Wildlife Trade, Trafficking and Conservation: Perspectives from the Humanities

The event will open with a presentation of the book Animal Trafficking and Wildlife Markets: Perspectives from the Global South (edited by Frédéric Keck and Felipe Vander Velden), in the presence of three of its authors: Frédéric Keck, Liz P. Y. Chee and Jean-Baptiste Pettier.

The book examines how the movement of animals and their body parts from the Global South is perceived as scandalous, whereas similar movements in the Global North are presented as compliant with established norms. The concept of “trafficking” – which originally referred to the ordinary movement of goods such as artworks or vehicles – has come to denote illegal trade due to modern attempts to regulate exchange based on a contemporary framework that “purifies” objects and subjects, nature and culture. Yet, the relationships between humans and animals are far richer and more ambivalent than a simple legal/illegal dichotomy suggests. The ethnographic research presented here – focusing on the myriad ways animals pass through human hands – examines recent transformations in global wildlife markets, particularly the use of the Internet and social media to circulate images of animals, their body parts, and the markets where they are sold.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion with Christine Loh, Chief Development Strategist at the Institute for the Environment of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as with the NGO ADM Foundation, represented by Sophie Le Clue and Sam Inglis.

Date: 27 November 2026
Time: 9:30am–11:30am
Location: WYNG Commons, 16/F, Chun Wo Commercial Centre, 23-29 Wing Wo Street, Central, Hong Kong

Speakers

• Frédéric Keck is a Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Social Anthropology (CNRS-Collège de France-EHESS). After working on the history of social anthropology and contemporary biopolitical questions raised by avian influenza, he was the head of the research department of the Musée du Quai Branly between 2014 and 2018. He published Avian Reservoirs. Virus Hunters and Birdwatchers in Chinese Sentinel Posts (Duke University Press, 2020) and (with A. Kelly and C. Lynteris) Anthropology of Epidemics (Routledge, 2019).
• Liz P. Y. Chee is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Her research centres on the history of medicine and pharmaceutics in modern China, and particularly the medicalization of animals. She was Co-PI on the grant « History and Sustainability of Animal-Based Drugs in Asian Traditional Medicines » with a focus on historicizing zootherapies (medical treatment using animals) in East and Southeast Asia, and understanding their relation to the wildlife trade and zoonotic (animal origin) diseases. She is currently writing her second book Drinking Antelopes: Making Animals Traditional, Chinese, and Medicine (under contract with University of California Press).
• Jean-Baptiste Pettier is Professor for the Social and Cultural Anthropology of East Asia at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) in Erlangen-Nürnberg, where he leads the MA Program “Standards of Decision-making Across Cultures.” He is a social anthropologist with a broad interdisciplinary background in the social sciences and a specialization in Chinese society. His core research interests concern sentiments, affect, and morality, and their relationship to political and economic conditions. He has widely published on the moral economy of love, and more recently on the contested use and protection of various animal species.
• Christine Loh is the Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is a former undersecretary for the environment, and legislator.
• Sam Inglis works at ADM Capital Foundation in Hong Kong. Sam has been developing strategy and leading numerous projects focusing on the wildlife trade since 2016. His work entails conducting research, developing campaigns and engaging stakeholders. He manages the Foundation’s ‘Wildlife Product Seizures’ (WiPS) database and ‘Seizure to Sentencing’ (S2S) initiative, has co-authored numerous reports and papers on wildlife crime and exotic animal trade, led dialogues with the Hong Kong Government, civil society and the private sector, and presented in fora ranging from local schools to the United Nations.
• Sophie Le Clue is the CEO of ADM Capital Foundation, overseeing work spanning environmental conservation, sustainable finance and impact investing since she joined the Foundation in 2007 as the environmental Programme Director. She has managed and directed an extensive range of environmental projects as well as drafted numerous research reports. Sophie has 30+ years in the field of environmental protection, principally in the Asia Pacific region. Including working as an environmental consultant for 15 years more latterly for The Association for Responsible Investment in Asia (ASRIA).