Steve Galster

As a founding director of Wildlife Alliance (formerly WildAid), Steve Galster directs field programs in Thailand and Myanmar as well as a training program for wildlife law enforcement officials, with centers in Thailand and Cambodia.  Galster has led numerous investigations into black market operations all over the world, including the illegal trade in endangered species in North America, Africa, Asia, South America, and Russia. He has designed wildlife protection programs in Russia and Asia; including the renowned "Operation Amba" which has brought the Siberian tiger back from a near slide to extinction.  He has also directed investigations into illegal human trafficking and arms trafficking. 

In 2002 Steve established a wildlife protection training center in Khao Yai National Park.  In 2003, he and his staff established the new national Protected Area Training Center for Cambodia in Bokor National Park.  The training center has been utilized for international training for park rangers, border patrols and recently the course "Wildlife Crime Investigations" by Wildlife Alliance and WCS was held at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) of Bangkok. The intensive course covered a wide range of technical discussions, lessons and practical exercises designed to increase officer knowledge about commercial poaching and trafficking in wildlife, links between nature crime and other forms of organized crime, and recommended steps for controlling these illegal activities within country and through cross-border cooperation.

In 2001 Steve collaborated with the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency to design a national media campaign to reduce consumption of shark fin soup, which led to a rapid drop in shark fin sales (30-70% in select markets).  This campaign is also credited with providing intelligence that led to the 2003 arrests of major wildlife traders in Thailand, as reported in AP, Reuters, BBC and other newswires.

Mr. Galster started the environmental and human rights group Global Survival Network in 1994, which later became WildAid in 2000, and then Wildlife Alliance in 2007. In 1999 he designed the Khao Yai Conservation Project, a model park protection and training project for Thailand and SE Asia, and supported by the Royal Forest Department of Thailand. In 1997 he established a Russian NGO called Phoenix Fund to help sustain the work of Amba and to develop public support for nature conservation in Primorsky Krai. In 1997 he designed Burma's first Buddhist anti-poaching project in the country's first national park (Alaungdaw Kathapa). In 1993 he led an investigative team that uncovered the world's largest rhino horn smuggling syndicate in China, leading to the arrest of the smugglers and a public commitment by the People's Republic of China government to clamp down on the illegal trade. In 1994 he designed Operation Amba, a Russian anti-poaching brigade that helped the Siberian tiger population stabilize after years of heavy poaching.

Galster's work on the implications of arms trafficking by fundamentalist rebel groups in Afghanistan was featured in various US and European publications, including a major declassified document set he edited, published by the National Security Archive in 1991. Investigative reports and films he developed about wildlife and human trafficking have been featured in TIME magazine, CNN, BBC, ABC, US News and World Report, and by many Russian, East European and Asian media outlets. The New York Times Magazine, Outside, CNN’s Planet in Peril, and additional international media including the recent Animal Planet UK documentary series, Crime Scene Wild have also featured his environmental programs.

In March 2008, he will be speaking about his experiences and the illegal wildlife trade for a Congressional Hearing for the Committee on Natural Resources in Washington, DC.

On March 6, 2008, Steve will be offering a presentation of his experiences and Crime Scene Wild clips at the Smithsonian National Zoo.

Galster has an M.A. in Security Policy Studies from George Washington University, and a B.A. in Political Science from Grinnell College.