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 …
According to a report published by the TRAFFIC India Network ( Under Siege: Poaching and Protection of the One-horned Rhino in India ), 692 rhinos may have been poached between 1980 and 1993, and 209 between 1990-1993 alone. The demand is mainly for the rhino horn
The pharmaceuticals industry in India is agitated over the finalisation of a list of 56 herbs whose export is to be banned. Drawn up by the ministry of commerce in consultation with the ministry of environment and forests (MEF), the list, which includes Jatamansi, is being expanded by the MEF …
CHIEF Adlife warqens and their representatives from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Orissa and West Bengal held the first coordination meeting in Calcutta in early June. The aim of the meeting was to pit resources of the eastern Indian states against the depletion of flora and fauna affected by poaching and …
A RECENT study conducted by a Delhi- based NGO, Vatavaran, revealed that there iva blatant plundering of the Nilgiri bioreserve by the international wildlife trade cartel. The bioreserve constitutes 15 per cent of India's total protected area sheltering 100 mammalian species, 550 avian species and 30 reptilian species. Vatavaran stated …
Zimbabwe's proposal for reopening ivory trade is one of the hot issues at this year's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting this month. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana have united in their proposal to restart the trade in ivory. Although …
RECENT findings of a regional TRAFFIC (a joint programme of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Union) has expressed concern that trade in bear organs may continue to place pressure on the declining wild bear population, especially in Asia. East Asia is the centre for the …
THE Adlife Protection Act, 1991, bans the trade of wild animals and its related products. Despite this, a trade in antlers of sambar and cheetal is still continuing with the official sanction in Uttar Pradesh. Sources say that a number of forest divisions have been identified from where the shed …
NEW ZEALAND has become a major transit point for traffickers dealing in Australian birds captured illegally from the wild. According to a report from TRAFFIC Oceania, which monitors wildlife trade in the region, traffickers smuggle eggs and birds into New Zeal4nd and export them to Europe, Asia and the US. …
A. The quick and the dead Human pressure, lack of research and shrinking forests coupled with a thriving international trade in wildlife threatens to turn a zoologist's Garden of Eden into a poacher's paradise on november 25, 1996, Vietnamese Premier Vo Van Kiet issued a dire warning to his audience …
The present century has seen very few discoveries of new mammalian species. Of the four discovered so far, Vietnam itself accounts for three. In the 1990s, two new species of big mammals
With Vietnam slowly opening up to Western scientists in the last decade, numerous organisations have been vying with each other to study the country's flora and fauna. After Ho Chi Minh ousted the French in 1954, Vietnam's leaders closed the country and its forests were effectively locked to outsiders. Even …
Ornamental fish breeding has expanded recently in Hanoi because of rising incomes. Increased incomes and a liberalised foreign trade is also taking a heavy toll of orchids and rhododendrons. Ethnic minorities collect rhododendron plants in large quantities in the high mountains and bring them regularly for sale in the cities, …
The 72 million litres of herbicides sprayed by US forces in Vietnam during the war will continue to plague several generations of post-war populations with a high rate of reproductive abnormalities. Some 40 million litres of Agent Orange were sprayed; the herbicide contained 170 kg of dioxin, which is the …
The threat to deforestation comes from several basic reasons: the nature of the country's economy; its high population growth rate; firewood demand; shifting cultivation and fire damage; economic liberalisation; and, the pressure on the country to earn foreign exchange through biomass exports like wood and rice. The per capita income …
Afforestation : In 1993, a 10-year programme was initiated to regreen the barren lands of Vietnam. But as one diplomat in Hanoi pointed out, the government went about the task of greening the land "in a militaristic manner', and planted eucalyptus and other exotic species over large stretches of the …
what makes Vietnam particularly worthy from a biodiversity point of view is also its very rich base of traditional medicine. This means Vietnam has the potential to make a worthwhile contribution to the global food and health sectors. Says Nguyen Duc Tao of the Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation, which is trying …
About 89 per cent of the Vietnamese population consists of lowland Kinhs and the Muong people, who occupy the two agricultural deltas of the Red River and the Mekong river, besides the narrow coastal strip. The remaining 11 per cent consists of ethnic minorities, most of whom live in the …
Vietnam has an Association of Herbal Traditional Doctors with a nationwide membership of about 20,000, which is recognised by the government. But the association is starved of funds. These traditional doctors often offer their services free and are usually very poor. Berit Richter, a Danish activist working in Hanoi, is …
The Delhi High Court recently upheld the countrywide ban imposed by the Central government on trade of ivory and snakeskin while dismissing several petitions filed by hundreds of traders. The court clarified that if any trade in any article damages the ecology, then it could be held as a trade …
NEW YORK has pipped Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries in carrying out illegal trade in tiger parts. A major undercover survey of Chinese supermarkets and pharmacies by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has revealed that more than 80 per cent of stores sold products claiming to …
