AWI Honors International Wildlife Law Enforcement Leaders

On December 2, AWI bestowed the Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award on eight recipients at the 20^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP20) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The award—launched in 1994 and named in honor of the late chief of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement—recognizes individuals, organizations, and agencies that, like its namesake, have gone beyond the call of duty to thwart wildlife crime. In keeping with tradition at CoP20, the awards were presented on AWI’s behalf by CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero at a reception hosted by the Species Survival Network.

The 2025 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award recipients are as follows:

• Anti-Smuggling Bureau of China Customs for continuing to strengthen its capacity to fight wildlife crime, including through implementation of advanced scanning technology at key customs checkpoints, which has contributed to a substantial reduction in wildlife trafficking in China.
• Director-General Athapol Charoenshunsa, Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Thailand, for visionary leadership, innovative enforcement strategies, success in dismantling environmental crime networks and suppressing illegal logging, dedication to resolving human-wildlife conflicts, and trailblazing work in endangered species repatriation.
• Craig Fellowes, MBE, wildlife crime and training officer, Badger Trust and National Wildlife Crime Unit, United Kingdom, for a long and distinguished career that has included developing and conducting CITES enforcement training courses presented to thousands of UK and international officers and coordinating the seizure of significant quantities of trafficked wildlife products.
• Lieutenant Colonel Dilafruz Karimova, environmental and tourism security specialist, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tajikistan, for leading operations to thwart illegal logging, mining, and poaching of endangered species and for deploying advanced intelligence gathering, trainings, task forces, and community outreach to disrupt transnational wildlife crime networks, while breaking barriers for women in her field.
• Institute of Zoology Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, for combating wildlife crime and addressing trade-induced threats to endangered species in Uzbekistan, including by establishing the country’s first CITES specimen collection and training center and creating a sniffer dog training program to detect trafficked wildlife products.
• Major General Watcharin Phoosit, commander of the Royal Thai Police’s Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, for his central role in dismantling numerous transnational wildlife trafficking networks and collaborating with national and international partners to train officers and carry out significant seizures and sustained investigations targeting major wildlife crime syndicates.
• Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA), Spain, for its multifaceted approach to dismantling wildlife criminal networks using rigorous law enforcement, international collaboration, trainings, and community engagement, which has led to the rescue of thousands of illegally sourced live animals and the downfall of major smuggling operations.
• Dr. Emiliano Villegas, operational coordinator, Environmental Control Brigade, Argentina, for exceptional efforts investigating the largest wildlife crime case in Argentina’s history, which led to multiple indictments, the seizure of thousands of hunting trophies, and the rescue of animals destined for illegal hunts on private reserves.