On 24-28 June 2024, three representatives of the Environmental Forensic Sciences Centre attended an international forensic conference in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) organised by the Society for Wildlife Forensic Science. There were approximately 120 participants from 29 countries.
Various workshops, such as the Quality Management Workshop, Ivory Workshop, Database Workshop and STR Validation Workshop, have been a regular part of the conference for several years. These workshops, like the conference, were held at the hotel itself, co-hosted by PERHILITAN (Department of Wildlife and National Parks) Malaysia, which, among other things, operates the National Wildlife Forensic Laboratory on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. We had the opportunity to visit this laboratory, and during the tour we saw several rooms where different types of analysis and evaluation are carried out. In terms of equipment, the laboratory is equipped to a very good standard. There are also pens with three dogs specially trained to detect wildlife – elephant ivory, pangolin scales, skin and bones from tigers, bird feathers and live turtles and snakes.
Through two presentations at the conference, we presented the results of the project so far, which was also helped by the collaboration agreed at the previous conference. Below you can see some photos from the conference and the laboratory visited.
