24th October 2018 Guatemala City, Guatemala
I spent last weekend on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, in the rain. Rain, however, is what you need if you want to see one of nature’s most amazing spectacles – a female turtle coming ashore in the blackness of the night to dig a hole in the sand and lay 40 – 60 eggs. […]
Read more on Of turtles and (the illegal wildlife) trade | Reply (2)
12th October 2018 Vienna, Austria
This week the United Kingdom is hosting many world leaders. They are coming to London to make commitments in the fight against the Illegal Wildlife Trade. The Illegal Wildlife Trade, or IWT, is not only big – the fifth largest transnational organised crime in the world – it also has incalculable costs for endangered species […]
11th October 2018
Previous conferences on the illegal wildlife trade haven’t tended to feature much discussion of illegal logging and the trade in illegal timber – probably because most trees in international trade are not endangered species. Nevertheless, there are several common elements between illegal logging and the illegal wildlife trade. Both flourish in situations of weak governance […]
Read more on The illegal timber trade, forest governance and lessons for tackling illegal wildlife trade | Reply
10th October 2018
This week the UK hosts a conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, bringing together global leaders to work together to end wildlife crime. Here two conference delegates from Africa pen a guest blog for the Foreign Office on what they’ll put into the conference – and what they expect to get out of it. “What […]
Read more on The fight against the illegal wildlife trade CAN be won | Reply
21st September 2018
The South African duo who risked EVERYTHING to film the illegal trade in rhino horn in Africa and Asia South African filmmakers Susan Scott and Bonne de Bod sold their homes and moved back in with their parents to undertake a dangerous three-year-long investigation into the murky underground world of the illegal trade in rhino […]
Read more on World Rhino Day – Journey into the Rhino Horn War | Reply (1)
6th September 2018
Seized from the wild when they’re as young as 6 weeks to feed the illegal pet trade, cheetah cubs may look cute but more often than not they don’t survive. ‘Pet’ cheetahs rarely make it past a year. Cheetah populations are plummeting.
Read more on Fighting the heartbreaking trade in exotic pets | Reply (8)
6th August 2018
In Cameroon, endangered pangolins are sold for their meat and smuggled to Asia for their scales. Conservationists and the government of Cameroon are intensifying their efforts to clamp down on this illegal trade.
Read more on Saving pangolins: London Zoo helps train customs agents in Cameroon to fight illegal trade | Reply (2)
24th July 2018 Harare, Zimbabwe
The Akashinga rangers Being an anti-poaching ranger in Zimbabwe used to be a profession reserved for men. But that’s changing, thanks to the success of the Akashinga rangers, an all-female anti-poaching team operating in the northern Hurungwe area.
Read more on The rangers saving elephants in northern Zimbabwe | Reply (2)
30th May 2018
Poaching doesn’t just kill elephants and rhinos. Too often these days there are other victims: vultures. In southern Africa, poachers lace the carcasses of their prime targets with powerful poisons that kill the magnificent birds of carrion.
Read more on Poaching wars: UK-supported poison response kit helps cut vulture mortality rates | Reply (2)
3rd May 2018
Remember that heart-wrenching picture that flashed round the world last year of the poached rhino with its horn roughly sawn off by the waterhole against South Africa’s grey skies?
Read more on South African wildlife photographer on saving Africa’s rhinos | Reply (8)