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 …
Africa's rare forest elephants which play a key role in replenishing the central African rainforests will need almost a century to recover from an onslaught by ivory poachers because of their slow birth rate, a study published on Wednesday said. The study by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society is …
“We are cleaning the house now”, says Celso Correia. The young, smartly-dressed, minister for land, environment and rural development in Mozambique is talking about the corruption and illegal logging that has dogged the southern African country’s timber sector for more than a decade. As recently as 2013, a remarkable 93% …
At best, just 2,500 Indochinese leopards survive today across Southeast Asia. They have been eradicated from 93% of their historic habitat by snares, poachers, deforestation and declines in prey. Can conservationists stop the bleeding before its too late? Conservationists have long known that it’s hard – and in some cases …
While international efforts are under way to help keep dwindling populations of monarch butterflies from disappearing, scientists are raising concerns about how severe weather and a loss of forest habitat at their wintering grounds in Mexico are affecting them. Every year, monarchs embark on an epic multigenerational migration that takes …
Despite recent crackdown on illegal sand mining at several locations in Maharashtra, there are still a few sites where such activity is going on brazenly. Activists have complained to the authorities about large-scale sand mining taking place close to the sea creek near Ulwe-Belapur link road, at Ganeshpuri, leading to …
Legislative action in response to the organ trade has centred on the prohibition of organ sales and the enforcement of criminal sanctions targeting ‘trafficking’ offences. This paper argues that the existing law enforcement response is not only inadequate but harmful. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered in Cairo, …
A newly deployed team of specially trained dogs have helped authorities in Tanzania seize a haul of elephant tusks, with conservationists hoping the canine allies can help significantly slow rampant poaching in the country. The dogs – Jenny, a Belgian Malinois, and Dexter, an English springer spaniel – discovered the …
KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) observed on Thursday that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) was patronising the mafia running the illegal water hydrants and selling the essential commodity to residents at higher prices than tap water. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, also called for …
The first ever Zoohackathon will convene this October 7-9 across six zoos in the US, Europe, Asia and Pacific. Organized by the US Department of State, Association of Zoos and Aquariums and World Wildlife Fund, the hackathon will address the increasingly rampant global challenge of wildlife trafficking. “The idea is …
BENGALURU: After failing to check rampant illegal mining in the last two decades, the government has come up with a solution to protect its dwindling mineral resources. It has decided to create a dedicated police force to curb the exploitation and transportation of minerals. "Police officials say it is difficult …
That African elephants are in deep trouble has been widely publicized in recent years. They’re being poached at an unsustainable rate, and their numbers have dropped from 600,000 a decade ago to some 400,000 today. That’s why next month’s meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of …
The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) sitting in Arusha has added its voice in the fight against poaching. The region has been used as a conduit for illegal game trophies for many years. But it has also contributed to the trade that has been taken over by organised crime syndicates. …
According to Survival International, fires are “raging” in Awá territory on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon and “threatening to wipe out uncontacted members of the Awá tribe.” Small groups of Guajajara Indians, the Awá’s neighbors in the Amazon, reportedly battled the blaze for days without the assistance of government …
JAIPUR: Sub-divisional magistrate Ramanand Sharma of Sikar district was put on Awaiting Posting Orders (APO) on August 15. In a press release, People's Union for Civil Liberties has said that instead of honouring a man who has been working with uprightness, the state has sought to punish him. Ex-SDM Sharma …
For 20,000 years the remains of millions of woolly mammoths remained locked in permafrost in Siberia and elsewhere—until recently. Warming temperatures have melted this icy layer, bringing their valuable ivory teeth within grasp and leading to a burgeoning trade. For several years conservationists have said this trade is hurting mammoths’ …
NEW DELHI: Seeking to provide more teeth to the existing wildlife protection law, the Centre is looking for an option to introduce clauses of stricter punishment and to change the law to bring it in sync with international conventions which target the trade in endangered species. One of the proposals …
Elephant ivory has long been used worldwide to make a host of items from jewelry, piano keys and billiard balls to art and personal seals. Japan, which used ivory to make hanko (personal seals), was one of the biggest importers in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing in about 950 tons …
MANGALURU: As the monsoon ban on sand mining ended on Monday, Dakshina Kannada department of mines and geology is now gearing up to monitor illegal extraction and transportation of sand. Since the sale of sand is restricted only to the local market catering to the construction industry of the region, …
Three lorries and an earthmover allegedly involved in illicit sand mining near Uvari were detained by Cheranmahadevi Sub-Collector V. Vishnu on Thursday evening. When Mr. Vishnu saw an earthmover mining sand from the mounds near Kodavilai near Uvari and loading the mineral on to the lorries, he asked the drivers …
BVRio’s analysis found that more than 40 percent of the forest management operations in the Brazilian states of Pará and Mato Grosso between 2007 and 2015 were at medium to high risk of having involved severe breaches of the law. Only 10 percent of the cases examined by BVRio showed …
