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 …
In this work, we developed an automated system to detect potentially illegal elephant ivory items for sale on eBay. Two law enforcement experts, with specific knowledge of elephant ivory identification, manually classified items on sale in the Antiques section of eBay UK over an 8 week period. This set the …
Conservationists and politicians have called on the EU to ban the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters’ trophies from African countries that cannot prove their lion populations are sustainable, following the killing of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion by a European hunter with a bow and arrow. The …
Molepolole — Rivers in and around Gaborone are under pressure as illegal sand mining increases. It was established during a stakeholder consultative meeting in Metsimotlhabe that lack of relevant laws to guide sand mining hindered efforts to fight illegal sand mining. The Mogoditshane-Thamaga sub-district commissioner, Mr Mothibi Monyakeng said despite …
Maputo — Farmers in the central Mozambican province of Manica on Sunday asked the government to take measures against the illegal mining which is polluting the rivers in the region. The polluted water reaches irrigated fields, the farmers say. It is carrying sludge containing heavy metals, which damages the pumps …
Residents of Khaniara village lost right to carry out mining in March 2014 Residents of Khaniara village in Dharamsala lost the right last year to carry out slate mining in Dhauladhar hills after the state government failed to deposit about Rs 1.6 crore as Net Present Value (NPV) for 25 …
China lodges diplomatic protest after court issues harsh punishments in crackdown on illegal timber trade along border China has lodged a diplomatic protest with Burma after a court sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life imprisonment for illegal logging. China’s voracious demand for raw materials has fuelled resentment in Burma towards …
Chennai: Madras High Court on Thursday granted six more weeks to Legal Commissioner U Sagayam, IAS, whom it had appointed to probe and report on the illegal granite mining and related issues in the State. The first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice TS Sivagnanam extended the time …
The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, has signed up as a founding member of the pan-African Giants Club, joining political and business leaders to combat an illegal wildlife trade that has devastated Africa’s elephant herds. In a long-awaited move, he also committed to the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI), which was …
The anti-poaching campaign received a boost on Sunday, following a donation of various equipment from China that includes vehicles, generators and telescopes worth 2.6bn/-. Presenting the donation, the Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Lu Youqing, rightly said that his country appreciated the country's efforts in fighting poaching. Ambassador Lu also …
Sand mining is as lucrative as gold mining, goes an old adage in Uttarakhand. No wonder then that the state government is pushing so hard to get environment clearances, so the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) can benefit from sand mining. Managing director C Ravishankar of GMVN told TOI, "Mining …
MADURAI: Situated next to the sprawling Madakulam village tank is Kovalimalai - a 1,500 feet tall hillock - with a temple of Goddess Kabaleeswari at the top. For villagers of Madakulam, the hillock and the temple are important places but they are worried that soil miners have been looting the …
Rhinos, tigers and elephants could be saved from poachers by their own heart beats, a global-tracking device and a video camera. “The heart rate monitor triggers the alarm the instant a poaching event occurs, pinpointing the location within a few meters,” Paul O’Donoghue, chief scientific adviser for British conservation company …
South Sudan’s wildlife has been forced to relocate to neighboring countries due to rampant poaching and their habitats being used as battlegrounds during the ongoing crisis. Many animals flee their homes for safety in neighboring countries, as their habitats have become the epicenter for fierce clashes between warring factions, says …
Nairobi — Rampant illegal trading in ivory in Hong Kong is pushing elephants towards extinction, conservationists said Thursday, reporting more ivory items on sale there than in any other city. The sale of ivory items from government registered stockpiles predating the 1990 ban is allowed for domestic use in Hong …
Efforts to address illegal logging and reduce the trade in illegal timber have borne fruit and prompted some positive reforms in producer countries. However, changes in the sector mean overall trade has not fallen in the last decade. China is now the world’s largest importer and consumer of wood-based products, …
Recognizing that wild animals and plants are an irreplaceable part of the natural systems of the Earth, the United Nations General Assembly urged its Member States to take decisive steps to prevent, combat and eradicate the illegal trade in wildlife, on both the supply and demand sides. Through the new …
In April, scores of hillside homes in Fraswad and Shalnand villages in Jammu and Kashmir collapsed in a landslide amid heavy rains. Eighteen people died. Not long ago, those same sloping hills had been covered in forest. But illegal tree harvesting by timber smugglers denuded the area, making it ripe …
Maputo — The Mozambican authorities on Monday incinerated in Maputo over 2.4 tonnes of ivory and rhinoceros horns seized from poaching gangs. In all, 618 elephant tusks (weighing 2.2 tonnes) and 86 rhino horns (weighing 236 kilos) were consigned to the flames. The tusks and horns had been seized in …
Mozambique burned 2.5 tonnes of seized ivory and rhino horn on Monday as part of a campaign to end an illicit trade that is fueling a wave of big animal poaching in Africa, a conservation group said. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said in a statement that over 2,400 kgs …
THOSE acquiring timber from forests to sell must have licences or face a maximum fine of $5000, says North forestry officer Lasiasa Kuritani. Speaking at the Seaqaqa advisory councillors meeting last week Mr Kuritani said the problem of illegal logging was rife in the Seaqaqa area. Mr Kuritani encouraged advisory …
