‘Let us trade’: Debate over ivory sales rages ahead of CITES summit
VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe — A decade ago, what was supposed to be a one-off sale of 102 tonnes of ivory from southern African states raised $15 million for conservation and…
Angola pledges $60m to fund landmine clearance in national parks
The Angolan government has pledged $60 million to clear landmines in two national parks that form part of southern Africa’s highly biodiverse Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. The country’s environment minister,…
China seizes over 2,700 elephant tusks in massive bust
In one of the biggest busts in recent years, Chinese officials have seized 2,748 elephant tusks weighing more than 7 tonnes, the General Administration of Customs announced earlier this week.…
Kenya on the brink of acquitting ivory trafficker number four (commentary)
Update: The NGO Wildlife Direct, which has offices in Kenya, reports that Ephantus Mbare Gitonga was acquitted by a magistrate at Mombasa Law Courts on April 25, 2019. It could…
Elephant in the room: Botswana deals with pachyderm population pressure
This is the second article in a two-part series on Botswana’s population of African elephants. Read the first part, about a reported increase in poaching, here. CHOBE NATIONAL PARK, Botswana…
Trouble in Botswana’s elephant paradise as poaching said to rise
This is the first article in a two-part series on Botswana’s population of African elephants. Read the second part, about measures to deal with the number of elephants, here. CHOBE…
Chinese ‘Queen of Ivory’ sentenced to 15 years in jail for tusk trafficking
A Tanzanian court has sentenced Yang Fenglan, a Chinese national dubbed the “Queen of Ivory,” to 15 years in prison for smuggling the tusks of more than 350 African elephants over…
Audio: IUCN’s Inger Andersen: “Women represent 3.5 billion solutions”
On today’s episode, we talk with the Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Inger Andersen. Listen here: Founded in 1948 and headquartered in…
China busts major ivory trafficking gang following EIA investigation
Chinese authorities have nabbed all three identified members of a major ivory trafficking syndicate first exposed by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2017. In its 2017 report, EIA had…
Audio: Rhett Butler on how sound can save forests and top rainforest storylines to watch in 2019
On today’s episode, we welcome Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler to discuss the biggest rainforest news stories of 2018 and what storylines to watch in 2019. He also discusses…
Vietnam’s illegal ivory market continues to thrive, report finds
Vietnam’s illegal ivory markets are still thriving, according to a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Over two surveys conducted between November 2016 and June 2017, TRAFFIC’s…
Singapore proposes total ivory ban, calls for public feedback
The Singapore government has proposed a complete ban on the domestic trade of elephant ivory in the country. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), the agency responsible for safeguarding animal…
New research measures impacts of China’s elephant ivory trade ban
When China banned all commercial trade in elephant ivory and shuttered its domestic ivory markets at the end of 2017, conservationists applauded the measure. But they also warned that if…
Wildlife detectives link smuggled African elephant ivory to 3 major cartels
Around 40,000 African elephants are illegally killed for their tusks every year. But catching ivory poachers, and successfully convicting them, has remained incredibly hard. In 2016, for instance, Kenyan businessman…
87 elephants found dead in Botswana, one of last safe havens for the species
Poachers have killed at least 87 elephants in recent months in Botswana, according to the conservation nonprofit Elephants Without Borders, which has been conducting an aerial survey of the animals.…
The appeal acquittal of Feisal Mohamed Ali: A victory for rule of law, a process corrupted, or both? (commentary)
Could it have come at a worse time for Kenya’s Tourism and Wildlife Ministry? With Kenya still stinging from the humiliation and embarrassment over the translocation-related deaths of 11 rhinos,…
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…
Fingerprinting technology gives investigators an edge against pangolin traffickers
Wildlife crime investigators now have a new method that builds on the forensic techniques used to collect fingerprints and other identifying marks in helping them track down traffickers of pangolins…
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…
Owner of South African hunting company indicted by US prosecutors over illegal elephant hunt
The owner of a trophy hunting business in South Africa has been indicted by prosecutors with the United States Department of Justice for violating the Endangered Species Act and the…
Documenting the African elephant’s ‘last stand’: Q&A with filmmakers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
“Walking Thunder” can feel like a family trip around the continent of Africa — if your parents were award-winning photographers and explorers. The mesmerizing film about the African elephant by…
Will China’s new ban on the ivory trade help or hurt? (Commentary)
At the end of 2017, China announced it had closed down the domestic trade in ivory. Conservation establishment players did victory laps declaring the move a major step in curtailing…
Black rhinos return to Zakouma National Park in Chad
Zakouma National Park in Chad is now home to six black rhinos, the new set of residents reminiscent of an earlier time for the Central African country’s oldest national park.…
Conservationist known as a caretaker for Kenya’s orphaned elephants dies at 83
Daphne Sheldrick, a conservationist known for her work to care for and return orphaned elephants to the wild, died of breast cancer on April 12 at the age of 83.…
U.K. ban relegates legal ivory trade to ‘a thing of the past’
The government of the United Kingdom announced today that it plans to introduce a stringent ban on the trade of ivory. “Ivory should never be seen as a commodity for…
Five-year sentences for elephant poachers in Republic of Congo
A court in the Republic of Congo has convicted three men of killing elephants for their tusks, and sentenced them to five years in jail as well as fined them…
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…
Hong Kong votes to ban ivory trade by 2021
In a historic move, 49 Hong Kong lawmakers voted on Jan. 31 to end all domestic ivory trade by 2021 and passed the Endangered Species of Animals and Plants (Amendment) Bill…
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…
