MINISTER OF JUSTICE VISITS INTERPOL HEADQUARTERS FOR THE FIRST TIME

 Year 1 – Number 1 – June 30th, 2009

Last February, the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, and the Director General of Brazilian Federal Police, Luiz Fernando Corrêa, visited for the very first time the headquarters of International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO – Interpol) in Lyon/France. There, they got together with the Secretary General Ronald Noble in order to deal with the appointment of the first Federal Police Liaison Officer for that International Organization.

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I hope you are enjoying the 25th anniversary issue of International Game Warden magazine. This magazine has seen many changes, including three publishers and editors, in its quarter century of existence, but information about game warden books has been a fixture for most of its life. Some of the early issues had full page reviews of just one book, and later issues included lists of books, provided by a number of readers of the day. In 1994, avid reader, book collector and Iowa Game Warden, Bob Mullen was one of the people who provided lists of books to the magazine. He then approached editor Don Hastings and asked him if he'd like a recurring book review column in the magazine. Obviously he did, as the “Rathouse Reader” debuted in the Winter 1994-95 issue. The column remained a regular feature in the magazine until the Fall 2003 issue, which was printed shortly after Bob's retirement. Bob would usually write a short review of four or five books in each column in a straight-forward, no-nonsense style. His columns were often embellished with a short tale about “The Rookie” and his latest goof-up or stupid question. Upon retirement Bob and his wife decided to move into a smaller home, and with no room for his large collection of game warden books, he donated them to the North American Wildlife Enforcement Museum and then ramped things up for the next phase of his life.

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Chi indaga sui traffici criminali di cistifellea d'orso e denti di ghepardo

Pellicce, organi, corni: é un giro di affari (illeciti) per venti miliardi di dollari, Ora un libro racconta come, nei laboratori dell'Oregon, sono stati risolti i casi piü difficili.

Book explores how the world’s first wildlife forensics lab is solving crimes and saving endangered species

April 13, 2009 by MCT

A new book explores how the world’s first wildlife forensics lab is solving crimes and saving endangered species.

Not long ago, illegal wildlife smugglers could pretty much get away with murder. From selling polar bear rugs to crocodile-face ashtrays, these smugglers pull in as much as $20 billion annually, ranking just behind drugs and human trafficking as the third largest illegal trade worldwide.

Animal Investigators: How the World’s First Wildlife Forensics Lab Is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species

Laurel A. Neme. Scribner, $25 (256p) ISBN 9781416550563
Few people realize that animal parts trafficking represents a large threat to the global ecosystem; writer and natural resource management expert Neme is one of them. Trading in rare goods highly prized by many cultures, but lacking in human victims, the worldwide animal parts market remains largely invisible, and thus completely underestimated, except in the underfunded U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that's tasked with stopping it. In this engrossing look at the CSI of the animal world, Neme opens readers' eyes through three case studies: walrus tusk hunting in Alaska, an investigation that leads into serious debate over issues of native sovereignty and subsistence hunting; bears poached for their gall bladders, a cure-all in Chinese medicine; and rare Amazonian birds killed for their feathers. Explaining the science behind the work, Neme reveals concrete clues and f ascinating sidelights that should keep fans of police procedurals hooked, while also focusing on cultural issues and the challenges of global regulation. Readers interested in true crime, animal rights or television's Law and Order will be fascinated, educated, and perhaps inspired to spread the word. (Apr.)

Ever wonder where did the feathers on your fancy piece of jewelry came from? What about the ivory in your souvenir statue? The illegal wildlife trade nets about $20 million a year — less than drugs but more than weapons — and ounce-for-ounce, some animal products (such as rhino horn and bear gall bladders) are literally worth more than gold. With so much money on the line, to whom does one turn when someone breaks an animal protection law?

Most forensics labs are busy trying to solve human crimes; they don't have time to find out who killed a walrus. TIME talked to Dr. Laurel Neme about her book, Animal Investigators, in which she explains the difficulties of tracking the wildlife black market, and the one laboratory — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab in Ashland, Oregon — that tries to stop it. (See photos of the forensics lab mentioned in Neme's book.)

Wildlife Forensics Lab

In her book, Animal Investigators, author Laurel Neme explores how wildlife forensic scientists are solving crimes and saving endangered species.

Go to Time.com Photo Gallery

NewScientist.com
Review: Animal Investigators by Laurel A. Neme
25 March 2009 by Henry Nicholls
Magazine issue 2701.

ILLEGAL wildlife trafficking is worth an estimated $20 billion a year. That makes it the third most lucrative criminal activity, coming in just behind drug and human trafficking and, incredibly, ahead of arms smuggling. This is a stark reminder (as if we needed one) that there are people out there intent on getting rich irrespective of the cost to others with whom they share this fragile planet.

Animal Investigators documents this black market in unflinching and often depressing detail. But the book is more than just a journey into the criminal underworld, a litany of dismal statistics or a roll-call of cowardly, greedy intermediaries. Instead, Laurel A. Neme centres her book on a more inspiring place: the US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab in Ashland, Oregon, the world's only laboratory dedicated to solving crimes against wildlife.

Sacred & Mundane

Artifacts of Contemporary Culture

Fuzzy Forensics
by Laurel A. Neme

The liquid-nitrogen freezer sits unobtrusively up against the far wall, but crack it open, and, after the clouds clear, you’ll see stacks of animal blood and tissue samples. Turn the corner and you’ll find a walkin freezer off the evidence room full of feathers, hides, and bones, and various animal parts and carcasses awaiting examination. A coffin-sized Plexiglas box in the “bug room” holds thousands of black carpet (dermestid) beetles that swarm over bones, cleaning them without altering evidence of trauma or tool marks. The Ashland, Oregon–based U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory, dubbed the “Scotland Yard of wildlife crime,” is the world’s first lab of its kind.

Killing wild animals is big business. While much wildlife trade is legal, a huge black market exists, especially in rare and endangered species. Global illegal wildlife trafficking is worth perhaps $20 billion annually, maybe more. It’s the third-mostlucrative criminal trade in the world, ranking behind drugs and human trafficking but ahead of arms smuggling. Ounce for ounce, illicit products such as rhino horn and deer musk can be worth more than gold, diamonds, cocaine, or other drugs. In the 1990s, crystallized bear bile sold in South Korea for over $1,000 a gram, about twenty times the price of heroin.

By Sarah Long, Free Press Staff Writer

In researching "Animal Investigators," author Laurel Neme combed through more than 80 case files and spent time with the agents at the laboratory to find a cross-section of cases that showcase different aspects of the lab -- and also tell a fascinating story.

The first case is of the Alaskan walrus, slaughtered for its tusk ivory, which is made more complex by the role of the Native Eskimo people whose culture and livelihood is centered on the hunt. Next is an investigation of the trade in black bear gallbladders used in traditional Chinese medicine; a brutal case involving animal cruelty in the service of greed. And, finally, Neme focuses on the world of illegal smuggling of Brazilian Amazon feather art that exploits the native peoples who made it and threatens jaguars, scarlet macaws, harpy eagles and other protected tropical animals.

"The main reason I wrote this book is to bring awareness to this issue and get people to think about what they buy," Neme said. "We as consumers have so much power. You often think 'I'm just one person, what does my one purchase matter?' But it does matter. One person can make a difference."