Trafficking Cop
Since 2001 Leigh Henry has led the World Wildlife Fund’s efforts to strengthen international wildlife trade policies and the prosecution and sentencing of high-profile illegal trafficking cases. At her office in D.C., Henry displays samples from two major parts of her turf: She has been a key player in the organization’s work to protect wild tigers—an endangered species whose numbers have dwindled to just 3,200 animals worldwide and whose pelts, alone, sell for $35,000 and more on a global black market—and wild elephants, whose lucrative ivory is especially prized by a growing and seemingly insatiable middle class in China and Southeast Asia.