There is increasing interest in owning wild and exotic animals and the internet is able to serve up whatever your heart desires, even if importing these animals is illegal.
Continue reading “Exotic plants and animals: the illegal wildlife trade happening right under your nose”
Illegal logging is a big issue. Approximately 30% to 50% of all timber traded globally is illegally sourced. Illegal logging comes in many forms. It may be the replacement of high value for low value timber products, it may incorrect declaration of species or region of origin of products, which masks trade in endangered species or export of timber from protected areas, or it may be the mixing of illegitimately and legitimately sourced timber.
Combating illegal logging also needs to take many forms, many of these are technology solutions that support behaviour change.
Continue reading “Behind the scenes work to stop illegal logging”
Yes of course it makes a noise, but if it is felled illegally can those that perpetrated the crime be caught? Here we delve into the first case to use DNA fingerprinting of trees to match timber back to the site of illegal logging activity, and which led to the prosecution of the perpetrators under the US Lacey Act.
Fraud in the food and beverage sector is big business – for both bad and good reasons.
With all the changes and pressures afoot in the food industry, and with international targets clearly defined through several of the United Nations Sustainability Goals, what can we expect our food to look like in the future?
Continue reading “Top 10 predictions for trending food changes”
Science can identify the source of timber and verifying legality. So it should be a simple case to apply the science to new international legislation that aims to limit illegally logged timber in global supply chains. Well not quite, the application of science requires detailed understanding of the timber industry and supply chain dynamics.
Continue reading “Science can identify illegally logged timber – so lets start implementing”
In this public lecture, Prof Andy Lowe speaks about the use of DNA to potentially solve conservation problems, particularly with regards to timber tracking.
Prof Andy Lowe celebrates the success of the Fourth International Barcord of Life Conference in 2011, and the implementation of barcoding technologies across industries in Australia.
Continue reading “Fourth International Barcode of Life Conference”
Biodiversity and ecosystems provide us with clean air, water, and access to food.
However we don’t really know much about the basic building blocks of biodiversity.
How many species are there on earth? 10 million? What does this mean for humans? Over 250 years we’ve probably found and named approximately 1 million species, approx 10% of the biodiversity on earth.
At the same time the rate of intinction is increasing.
We’re going to need some help.
Continue reading “TEDxAdelaide – DNA Barcoding for Biodiversity”
Prof Andy Lowe 