wildlife trade news reports, seizures, policy, development, conservation
Mountain gorilla Gorilla beringei beringei silverback watching through forest, Virunga Mountains © naturepl.com / Andy Rouse / WWF
the latest headlines from the world of wildlife trade: Wildlife
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948 matching article(s).
Sweet trade: Shifting trade in liquorice root from Central Asia towards sustainability
30th October 2020—TRAFFIC and the Kazakhstani NGO Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) hosted a virtual stakeholder workshop on the topic of "Sustainability of Liquorice root trade from Kazakhstan" earlier this month. The meeting was organised in collaboration with the Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which presented a study on Liquorice production and trade from Kazakhstan and its sustainability. Producers, conservation specialists and local policy makers joined to share their take on the issues. read full story >
Record elephant ivory seizure of 626 kg in Cameroon
Douala, Cameroon, 26th October—Cameroonian Customs officials last week seized 118 ivory tusks weighing approximately 626 kg, carefully hidden in a truck of merchandise at Ambam, in the Southern region of Cameroon. It is the largest seizure made in the area, where the three countries of Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea meet. read full story >
Mixed news on Southern Bluefin Tuna: stocks rebuilding but Indonesia is overfishing
Cambridge, UK, 21st October 2020—The annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) took place last week where online delegates welcomed the news that the Commission's rebuilding target for the spawning population for Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) to return to 30% of its unfished size is on track to be met by 2035. However, this positive news was somewhat overshadowed by deliberations on Indonesia exceeding its Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for 2019 and 2020. read full story >
TRAFFIC launches Elephant Trade Information System Online
Cambridge, Geneva, 15th October 2020—ETIS Online, a new online platform for the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) was launched today by TRAFFIC.The new website, named ETIS Online, was produced following a request made at the 69th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee in 2017. The site aims to bolster the collection of data on seizures involving elephant specimens and access to such data by submitting Parties. The new functionalities will facilitate enriching data available for analysis to inform international policy relating to preventing and addressing illegal ivory trade. read full story >
Timber legality training workshops held in Cameroon
Cameroon, October 2020—last month two train the trainer workshops on timber legality issues took place in Cameroon, in Douala and Nkolandom respectively. Participants were taken through the contents of six training modules developed with the technical support of the Network of Forestry and Environmental Training Institutions of Central Africa (RIFFEAC). The modules covered: legal timber in the Congo Basin; the timber value chain; timber traceability in the supply chain; timber trade; certification of timber; and the legality verification systems. read full story >
Corruption in the use of permits and allocation of access rights
12th October 2020, Cambridge—TRAFFIC, under the USAID-funded Trageting Natural Resources Corruption (TNRC) project, has released a brief around the stages in a wildlife supply chain where permits for harvest or trade are issued, inspected or accepted, and their inherent vulnerabilities to corruption. read full story >
China Customs turn their attention to the complexities of timber trade
Zhangjiagang, China, 30th September 2020—A total of 36 officers representing 24 different customs branches in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces, and Shanghai Municipality received training earlier this month on Supervision and Regulation of Timber from Endangered Species. The training took place in Zhangjiagang, one of the largest timber importing ports in China and was jointly organised by the China CITES Management Authority Shanghai Branch, Zhangjiagang Customs and TRAFFIC. read full story >
EU's "unlikely" role in global tiger trade revealed in new WWF, TRAFFIC report
Cambridge, UK, 30th September 2020—Weak legislation and limited checks on private captive tiger facilities across the EU and the UK provide significant opportunity for tiger parts, such as skins and bones, to enter illegal trade, according to a joint report from WWF and TRAFFIC, Falling Through the System: The role of the European Union captive tiger population in the trade in tigers. read full story >
The People Beyond the Poaching
Johannesburg, South Africa, 24th September 2020—TRAFFIC has interviewed 73 convicted wildlife offenders incarcerated in 25 of South Africa's correctional centres to learn at firsthand the motivations that drove them to take such drastic action and risk arrest. read full story >
Pressure on the Philippine Forest Turtle continues
Manila, Philippines, 4th September 2020—Demand for the illegal pet trade continues to be a key threat to the Philippine Forest Turtle Siebenrockiella leytensis, prized by collectors for its uniqueness and placed amongst the world's Top 25 most endangered turtles. New research that documented seizures, online and market trade over different periods from 2004 found thousands of Philippine Forest Turtle trafficked over the years. read full story >
Benefitting species and people: the journey towards sustainable and equitable Jatamansi trade
Kathmandu, Nepal, 1st September 2020—a three-year project in Nepal has been helping local harvesters of Jatamansi—a plant used in aromatherapy, cosmetics, and food—to boost their income by increasing the value of their product through sustainable harvesting, improving their international market access and clarifying legal issues around the trade. Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi, syn. N. grandiflora) is one of Nepal's most commercially valuable and utilised species: between 100–500 tonnes of rhizomes are harvested from high-altitude Himalayan regions every year. At least 15,000 people across the Himalayan region depend on Jatamansi harvesting for 25% of their annual income. read full story >
Artisanal Shark Trade in the Republic of the Congo
Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, 17th August 2020—Congolese artisanal fishers are increasingly turning to shark fishing because of increased scarcity of other stocks overfished by industrial fisheries: urgent legislative and management improvements are needed to prevent a collapse of shark fishing and protect local livelihoods finds a new TRAFFIC report. read full story >