Markus Burgener, Vice Chair

Markus is a Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC – the wildlife trade monitoring organisation, which focuses on the trade in wild plants and animals. He has been based with the East/Southern African regional programme of TRAFFIC for the past 15 years and has worked on national, regional and international policy and legislation related to biodiversity conservation.

For the past ten years he has driven TRAFFIC’s marine fisheries work in East and Southern Africa where he has conducted research into fisheries trade and carried out a wide variety of research, advocacy and training initiatives focussing on illegal and unsustainable fisheries and related trade.

Markus has worked in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Mauritius. He has extensive programme development and project management experience, has presented at international conferences and meetings and has published his work in a number of journals. Markus is a qualified attorney and has a Master’s Degree in International Environmental Law from London University.

‘Stop Illegal Fishing can bring great value to tacking the illegalities in the seafood supply chain. By bringing an intelligent and well thought through approach to the issue Stop Illegal Fishing are increasing cooperation between countries and between agencies and are tackling corruption – a key issue in illegal fishing.’