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 …
Elephant ivory poaching is no longer solely a conservation issue. As poaching reaches levels that threaten to render African elephants near-totally extinct within the next ten years, it also funds a wide range of destabilizing actors across Africa, with significant implications for human conflict. A single elephant yields 10kg of …
Elephant ivory poaching is no longer solely a conservation issue. As poaching reaches levels that threaten to render African elephants near-totally extinct within the next ten years, it also funds a wide range of destabilizing actors across Africa, with significant implications for human conflict. A single elephant yields 10kg of …
DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand, known as one of the safest abodes of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in Southeast Asia, is fast emerging as an important contributor to the illegal trade of ivory across the globe. With the seizure of 2.5 kg of ivory from Dehradun this week, the total quantity of …
An estimated 100 elephants will be killed across Africa today. Poached, in all likelihood, in front of their families. Their tusks ripped off to meet the global greed for ivory. The species are in crisis. Elephant populations in some parts of Africa could be wiped out in as little as …
This document summarises the conclusions of the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade held from 12-13 February 2014. It sets out the political commitment reached, and the actions agreed, by the international community, in tackling the illegal wildlife trade and its impacts. Read the text.
Due to their secretive habits, predicting the pattern of spatial distribution of small carnivores has been typically challenging, yet for conservation management it is essential to understand the association between this group of animals and environmental factors. We applied maximum entropy modeling (MaxEnt) to build distribution models and identify environmental …
The trophy hunting of lions Panthera leo is contentious due to uncertainty concerning conservation impacts and because of highly polarised opinions about the practice. African lions are hunted across at least ~558,000 km2, which comprises 27–32% of the lion range in countries where trophy hunting of the species is permitted. …
Even as India is striving hard to save the big cats, the country has lost fifty tigers so far this year against 72 tiger deaths in 2012. Heading the list is Karnataka with the loss of 13 tigers till now, followed by eight in Maharashtra, seven in Uttarakhand and five …
This Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2013, introduced by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan in the Rajya Sabha on 5 August 2013, seeks to further amend the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. It has a provision of imprisonment up to seven years for poaching or hunting of wild animals.
Poor rate of conviction and lack of political and administrative willpower is the biggest obstacle in checking wildlife trade and crime in the country, said experts gathered at the workshop on wildlife conservation held in Indore on Tuesday. Only three per cent of accused are convicted in wildlife crime cases …
Under attack for not cracking down on the use of tiger body parts in traditional medicine, China has finalized two separate agreements with India and Russia to step up protection of tigers and other endangered species, the state-media reported on Tuesday. China reached an agreement with India at a meeting …
Advocating greater coordination between intelligence and enforcement agencies to curb illegal wildlife trading networks , the Central Bureau of Investigation Director Ranjit Sinha on Monday highlighted the agency’s role in detecting organised syndicates of poachers operating in Sariska Wildlife Park during 2002-05. Mr. Sinha, while inaugurating the Integrated Investigative Capacity …
Illegal wildlife trading networks have cross-border linkages and there is need for greater coordination between the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of different countries to deal with this threat, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha said here today. He said the CBI had played an important role in tackling poaching by revealing …
’’Trading of rhino horns is a highly organized crime. From local operators to a section of wildlife personnel in Assam are involved in this illegal business’’ The poachers who kill one horned rhinos in Assam make huge profit by selling their horns through agents located in countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, …
New Delhi: Delhi is not close to any of the tiger belts of the country, yet it figures among the five hotspots in India connected to big cat poaching, says a report by a global wildlife trade monitoring network and WWF. Tiger part seizures in the capital are predominantly of …
The 10th edition of the UNEP Year Book focuses on rapid change in the Arctic and minimizing chemical risks. It also reports on the spike in rhino and elephant poaching in Africa, growing urban environmental challenges, and the accelerating momentum to tackle short-lived climate pollutants. The UN Conference on Sustainable …
Illegal trade in rhinoceros horn continues to be one of the most structured criminal activities currently faced by CITES. There are clear indications that organized criminal groups are involved in rhinoceros poaching and illegal trade in rhinoceros horn. Some populations of rhinoceroses could be seriously affected by continued high levels …
Escalating levels of poaching and illegal trade in rhino horns are seriously undermining rhino conservation efforts, putting the survival of these species at risk, according to this new report by IUCN and TRAFFIC that examines the conservation status and trade in African and Asian rhino species.
This report summarizes the views of a number of governments and international organizations on illicit wildlife trafficking. These views were collected through a series of structured interviews, and this report is the first to provide a snapshot of current governmental and intergovernmental opinions on this topic.