Vivienne  Williams

Member

University of the Witwatersrand
Visiting Senior Researcher​

Vivienne is a ‘freelance academic’ and ethnoecologist, based at the School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The key theme of her research since 1992 has been illegal wildlife trade (particularly the informal trade in animals and plants for zootherapeutic purposes from traditional medicine markets in southern Africa) and, since 2013, the domestic and international trade in lion body parts and bones. Other work includes the monitoring of informal markets for the prevalence of selected vertebrate species (e.g. large carnivores and pangolins) to assess illegal trade and networks.

In 2013, she began a collaboration with WildCRU (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University) and TRAFFIC on the trade in lion bones and derivatives across Africa and to East-Southeast Asia, which led to the 2015 report “Bones of contention: an assessment of the South African trade in African Lion Panthera leo bones and other body parts”. 

She is currently also collaborating with South African Scientific Authority to analyse and monitor the South African captive lion breeding industry, bone trade and allied matters in the wake of decisions taken at the 17th Conference of the Parties to CITES.

Personal Website: ​https://sites.google.com/view/wildscience/home

Publications

Williams VL, Loveridge AJ, Newton DJ & Macdonald DW. (2015) Bones of Contention: an Assessment of the South African Trade in African Lion Panthera leo Bones and Other Body Parts. TRAFFIC, Cambridge & WildCRU, Oxford

Williams VL, Loveridge AJ, Newton DJ & Macdonald DW. (2015) Skullduggery: Lions align and their mandibles rock. PLoS ONE e0135144

Williams VL, Loveridge AJ, Newton DJ & Macdonald DW. (2015) Traditional medicines: Tiger-bone trade could threaten lions. Nature 523(7560): 290

Williams VL, Loveridge AJ, Newton DJ & Macdonald DW. (2017) A roaring trade? The legal trade in Panthera leo bones from Africa to East-Southeast Asia. PLoS One 12(10): e0185996

Williams VL, Loveridge AJ, Newton DJ & Macdonald DW. (2017) Questionnaire survey of the pan-African trade in lion body parts. PLoS One 12(10): e0187060