology. She looked at development and morphology of Dipteran larvae belonging to the family Calliphoridae. In addition to forensics and entomology, Taneisha has interests in conservation, natural history, microbiology, molecular biology and history. She is currently working as a PhD in the Conservation Forensics lab at HKU.
AFFILIATED MEMBERS
Dr. Sung is a Lecturer at the University of Suffolk, previously Assistant Prof at Lingnan University, and graduate of HKU. He is a conservation biologist, studying how human activities affect wild animal populations and formulating means to minimize the impacts. His research focuses on the conservation and trade of freshwater turtles. He is a member of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. He also serves as a member of Hong Kong Government’s advisory bodies, including the Advisory Council on the Environment of Environmental Protection Department and the Endangered Species Advisory Committee of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
Félix’s research explores the interface of socio-cultural values and ecological conservation within the context of anthropogenic effects on biodiversity. His approach focuses on the consideration and elevation of values held by affected communities while steering away from measures perpetuating post-colonial legacies. For the Conservation Forensics Lab, his work included the cultural and ecological dynamics of snake soup consumption in Hong Kong.
Dr. Johnny Richards
jlr4@connect.hku.hk
Dr. Vicki Sheng
vlsheng@connect.hku.hk
Johnny studied molecular biology here at HKU, working as an RA in the Conservation Forensics Lab for a number of years afterwards. With personal interests in ethnobotanical conservation, he put his molecular skills to work developing tools for rapid identification of trafficked plants and animals and DNA-based market analyses of illegally traded wildlife products, including using eDNA in wet markets around Hong Kong.
Dive Master Vicki was educated in the US and prior to joining the team here in HKU, she traveled around Asia in a number of wild work experiences; diving with bull sharks in Thailand, training wolves, and working as a stunt double on films in Beijing. Vicki conducted her PhD that used AI neural network techniques to incorporate into molecular wildlife forensics for identifying sharks from their fins.