Vixay Keosavang is one of the most ruthless and prolific wildlife criminals operating in South-East Asia today. Some call him the “Pablo Escobar of animal trafficking” in Laos, the tiny one-party communist state bordered by Myanmar, China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam that continues to harbour him
Alongside significant trade and abundant forests, some reports have estimated as much as US$17 billion dollars' worth of illegal trade flows from the East Asia Pacific region, with the Mekong particularly susceptible because of poor forest governance, weak regulation, corruption and porous border controls
If 2012 has shown anything, it’s that we’re still small and that our concise reports anchored in hard documentary evidence – often obtained undercover in potentially dangerous circumstances – continue to give us the clout to punch well above our weight
Negotiations over the text of a decision which calls for actions in countries that have tiger farms have had all the hallmarks of a complex tango routine, fraught with tension and passion.
Three new films following EIA investigators undercover around the world have now had their premiere screenings on either National Geographic Channel or Nat Geo Wild in the US, Asia and the UK, and are currently airing for the first time in Australia and New Zealand
These are just the tip of the iceberg in what’s been a highly productive and busy year for EIA, one in which we also played a key role in achieving a groundbreaking agreement on timber trade between the European Union and Indonesia, and kept tabs on supermarket promises to get rid of greenhouse gases in their fridges