Dr Dan Challender
About
Dr Dan Challender is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist interested in wildlife trade and use, its sustainability, governance, and economics, and pangolins and their conservation.
He leads research streams on pangolins and their conservation and on wildlife trade policy, which includes assessing the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements and the use of evidence in national and international policymaking.
Between 2012 and 2021, he served as Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group and now serves as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) focal point for the group. He is also a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP)/SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group (SULi).
Dr Challender regularly advises governments and multilateral environmental agreements on wildlife trade policy matters.
Profile image credit: David Fisher
Expertise
- Wildlife use and trade
- CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)
- Pangolins
- Conservation science
- Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs)
- Sustainable use of wildlife
- Conservation policy
- Illegal wildlife trade
Selected publications
- Evaluating key evidence and formulating regulatory alternatives regarding the UK's Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill. Challender, DWS. et al. Conservation Science and Practice 6(10), e13220 (2024)
- Playing the CITES game: Lessons on global conservation governance from African megafauna. Michael’t Sas-Rolfes, M.J., Challender, DWS., & Wainwright, L. Environmental Policy and Governance (Early View, 2024)
- Identifying species likely threatened by international trade on the IUCN Red List can inform CITES trade measures. Challender, DWS. et al. Nature Ecology and Evolution 7, 1211-1220 (2023)
- Mischaracterizing wildlife trade and its impacts may mislead policy processes. Challender, DWS. et al. Conservation Letters 15(1), e12832 (2022)
- Pangolins: Science, Society and Conservation. Challender, DWS., Nash, H., Waterman, C. (Eds.) Academic Press, London, UK, San Diego, CA, US (2020)
Media experience
Dr Dan Challender regularly provides comment for print and broadcast media on recently published research on wildlife use, trade, and policy, including for the BBC and New York Times among others.
Recent media work
Languages
English