News & Events

On 22 January 2019 DCC successfully hosted a Wildlife Crime Seminar together with ADM Capital Foundation, Blackstone Chambers, HKU Centre for Comparative and Public Law, and 23 Essex Street Chambers. The seminar entitled Tipping the Scales against Hong Kong’s Illegal Wildlife Trade” was attended by over 100 participants. Leading wildlife experts, investigators, lawmakers and legal professionals highlighted the urgent and continuing need to combat the illegal wildlife trade. The seminar examined the current situation in Hong Kong, recent steps taken by the government to amend wildlife laws and what more needs to be done if Hong Kong is to respond effectively to our role in the global extinction crisis. The speakers at the seminar included the following:

Dr Gary Ades – Head of Fauna Conservation Department, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

Gary Ades has had over 20 years of experience managing a wildlife rescue centre and ex-situ conservation programmes for endangered species. He trained as a Zoologist and received a PhD in Animal Ecology from the University of Hong Kong in 1994. He sits on the Animal Welfare Advisory Group of the HKSAR Government and was a past member of the Advisory Council on the Environment, the Town Planning Appeal Board, the Country Parks Committee and the Endangered Species Advisory Committee.

His role at KFBG also includes wild animal conflict resolution management and advising on environmental enhancement projects.

Giovanni Broussard – Regional Coordinator, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Giovanni Broussard, Regional Coordinator of the UNODC Global Programme for Combatting Wildlife and Forest Crimes in Southeast Asia. His work focuses on building capacity to tackle transnational organized crime in the environment sector, such as wildlife trafficking, timber trafficking and fishery crime. He has 15 years of experience in the field of project management related to criminal justice, organized crime and law enforcement. He worked in Afghanistan, Namibia, Macedonia and he spent the past 10 years in Southeast Asia. He holds a PhD in Development studies with focus on Environment, a Master in International Relations with focus on Corruption and an undergraduate degree in Economics with focus on drug markets.

Mark Clifford – Executive Director, Asia Business Council

Mark L. Clifford is the Hong Kong-based executive director of the Asia Business Council and author of The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia’s Environmental Emergency (Columbia University Press). Previously he was editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard and the Asia regional editor for BusinessWeek. Mark moved to Asia in 1987 as the Seoul, Korea correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, and later served as the magazine’s business editor in Hong Kong. In addition to the Asia Business Council’s books on young Asians (Through the Eyes of Tiger Cubs: Views of Asia’s Next Generation) and on green buildings (Building Energy Efficiency: Why Green Buildings Are Key to Asia’s Future), Mark is co-author, with former WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, of China and the WTO: Changing China, Changing World Trade; the co-author of Meltdown: Asia’s Boom, Bust and Beyond; and the author of Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats and Generals in South Korea. Mark graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and was a Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University. He has lived in Hong Kong since 1992 and is a PhD candidate (history) at the University of Hong Kong.

Dr Caroline Dingle – Honorary Assistant Professor, The University of Hong Kong

Dr Caroline Dingle is an evolutionary ecologist broadly interested in understanding how environmental changes influence the biological processes that generate and maintain biological diversity, particularly in tropical ecosystems. Her research combines genetic, behavioural and ecological studies to address these questions. Her current research focuses on urban ecology, particularly the effect of urban noise on animal communication. She is a lecturer on courses primarily in the Environmental Science major.

Mark Fenhalls QC – 23 Essex Street, UK

Mark Fenhalls QC prosecutes and defends the most serious and complex of serious crime and corruption cases in the United Kingdom.  He is ranked as a leader of the Bar in both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners in Fraud and Business and Regulatory (Global Investigations).  Current cases include acting for and against the Serious Fraud Office and as the Independent Expert following sanctions imposed on a global company by the World Bank.

Mark is Deputy Head of Chambers at 23 Essex Street.  He was Chair of the Criminal Bar Association (2015-16) and has recently been elected Leader of the South Eastern Circuit (2019-2020).  Since 2014, Mark has been deeply involved in negotiations with the United Kingdom Government (and the senior Judiciary) over the national court reform programme and the provision of legal aid.  He is regularly called to comment on criminal and civil justice matters for national newspapers, television and radio.

Sivan Goldberg – Financial Forensics Analyst

Sivan Goldberg is an entrepreneur and freelance professional active at the intersection of wildlife conservation, financial crime, governance and compliance. His current engagements include the development of a technology driven solution to better detect and prevent illegal wildlife shipments in containerized cargo. Prior to focusing on environmental challenges, Sivan served several years with the forensic practice of a big four accounting firm in Zurich, working on international financial crime investigations in Europe, MENA, APAC and the Americas. Sivan’s earlier experience include engagements in educational NGO, public relations and conference and program management. Sivan graduated with a master’s degree in International Affairs and Governance from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.

Justin Gosling – Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Specialist

Justin Gosling is an independent law enforcement and criminal justice specialist drawing upon decades of relevant experience. As a British police detective, Justin investigated serious and serial crimes, developing complex cases from intelligence to prosecution, using covert intelligence-led techniques.

For over a decade, Justin has worked as an investigator, researcher, trainer, and project manager, delivering projects for leading non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations, including United Nations agencies and the CITES Secretariat, focusing on illicit trafficking of wildlife and people. He served as a Criminal Intelligence Officer on INTERPOL’s Environmental Security Directorate covering Asia and the Pacific, coordinating global wildlife crime operations, assisting countries to exchange intelligence and directly supporting enforcement agencies across Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Europe. Justin has conducted national capacity assessments, developed national counter- wildlife crime action plans, and written and contributed to many key publications. He holds a master’s degree in International Criminal Justice, focusing on the effectiveness of anti-poaching strategies to combat the trafficking of elephant ivory.

Cherry Ho – Senior Public Prosecutor, Department of Justice

Cherry Ho is a prosecutor in the Departmental Prosecutions Section of the Department of Justice. Cherry has given advice and prosecuted cases submitted by different government departments. In particular, Cherry has advised the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department on evidence gathering, sufficiency of evidence as well as venue of trial in wildlife cases.

Sam Inglis – Environment Research Manager, The ADM Capital Foundation

Sam Inglis is one of the lead authors of Trading in Extinction: The Dark Side of Hong Kong’s Wildlife Trade and manager of the Wildlife Product Seizures (WiPS) Database. He has worked on wildlife issues with ADMCF since 2016, focusing on the illegal wildlife trade in Hong Kong and South East Asia.

Boris Kwan – Senior Endangered Species Protection Officer, Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department

Boris Kwan is the Senior Endangered Species Protection Officer for the Government of the Hong Kong SAR, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Boris Kwan started his work in the field of wildlife trade in 1998, after graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a BSc in Environmental Science and an MPhil from the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity. Boris first joined the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in 2001, working on endangered species protection, nature conservation, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, country parks management and the inauguration of Hong Kong’s UNESCO Global Geopark.

Sophie le Clue – Director, The ADM Capital Foundation

Director of Environment Programmes with the ADM Capital Foundation, Sophie is responsible for the Foundation’s environmental investments including the identification/evaluation of projects and aligning financial investment with strategic philanthropic objectives.

In this capacity she has a specific focus on the Foundation’s marine and wildlife trade portfolio and strategy. Her work involves the identification/evaluation of projects and aligning financial investment with strategic philanthropic objectives as well as working with beneficiaries and developing projects with respect to the Foundations environmental portfolio.

Sophie has worked for the past 28 years in the field of environmental protection and conservation, principally in the Asia Pacific region.

Michael Ma – Public Prosecutor, Department of Justice

Michael Ma is a Public Prosecutor at the Department of Justice of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Michael has prosecuted trials and advised Customs on offences under, among others, Import and Export Ordinance Cap.60, Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance Cap.586, Dutiable Commodities Ordinance Cap.109, Copyright Ordinance Cap.528, and Trade Descriptions Ordinance Cap.362.

Tim Parker – Barrister, Denis Chang’s Chambers & Blackstone Chambers

Tim practices at the Bar in Hong Kong (from Denis Chang’s Chambers) and London (at Blackstone Chambers). Tim specialises in public international law, human rights, and constitutional/administrative law, and has appeared in many of the leading Hong Kong cases in these areas. He also regularly advises and acts in commercial and competition disputes. Tim holds an LLM (First Class) from the University of Cambridge, where he was elected to the Whewell Scholarship in International Law; an LLB and PCLL from the University of Hong Kong; and a BA from the University of Melbourne. Chambers Global describes Tim as “one of the best public law juniors around”. Tim co-authored the major Feasibility Study on the Ban of Hong Kong’s Ivory Trade by (June 2016), with Global Rights Compliance and WWF-Hong Kong, which was influential in shaping the legislation outlawing the commercial ivory trade in Hong Kong.

Mark Poustie – Professor, Law School Shanghai University of Finance & Economics

Professor Mark Poustie was appointed as a Thousand Talents Scholar at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Law School from 1 September 2016.  He previously worked at the University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, Scotland, UK from 1992, serving as Head of School from 2007-2013 and thereafter as Vice-Dean (Internationalisation) for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2013-2015.  He remains an Honorary Scholar at Strathclyde.

Professor Poustie has extensive experience teaching and researching area in the environmental and land use planning law fields.  He has published many books and articles in the.  He has supervised six PhDs successfully to completion.

Professor Poustie has also conducted funded research for and served in an advisory capacity to government bodies.  He was invited by the Scottish Government to convene a Working Group reviewing the penalties imposed for wildlife crime and he authored the Group’s report (November 2015).

Professor Yvonne Sadovy – Professor, University of Hong Kong, co-Chair IUCN Groupers & Wrasses Specialist Group, Director Science and Conservation of Fish Aggregations

Yvonne Sadovy has worked for over 30 years on coral reef fishes, focusing on their reproduction, conservation and management and the relationships between their biology and fishing pressures. She received a PhD from the University of Manchester in the UK, conducted field work in Puerto Rico and then went on to direct the government Fishery Research Laboratory. She has worked with the Caribbean Fishery Management Council and joined the University of Hong Kong in 1993. She is chair of the WWF-HK Conservation Advisory Committee.

 John E. Scanlon – Special Envoy, African Parks

John Scanlon served as the Secretary-General of CITES from 2010-2018 after which he joined African Parks as its Special Envoy. John has had a unique range of experience with environment and sustainable development policy, law and governance at all levels. His work experience has been gained in the private sector, in government, with the United Nations and with international organizations, as a leader, manager, professional adviser and legal practitioner. His previous international appointments include senior positions with IUCN; the World Commission on Dams, and UN Environment. In Australia, after starting his career in private legal practice, he served as Chief Executive of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs, Commissioner on the Murray Darling Basin Commission and as an adviser to State and Federal Environment Ministers. John holds a Bachelor of Laws (1983), Master of Laws (Environmental) (1995), and is an accredited mediator (1996). He was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to environmental law nationally and internationally in 2011.

 Randy Shek – Criminal Barrister, Denis Chang’s Chambers HK

Randy Shek is a criminal barrister at Denis Chang’s Chambers, his main areas of practice include criminal law, human rights and civil liberties, and public law.  While he regularly receives instructions to prosecute on behalf of the Department of Justice, Randy is mainly a criminal defence counsel. Randy has a long and established track record for defending cases arising from protests, demonstrations and other high profile public order events, which frequently involve human rights and civil liberties dimensions. However, he is also experienced in handling conventional crime, white collar crime, SFC investigations, and serious crime, including murder.  He has conducted trials and appeals in all court levels, both led and on his own right.

Randy was called to the Bar in England and Wales in 1998, and called to the Hong Kong Bar in 2008. He is a member of the Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure, and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights in Hong Kong. He holds a BA from the University of Toronto, an LLB from the University of Warwick, an LLM in Intellectual Property from University College London, a PCLL from The University of Hong Kong, and a BVC from the Inns of Court School of Law.

Dr Amanda Whitfort – Associate Professor of Law, The University of Hong Kong

Dr Amanda Whitfort is an Associate Professor in the Department of Legal Education, Faculty of Law at The University of Hong Kong and a member of the Hong Kong Bar. She has extensive experience in criminal prosecution work and acts on fiat for the Hong Kong Department of Justice. She holds an LLM from The University of London and trained as a lawyer in Australia where she prosecuted for the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions. She is lead author of Review of Animal Welfare Legislation in Hong Kong (2010) and Review of Hong Kong’s Wild Animal and Plant Protection Laws (2013), both papers co-authored with Dr Fiona Woodhouse, SPCA (HK). She is a member of the Hong Kong government’s Animal Welfare Advisory Group’s Legal Working Party. Her research interests include criminal justice and animal law, both of which she currently teaches at the University of Hong Kong. She publishes internationally on animal welfare law in Hong Kong and China.