John Sellar

Bio

John M. Sellar OBE FRGS was engaged in law enforcement for almost four decades, initially in the Scottish Police Service and then the United Nations. As a Detective, he investigated murders and other serious crime but also dealt with human rights abuse in Scotland’s maximum security prison. Before transferring to the UN, he was Officer-in-Charge of a police area where royal security and anti-terrorism matters featured significantly.

In 1997 Mr Sellar moved to Switzerland, handling anti-smuggling, fraud and organized crime issues for the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ultimately becoming Chief of Enforcement. During 14 years with CITES he conducted 234 missions to 66 countries, assessing enforcement in the field and designing strategies to tackle wildlife trafficking. He was instrumental in establishing the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime in 2010, a partnership of CITES, INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization.

He formally retired in 2011 but remains active in both a voluntary and consultancy manner, sits on the International Association of Chiefs of Police Environmental Crimes Committee, and is a Senior Advisor to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. In June 2013, in recognition of his UN activities, he was appointed by the Queen as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Publications

• The UN’s Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime, published February 2014, ISBN 978-184995-103-6
  http://www.whittlespublishing.com/The_UNs_Lone_Ranger
  
• Policing the trafficking of wildlife: is there anything to learn from law enforcement responses to drug and firearms trafficking?, February 2014, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime
  http://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/global-initiative-wildlife-trafficking-law-enforcement-feb-2014-for-web.pdf
  
• Focusing on Wildlife Crime. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin July 2013
  https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/focusing-on-wildlife-crime
  
• Extinction Through Profitable Crime: The Rhinoceros – FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin January 2017
  https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/extinction-through-profitable-crime-the-rhinoceros
• Can Hong Kong become a King Kong in responding to wildlife trafficking? Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, March 2016 http://www.globalinitiative.net/can-hong-kong-become-a-king-kong-in-responding-to-wildlife-trafficking/
  
• Intelligence-gathering: to question or not to question? That is the question. Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, August 2016 http://globalinitiative.net/intelligence-gathering-to-question-or-not-to-question-that-is-the-question/
  
• CITES and Forensics (with Jonathan Barzdo): Society for Wildlife Forensic Science http://www.wildlifeforensicscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SWFS-July-2016-Newsletter.pdf
  
• Defending Human Rights in a hostile environment: Global Intiative against Transnational Organized Crime, June 2017 http://globalinitiative.net/human-rights-in-a-hostile-environment/
  
• Chapter author: Militarised Responses to Transnational Organised Crime http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319575643