2025 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award Recipients
Overview
Take Action Now: Act Now to Protect Primates from the Cruel Pet Trade Take Action Now: Defend the Big Cat Public Safety Act! Take Action Now: IL Residents: Help End the Use of Wild Animals in Circuses Take Action Now: It’s Time for NY to End the Use of Wild Animals in Circuses Take Action Now: Pennsylvania: Act Now to Fight Wildlife Trafficking Take Action Now: Tell Fashion Designers to Ditch Cruel Exotic Animal Skins Take Action Now: Urge Indonesia’s President to Protect Endangered Orangutans
2025 Award Recipients:
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 and 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.