Allison Skidmore, PhD

allison.skidmore@uibk.ac.at

I am a multidisciplinary scholar specializing in wildlife crime, the illegal wildlife trade, and organized crime convergence. As a National Geographic Explorer, my PhD research was based in the Russian Far East, where I used ethnographic methods to investigate the poaching and trafficking of Amur tigers by using covert methods to speak to those directly involved. I am trained in both criminology and conservation biology, and I am focused on bringing recognition to the fact that reversing biodiversity loss will ultimately come down to human behavior and the decisions we make; therefore, there must be more of a focus on the social sciences within the natural sciences. My current project is based in Malaysia where I am investigating illegal poaching and logging by transnational organized crime syndicates.

Research topics
Animal-human relationships
Biodiversity
Conservation Biology
Qualitative methods in natural science
Wildlife and environmental crime