OSCAP Rhino Conference 2014
Day 1:

Mary Rice, Environmental Investigation Agency
MaryRice@eia-international.org

Mary Rice is the Executive Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes and abuses, including illegal wildlife (such as elephant ivory, tiger parts & derivatives), illegal logging, and trade in climate – and ozone – altering chemicals.

Trained as a journalist, Mary spent 15 years working in Asia before moving into the environmental sector. With close to two decades of experience in this field, Mary has extensive knowledge of the illegal international trade in ivory, acting as a spokesperson on the subject and attending major international meetings on the issue.

The findings of EIA’s global investigations into the illegal trade in ivory played a key role in establishing the international ivory ban in 1989. Subsequent investigations into the trade of ivory (and other species threatened by the increasing demand for their parts and products) have been pivotal in providing decision-makers with empirical evidence of the reality of the burgeoning illegal international trade in wildlife.

Mary is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a published author; Heat, Dust and Dreams (Struik) an exploration of people and environment in Namibia’s Kaokoland and Damaraland was the result of three years research and photography in what is now known as the Kunene region, home to the last viable population of black rhino outside a protected area.