Overexploitation is an important driver of global biodiversity loss. While the international trade of wildlife and wildlife products (e.g., ivory) is now recognized as a major threat to biodiversity, within-country overexploitation of wildlife is very poorly understood. In his talk, Dan will first present his new research that provides the first-ever assessment of the extent of illegal wildlife hunting within China, a global hotspot of biodiversity. Using a database of over 9,200 court convictions for illegal hunting in China, he assessed which species were being hunted, why, and where they were being hunted, and he applied statistical approaches not previously used in this field to estimate the degree to which the convictions underestimate the true degree of illegal hunting. Dan will then delve deeply into how the combination of illegal hunting, bycatch, and aquaculture practices affects populations of endangered shorebirds in Asia. Finally, he will discuss how multiple stakeholders can help to mitigate the effects of overexploitation of wildlife within China, with a focus on mitigating shorebird mortalities along China's coasts.

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The David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series is coordinated by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI). This talk is also co-sponsored by the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

This in-person event is open to the public. Princeton University community members do not need to RSVP. Members of the general public should RSVP to ccrosby@princeton.edu and will be accommodated as space allows.

The seminars are also usually livestreamed at http://mediacentrallive.princeton.edu/ and videos of the recordings are posted on C-PREE's YouTube channel within a week or two after the event.