In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
Restoring degraded natural habitats such as peatland and coastal marsh is crucial if Britain is to meet its ambitious climate change targets, according to a report from the Wildlife Trusts charity. UK grasslands store 2 billion tonnes of carbon, but this is vulnerable to disturbance. Between 1990-2006, arable conversion of …
Developmental shifts in stage-specific gene expression can provide a ready mechanism of phenotypic change by altering the rate or timing of ontogenetic events. We found that the high-altitude Tibetan antelope (Panthelops hodgsonii) has evolved an adaptive increase in blood-O2 affinity by truncating the ancestral ontogeny of globin gene expression such …
Exotic wild animals are being smuggled into Japan and once past Customs border controls, continue to be legally sold as pets finds a new TRAFFIC report, Crossing the red line: Japan’s exotic pet trade. The study also highlights the potential for the exotic pet trade to facilitate the transmission of …
A TRAFFIC analysis finds a significant increase in reported poaching of wild animals in India during the lockdown period that is not restricted to any geographical region or state or to any specific wildlife area. Reports of poaching incidences for consumption and local trade have more than doubled during lockdown …
Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) has released new findings on Vietnamese law enforcement performance in relation to their response and action to protect wildlife. The data collected through ENV’s Wildlife Crime Unit reveals law enforcement agencies in Vietnam responded to 84% of publicly reported wildlife crimes in 2019. ENV has …
The tiger signifies the health of the forest, their ecosystem function and services. India's wild tigers account for more than 75% of the global tiger population. India has played the leadership role in fostering wild tiger conservation and management at the global level by taking up several milestone initiatives.
A new analysis of wildlife trafficking seizures in air transport reveals the illegal wildlife trade to be truly global in scope, encompassing additional airport locations as each year goes by. The report, Runway to Extinction: Wildlife Trafficking in the Air Transport Sector, produced by C4ADS as part of the USAID …
Some of the deadliest new diseases—including COVID-19, Ebola, SARS, and HIV—have arisen when the natural barriers between human and animal populations are breached. Dangerous close contact and prolonged exposure occurs when people encroach on wildlife habitat or bring wild animals into human communities. Both are routine in the global trade …
Emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health. To investigate drivers of virus spillover, we evaluated the number of viruses mammalian species have shared with humans. We discovered that the number of zoonotic …
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has brought the link between zoonotic diseases – those transmitted from animals to humans – and wildlife markets into sharp focus. An online survey conducted by GlobeScan in March among 5,000 participants from Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam found that 82 per …
This report, 10 Species, 10 Years Later, summarizes the best information available about the wildlife featured. We selected these species for many reasons: They represent different types of affected wildlife, they use a diversity of ecosystems and they offer an opportunity to discuss the wide scope of restoration efforts that …
The Conference of the Parties, at its 18th meeting (CoP18, Geneva, 2019), adopted Decisions 18.33 to 18.37 on Livelihoods. Parties are invited to: collate or conduct new case studies, using the standard template, that demonstrate how sustainable use of CITES-listed species contributes to the livelihoods of the indigenous peoples and …
Article VII, paragraph 4, of the Convention provides that specimens of Appendix-I animal species bred in captivity for commercial purposes shall be deemed to be specimens of species included in Appendix II. In Resolution Conf. 12.10 (Rev. CoP15), the Conference of the Parties agreed that the exemption of Article VII, …
The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 provides for listing of species in various schedules based on the threat status. The species listed in Schedule I of the Act is provided with highest degree of protection. Species like Tiger, Asiatic Lion, One horned rhinoceros, Elephant, Great Indian Bustard, Gangetic Dolphin, etc …
This report contains two Performance Audits i.e. performance audit on Contract Management of Road Works in Public Works Department and performance audit on Protection of Forest and Wildlife in Rajasthan, a compliance audit on Implementation of Rajasthan Farmers Participation in Management of Irrigation Systems Act, 2000 and six individual paragraphs. …
Over a ten-year period from July 2010 to June 2019 the authors found neither India nor Bhutan had reported any incidences of poaching or illegal trade in Red Pandas, but in Nepal a total of 13 seizure records were reported between 2016 and 2019, accounting for a total of 29 …
Habitat destruction and illegal wildlife trade (IWT) have devastating impacts on the populations of numerous wildlife species around the world. IWT is associated with the demand for wildlife and wildlife products from markets around the globe but primarily from Asia and South East Asia. A recent study1 of 27,000 vertebrates …
India’s proposal to include Great Indian Bustard, Asian Elephant and Bengal Florican in Appendix I of UN Convention on migratory species was unanimously accepted today at the ongoing thirteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in Gandhinagar. The CMS Conference underway in Gujarat has kicked …
Southeast Asia, perhaps more than any other region, encapsulates the full range of global challenges facing the management of biodiversity and trade in wildlife. Political and socio-economic disparities are large. Rapid development of infrastructure—often backed by foreign investments—and land conversion continues to challenge the region’s biodiversity hotspots. Levels of poaching, …
A first-of-its-kind nationwide study of India’s birds has found that among the species for which long-term trends could be established, over half have declined since 2000, of which 22% were declining strongly. Among the 146 species for which annual trends could be estimated, 80% were found to be declining, with …
