June 17, 2009

Extinction Incorporated: Inside an Illegal Wildlife Trafficking Syndicate

Co-sponsored by
the Environmental Law Institute and
DC Bar Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section

International trade in illegal wildlife is big business, and it's going to get bigger. Bryan Christy has just completed a three-year investigation on wildlife trade for National Geographic. He will discuss his findings along with his new book, The Lizard King, the true story of a wildlife smuggler and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent who risks his career to stop him. To the USFWS, the world's largest reptile import-export company is the brains and bank behind a vast criminal network of trafficking the world's most protected birds, mammals and reptiles out of South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. An insider's look at both illegal wildlife trafficking and wildlife law enforcement, The Lizard King has been hailed as "a paradigm shift" in wildlife conservation.

Journalist Bryan Christy is a former Washington, D.C. lawyer and a Fulbright Scholar. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Cornell University's FALCON Program, and University of Michigan Law School.