In April 2015, we concluded this year-long research project with presentations in Washington DC. We wrote six papers as part of this project which are proprietary to the client, the Congressional Research Service. Six students — Leo Carter, Caitlin Goodrich, LinhPhung Huynh, Cliff Kaplan, Delfina Rossi, and Wade Tanner — joined me in DC for the final presentation and pictured above.
In addition, we had the good fortune to meet with many of the major wildlife non-governmental organizations in a two-hour briefing held at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Finally, with the assistance of colleagues at the World Wildlife Fund, we held nine information meetings with staff from offices of the Texas Congressional delegation. A highlight of the trip was a meeting with Congressman Ted Poe of Houston who recently hosted an important hearing on poaching and terrorism.
After returning to Texas, we filmed a rough and ready version of our findings for the six papers, covering six different areas, one on (1) consumer demand, (2) another on the security implications of the poaching crisis, (3) multilateral approaches, (4) sport hunting, (5) ecotourism, and (6) public-private partnerships.
Below are the collection of videos here and a link to the powerpoint in the final presentation, as well as testimony on wildlife crime and national security I submitted to Congress during our recent visit to Washington, DC. I have to say that this course was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences at the LBJ School. Special thanks to the professional work of the students whose work is represented on this blog where they have been able to share their own personal views on the topic.
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