Protecting the environment with intelligence
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao is coming to town and will be meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron. It’s going to be a regular date – they will meet annually under an existing arrangement over international cooperation on important issues. We think tigers, and everything tigers represent, should be on their annual agenda, so let’s start [...]
“We always need connections…paperwork not important once you have connections, paperwork not important, they are only on paper…they can always be manipulated…” – Singapore ozone-depleting substances (ODS) dealer When it comes to getting insights into what criminals think, EIA and our partners are in a pretty enviable position. Our undercover investigators spend weeks at a [...]
Yes, we’re recycling an old post but never keen to waste things here, we are reposting a very relevant blog post this weekend. Come Monday the 16th May, a mere 3 days time, we will be launching our latest report on a new area of work for EIA, electronic waste. Some of you may have [...]
Switch on player. Is camera running properly? Where’s the light source? Is trader in frame? Two hours starts now. Is voice pen concealed? Conversation begins. Remember cover story. Talk naturally. Don’t prompt with yes/no questions. Trader relaxes. Good time to ask sensitive questions? Half-hour left on tape. Swap tape now? Visit toilet to make switch. Another two hours begin. [...]
You’ll probably have noticed that this week, the Oscars took place. In the end, I chose sleep over staying up to watch the ceremony (my tolerance for sleep deprivation has, er, “decreased in inverse proportion” to my age). But as the fallout settles, I’ve been thinking about the movies. Take the idea of a film [...]
I’ve been reading about a pangolin trafficking operation, described in a recent report by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia1. Sabah Wildlife Department’s raid on a warehouse used by a pangolin trafficking syndicate recovered several logbooks used by the dealers. These books revealed that the criminals meticulously recorded their trafficking activities – being the details of approximately 22,200 [...]