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 …
Authorities in Singapore say they’ve seized yet another illegal shipment of pangolin scales, this time adding another 12.7 tons to last week’s interdiction of 12.9 tons of scales – or about 21,000 endangered pangolin. The latest seizure came after inspection of a 40-foot container that was en route to Vietnam …
On the outskirts of Durban Deep, an abandoned mining town with a labyrinth of underground tunnels long since abandoned by the big gold companies, Elizabeth goes rhythmically about her work. Grinding piles of rough stones into white, gold-flecked silt on a large concrete slab, the 40-year-old is one of the …
PANJIM: The Principal Bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Goa Government to consider constituting a Special Task Force (STF) to deal with the illegal mining of minor minerals in the State. The tribunal has also asked the State government to submit progress report on the action initiated …
Starting July 1, anyone in Japan who wishes to register and sell a whole elephant tusk must first prove its age through carbon dating. According to Ministry of the Environment officials, the new measure is meant to ensure that illegal tusks acquired after 1990, when international trade in ivory was …
China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Wednesday held an advocacy workshop here to raise awareness on wildlife trafficking amongst Chinese nationals living and working in Botswana. The workshop which took place at Chinese Embassy in Botswana was attended by more than …
In a briefing paper released March 14, Global Witness accused ten companies from the EU of importing timber harvested illegally from the DRC. Industrie Forestiere du Congo (IFCO) logged outside of its approved operational area in a remote DRC forest, the watchdog group said. According to Global Witness, the IFCO …
Three rhino poachers are behind bars awaiting their sentencing after a Durban magistrate convicted them at the end of a 10-year trial. Magistrate Logan Naidoo in the Durban Magistrate's Court found Muntugokwakhe Khoza, 50, Ayanda Buthelezi, 40, and SANDF officer Mduduzi Xulu, 51, guilty on Monday. According to Daily Maverick, …
International regulations designed to limit the environmental impact of electronic waste could be making the problem worse, experts in Southeast Asia say. The region’s e-waste sector has been under the spotlight since news broke in May last year of an e-waste smuggling ring in Thailand. One firm implicated in the …
A four-year investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) advocacy group traced illegally sourced timber from the forests of Congo Brazzaville and Gabon, to discover what it says are extensive holdings by a Chinese firm linked to bribery, corruption, tax evasion and ecosystem destruction. “According to evidence collected by EIA, …
Brazil possesses vast tracts of public lands, especially in the Amazon, which exist in the public domain. Traditional peoples, landless movements, quilombolas (communities established more than a century ago by Afro-Brazilian slave descendants), and other homesteaders have the legal right to lay claim to these lands. It is the job …
Victoria’s environment department has been so ineffective at regulating logging in state forests that the government-owned forestry enterprise VicForests has effectively been left to self-regulate, according to an independent review. The report, quietly released on the day of the school climate strikes and the Christchurch terror attack, finds the Department …
Kenya's leaders have said that the Mau forest is under threat from illegal logging and clearing and waters that used to flow from the forest are now drying up. In order to protect East Africa's largest indigenous forest, the government is planning to force 10,000 people to move elsewhere. But …
An investigation by Buzzfeed News revealed how for years, paramilitary anti-poaching forces funded and trained by WWF have killed and tortured indigenous villagers on the fringes of national parks. Even after the conservation nonprofit was made aware of the human rights abuses in 2015, it continued supporting armed eco-guards around …
With the world's forests increasingly under threat from climate change and logging, leaders and top bank chiefs pledged billions on Thursday to help reverse the steep decline in Africa's woodland areas. So far this century East Africa alone has lost around 6 million hectares of forest, swathes of which contain …
18 tubewells in Narnaul and Nangal Choudhary blocks sealed A team of the groundwater cell with the Agriculture Department has found stone crushing units in Narnaul and Nangal Choudhary blocks utilising groundwater commercially in violation of rules. The extraction of groundwater for the commercial purpose is illegal in the two …
GULU, Uganda, March 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The convulsive rhythms of local "lakubukubu" music blast from the back of a pickup truck in the dusty town of Pajule, where two towering trees give welcome shade. At a community meeting in the northern Ugandan town, "Our Trees, We Need Answers", …
The European Parliament begins debate March 11 on a resolution to consent to the recently signed Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with Vietnam on the trade of timber and timber products from the Southeast Asian country. The VPA is the result of nearly eight years of negotiations aimed at stopping the …
The news that over 7,500 kilograms of pangolin scales have been seized in the last five years in Cameroon has again brought to light the devastating reach of international poaching and trafficking in Africa. Even more shocking, this month, was the seizure in Vietnam of 2,500 kg of pangolin scales …
Abuja — A report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that six states in Nigeria were the leading destinations for illegal mining of solid minerals in the country. The report: "Improving Transparency and Governance for Value Optimisation in Nigeria's Mining Sector," was presented to the public …
This brochure highlights information about and efforts to address international wildlife trade (IWT) in the Philippines, with inputs from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources–Biodiversity Management Bureau. The Philippines is a consumer, source, and transit point for IWT, threatening endemic species populations, economic development, and biodiversity. The country has …
