Senior Wildlife Inspector Sheila Einsweiler of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement has received the 2004 Clark R. Bavin Law Enforcement Award from the Animal Welfare Institute and the Species Survival Network in recognition of her contributions to wildlife protection worldwide.
Einsweiler and five other award recipients were honored by the two conservation groups last night at a ceremony at the 13th Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Bavin award spotlights accomplishments in combating wildlife crime.It is named after Clark Bavin who, as chief of Service Law Enforcement from 1972 through 1990, launched and guided U.S. efforts to enforce the CITES treaty and stem global wildlife trafficking.
"I applaud Sheila for this fine honor. I?ve worked with her on both CITES and Coral Reef Task Force issues and she's an excellent thinker and talented consensus builder," said Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson, head of the US delegation to the COP. "I?m extremely proud of the job the Fish and Wildlife Service'sspecial agents and wildlife inspectors perform both domestically and internationally. It's a great experience to work with a group so highly regarded around the world for its expertise and dedication."
A 16-year veteran officer, Einsweiler was cited for her contributions to U.S. enforcement of the CITES treaty, which regulates global trade of thousands of animals and plant species. As a senior wildlife inspector with the Service, she provides policy guidance and oversight for the agency's wildlife inspection program -- a force of some 100 wildlife inspectors who monitor trade and intercept smuggled wildlife at major U.S. airports, ocean ports, and border crossings.
Einsweiler is the first Service wildlife inspector to receive this international honor. Her accomplishments include guiding U.S. implementation of global protections for sturgeon in the enforcement arenaand directing an interagency effort to analyze U.S. trade data for coral reef species. Her testimony as an expert witness on wildlife trade helped Federal prosecutors win key convictions in high profile cases involving reptile smuggling and coral trafficking.
"This award not only honors Senior Inspector Einsweiler, who has been the mainstay of U.S. wildlife trade enforcement for the past decade, it also acknowledges the crucial contributionsour wildlife inspection program makes to global conservation," said Service Law Enforcement Chief Kevin Adams. "All of her Service colleagues join the global community in recognizing her dedication and her success in making a difference for wildlife."
Considered the U.S. expert on CITES enforcement,Einsweiler has served as a member of the official U.S. delegation at the last five global meetings of CITES member nations. She helped organize a U.S.-Russian workshop on sturgeon conservation in 2001, and represented the United States earlier this year at a meeting convened by the CITES Secretariat to improve coordination between enforcement agencies charged with upholding the treaty worldwide.
For six years, Einsweiler policed U.S. wildlife trade in Los Angeles, inspecting shipments and intercepting illegal importations at the Nation's second busiest port of entry for wildlife. She joined the Office of Law Enforcement's headquarters staff in Arlington, Virginia, as a senior wildlife inspector in 1994.
In addition, for more than a decade, Einsweiler has taught wildlife trade enforcement and smuggling interdiction to scores of new Service wildlife inspectors and special agents. She has conducted enforcement training in China, India, Bangladesh, Russia, and Madagascar; served as an instructor in U.S.-based training programs for officers from other countries; and helped organize and conduct North American enforcement workshops addressing such issues as coral trafficking and the wildlife trophy trade.She serves as co-chair of the International Trade Subgroup of the Coral Reef Task Force.
A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Einsweiler earned undergraduate degrees in wildlife biology and German at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, in 1983. She completed an M.S. in Wildlife Biology at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, in 1986, and conducted field research for the Audubon Society and International Crane Foundation before becoming a Service wildlife inspector in 1988.
Four other law enforcement officers from around the world and the Anti-Smuggling Bureau, Lhasa Customs, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, also received the Bavin Award at the Bangkok ceremony.
"Dedicated wildlife law enforcement officers across the globe battle behind the scenes every day to conserve wildlife, save individual animals from cruelty, and apprehend unconscionable poachers and profiteers," noted Adam Roberts, Executive Director of the Animal Welfare Institute. "This ceremony enables a modest moment of tribute to their often unnoticed, but always appreciated, efforts."
The Anti-Smuggling Bureauwas recognized for investigating the largest seizure ever of tiger and leopard skins in Tibet. Work on this case, now in the Chinese courts, documented the origin of the more than 600 intercepted skins and uncovered the inner workings of this sector of the black market wildlife trade.
Individual officers honored included Police Major General Sawake Pinsinchai, who commands the Forestry Police Division of the Royal Thai Police, and Thanit Palasuwan, a forestry enforcement officer with Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The former was lauded for leading a series of highly successful raids across Thailand targeting illegal wildlife dealers and groups unlawfully engaged in the captive breeding of tigers, orangutans, and other endangered species. Palasuwan was recognized for his investigative contributions to wildlife trafficking cases involving over 9,000 birds, 12,000 reptiles, and 125 protected mammals.
Award recipient Chey Yuthearith, director of Bokor National Park in Cambodia, was honored for his role in making that protected area a model park for his nation; he also is the coordinator of Cambodia's National Protected Areas Training Center.
The fifth honoree, Corporal Huka Umuro Kuri of the Kenya Wildlife Service, has played a key role in wildlife enforcement operations in Meru and Tsavo National Parks, successfully confronting heavily armed elephant poachers and other criminals trafficking in protected resources.
