Two suspected poachers arrested for killing of Sumatran elephant
Authorities in Indonesia have arrested two of four suspects alleged to have killed a rare Sumatran elephant and hacked off one of its tusks last month. Police in East Aceh…
Anti-poaching News
Poachers blamed in second Sumatran elephant death this year
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia have blamed poachers for the death of an elephant found with one of its tusks hacked off, in one of the world’s most…
New technology leads to the arrest of eight people suspected of trafficking wildlife parts
A multinational search in May resulted in the arrest of eight men, including three government officials, for allegedly smuggling pangolin scales and elephant tusks, according to Freeland, a Bangkok-based anti-trafficking…
This tiny camera aims to catch poachers — before they kill
If it wasn’t for the hidden camera, the poachers might have escaped undetected. A few minutes past midnight on Jan. 19, a camera positioned at an obscure location inside the…
Scientists tackling conservation problems turn to artificial intelligence
New technologies are generating far more information than ever before to help scientists assess and predict the health and behavior of species and ecosystems, as well as the threats they…
Kenyan reserve’s tourism monitoring app builds revenue and transparency
Nature reserves frequently operate with scarce resources, relying on revenue from tourism or donations for their survival. When managers of the Mara Triangle portion of Kenya’s renowned Maasai Mara National…
Duterte orders navy to fire on foreign poachers in Philippine waters
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has called on the navy to shoot at foreign ships suspected of extracting natural resources from his country’s exclusive maritime territory. Duterte made the…
Robbery or retribution? Police investigate death of prominent conservationist in Kenya
Esmond Bradley Martin, a well-known elephant and rhino conservationist, has been found dead, apparently of a stab wound to his neck, according to multiple media reports. His wife, Chryssee, found…
Scientists deploy DNA analysis and radiocarbon dating in latest salvo against ivory trafficking
The United States, a major ivory market The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, when the African elephant was listed among species prohibited for commercial…
Powering cameras and empowering people
Keeping equipment running in harsh field conditions can challenge any tech project, as can working successfully with volunteers. Some projects have to manage both. A recent Wildtech post describes wpsWatch,…
Crowdsourcing the fight against poaching, with the help of remote cameras
For the last two years, a U.S. non-profit and local partners in South Africa have quietly been catching wildlife poachers using remote cameras connected to a unique cross-continent volunteer monitoring…
To Counter Wildlife Trafficking, Local Enforcement, Not En-Route Interdiction, Is Key (commentary)
The global poaching crisis has induced large segments of the conservation community to call for far tougher law enforcement. Many look to policing lessons from decades of counter-narcotics efforts for…
Poachers blamed as body of Sumatran elephant, missing tusks, found in protected forest
PALEMBANG, Indonesia -- Wildlife activists in Indonesia suspect poachers poisoned an elephant found with its tusks hacked off in a protected forest in southern Sumatra. The body of the male…
Indonesian ex-soldier among three jailed for illegal trade in Sumatran rhino, tiger parts
MEDAN, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced three men, including a former soldier, to two years in jail for illegally trading in body parts from a critically endangered…
Rhino DNA database helps officials nab poachers and traffickers
Authorities protecting rhinos in Africa now have a tool to help them catch poachers based on fine-scale differences in the DNA of different individuals. The Rhino DNA Index System, or RhODIS…
Trump puts controversial decision allowing elephant trophy imports ‘on hold’
Last Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted a ban on importing elephant trophies from Zimbabwe imposed under President Barack Obama in 2014. At a meeting of government officials…
Black rhinos in Tanzania now monitored via sensors implanted directly in their horns
In a first for the species, several black rhinos in Tanzania’s Mkomazi National Park have had small, networked sensors embedded directly in their horns in order to allow park rangers…
Questioning militarization is essential for successful and socially just conservation (commentary)
Constructive engagement with concerns about the rise in militarized forms of conservation are very welcome. I currently run a four-year project funded by the European Research Council, BIOSEC, which explores…
Attacks on ‘militarized conservation’ are naive (commentary)
Over the past few months, a few academics have released a tide of articles (for example here, here, and here) criticizing what they call the “militarization of conservation,” but their…
USAID Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge awards Acceleration Prizes for rapid tech developments
The USAID Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge announced three winners of an Acceleration Prize worth US $100,000 for demonstrating rapid progress in developing a wildlife crime solution system. The Challenge previously…
Stalking snow leopards: Q&A with the director of “Ghost of the Mountains”
Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are known for their elusive ways. Even people who share the mountains with the silvery felines seldom spot them. In spring 2014 a crew of filmmakers…
North America’s ash trees, Africa’s antelopes face heightened threat of extinction
The latest update to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, released today, finds that even species once considered so abundant as to…
Leading ivory trade investigator slain in Tanzania
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - One of Africa’s top ivory trade investigators has been shot dead by gunmen in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Wayne Lotter was the co-founder and President…
On World Elephant Day, troubling times for African elephants
Every year on August 12, the world celebrates elephants, but recent years have not been great for these iconic animals. According to research published last year, the African elephant population…
Pangolin hunting skyrockets in Central Africa, driven by international trade
Ballooning demand for pangolin scales and meat has driven the hunting of these armored animals up at least 145 percent in Central Africa since before 2000, according to a new…
On poaching in South Africa, education “has saved more wildlife than any guard with a gun”
HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa – Vince Barkas, a grizzled high-school dropout with a sharp tongue and piercing blue eyes, is at war in the grasslands and savannas here in northeast South…
Footprints in the forest: The future of the Sumatran rhino
LAHAD DATU, Malaysia – The rhino breeding center near the entrance to Danum Valley Conservation Area sits like an oasis of calm against the cacophony of beeps, woots and zaps…
Wildlife ecologist killed in Rwandan national park by recently translocated rhino
Anti-poaching efforts in Africa are inherently dangerous, especially given the increasing militarization of the poaching gangs that are decimating elephant and rhino numbers across the continent. But recent news out…
Conservation group African Parks to look after West African wildlife
The conservation NGO African Parks has signed an agreement with the government of Benin to rejuvenate a little-known park in the West African country of Benin. The organization will help…
New York detective work saves rhinos in South Africa (commentary)
The sun is just about to rise over a savanna in Zululand, South Africa. Just like early morning in the city, the hum of insects is rising, the chorus of…
DRC’s Garamba National Park: The last giraffes of the Congo
GARAMBA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo – Scientist Mathias D’haen said he couldn’t believe his eyes. We had been walking in the bush for a couple of days in…
Rwanda welcomes 20 black rhinos to Akagera National Park
Twenty rhinos are moving to a new home in Rwanda from South Africa over the next two weeks. The reintroduction will bring the eastern black rhinos (Diceros bicornis michaeli), a…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
- Monitoring group cracks down on deforestation in Cameroon gorilla sanctuary
- Western Kenya’s most important water-capturing forest is disappearing, satellites show
Oceans
- Conservationists see progress for swordfish, problems for sharks at Atlantic fisheries summit
- As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
