The ‘Lion traceability’ meeting in Pretoria

On the 29th and 30th of November, TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network (https://www.tracenetwork.org/) and the NGO TRAFFIC (https://www.traffic.org/) organized a “Lion Traceability” meeting in Pretoria, South Africa. Laura Bertola, board member of the Leo Foundation, was invited to attend the meeting. During these two days, we discussed how illegal trade in wildlife products is a threat for lions, and what tools to use to combat these threats. Focus for Laura was the role of genetics, since she has been working on a DNA database with over 300 lions from across Africa and India. This work has been conducted together with colleagues at Leiden University, and collaborators from other universities, museums and management authorities. The use of DNA allows identifying the species used in illegal wildlife products, and potentially also the source population from which the material was extracted. With these tools we hope to provide useful information to management authorities to effectively combat poaching and wildlife crime.