Wildlife Trafficking: Who Does it? Allows it?

Wildlife trafficking is a crime that spans the globe, giving criminals billions of dollars in illegal proceeds, driving endangered species closer toward extinction, and fueling corruption.

The internet is certainly the cornerstone of modern technology and a boon for so much innovation. However, along with all its advantages, there are some serious drawbacks and one of the latest is online smuggling of wildlife.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Elephant poachers in the Central African Republic are taking advantage of political turmoil to hunt in protected areas to sell the animals’ meat and tusks.

The already-rampant poaching trade — fueled by high ivory demand from Asia and responsible for the slaughter of between 20,000 and 30,000 elephants a year in Africa — has been further exacerbated by the ousting of President Francois Bozizé last month, Reuters reported.

“The situation is really quite dangerous,” Bas Huijbregts, the World Wildlife Fund’s head of policy in the region, told Reuters.

The World Wildlife Fund, which has been working on conservation projects in the CAR since the 1980s, reported that the poaching is occurring in protected areas like the Dzanga-Sangha, a UNESCO World Heritage Site....

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/27/elephant_poaching_on_the_rise_in_central_african_republic_partner/

Incidents of poaching are increasing in Barmer and it looks like the poachers are not scared of being caught.

On the evening of April 23, 2013 Meridian hosted a program on “Collaboration Across Borders: Anti-poaching and Anti-trafficking of Wildlife Efforts from Local and International Perspectives,” which focused on these issues from different...

Secure airports are crucial to winning the fight against rhino poaching and the illicit trade of wildlife throughout the world.

Hunting for ivory on the African continent has tripled, and elephants now are facing their gravest crisis in decades, according to the U.N. Environmental Protection Agency and other conservatio...

Simon Pope, Director of Campaigns and Communications for the World Society for the Protection of Animals, questions why the UK government is so far behind other global powers when it comes to tackling the illegal wildlife trade.

It serves as yet another reminder that the trafficking game affects far more than just the charismatic we hear (and write) most about....

Colombian officials reportedly seized 64,507 animals from traffickers in 2012...

Read more: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/colombia-has-a-wildlife-trafficking-problem#ixzz2QxrIllwx 

Bear paws, turtle soup and live monkey's brains, Jerrie Demasi spent five days in Cambodia experiencing the murky world of the illegal wildlife trade.

There are two types of poachers.

Meat poachers poach mainly plains game to sell the meat or to eat themselves.

They are best dealt with by “normal” methods of law-enforcement, education, poverty alleviation and even integration into the wildlife management system. These people are for the most part hungry and this type of poaching can be brought under control to the extent of game populations and biodiversity not being threatened. However, as in the case of the DR Congo and many West African countries, the bush-meat trade can get out of control. This is in large part due to a lack of will and effort of the governments concerned to limit and regulate the practice. Meat poaching is also tied to the poaching of gorillas for “muti” (traditional medicine). In the case of the mountain gorillas the problem is more akin to the elephant and rhino poaching, requiring similar strategies and tactics to combat it....

These poachers are usually ex-guerilla fighters or the like and ere well equipped with fully automatic weapons, heavy calibre hunting rifles and at times even rocket propelled grenades. The RPGs and fully automatic assault rifles are not suitable for hunting and invariably wound, maim and cause suffering long drawn-out death due to infection and blood loss....

The purpose of fully automatic assault rifles and RPGs is of course also for use against Parks rangers and scouts, army, police or anyone else that may try to stop them.

Now, imagine groups armed like this were crossing into the US and usually opened up on anyone trying to track and apprehend them. It’s quite simple they would be take them out!...

Considering how massive the internet is for commerce, it'd be erroneous to think that it's not also equally huge for the wildlife trade. But it's a realm that's under-enforced. The US Fish and Wildlife Service only has a handful of agents focused on internet trade, and while the UK has a dedicated Wildlife Crime Unit, it's only just added its first dedicated internet intelligence officer....

Eyes in the sky save baby orphaned elephant

April 2013. Alone in the wild and still dependent on its mother's milk, no orphaned baby elephant would have a chance of survival unless rescued. Luckily for Tundani, a lone male elephant calf, he was spotted by a David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) Pilot on a routine aerial surveillance flight. Having been rescued, he is now being given a second chance at the DSWT's Nairobi Orphanage where he will be hand-raised before being gradually rehabilitated back into the wild.

He added that despite short notice, the trader managed to arrange for nearly 300 parrots, even though the birds are a protected species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. “It points to a well oiled, illegal animal trade.

The five-day exercise, which started on Monday (April 23, 2013) is a collaboration between the two countries and their agencies; Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Wildlife Division of Tanzania and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), together with affiliated Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) like African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Amboseli Trust for Elephants, School of Field studies Tanzania, Honey Guide foundation among others...

VIENNA, April 23 (Reuters) - Growing Asian demand for ivory and rhino horn as gifts and hangover cures - not for traditional medicine - is fuelling a poaching boom, international officials said on Tuesday, demanding stiffer penalties for...

On Thursday, December 13, 2012, AWF's CEO, Patrick Bergin, discussed the critical threat to Africa's wildlife posed by the ever-growing illegal wildlife trad...

Because wildlife managers are overwhelmed by the rhino horn poaching epidemic, investigations into missing lions will likely take second place

 

Following a tip-off from the public officers from the Philipphine Coastguard made a search of a boat in Coron, Palawan and discovered 23 pangolin hidden in the roof space of the boat.

Pratik Patel gazed glumly as the herder's scrawny brown dogs moved between piles of bones to eat the rotting elephant flesh. He pointed to the nearby road and wondered aloud: How could poachers kill an elephant just five kilometres from Tanzania's main safari highway?

Conservationists have long warned of the existential danger that poachers pose to Africa's elephants. And it's in Tanzania, home of the Serengeti game reserve and one of the world's two largest elephant populations, that the scale of the killings and the involvement of government employees may be the most chilling.

The three elephant corpses seen by an Associated Press reporter eight weeks ago lay in a game park just a few miles from a busy junction outside Arusha, a city of 500,000 people....

Over a thousand critically endangered Madagascar tortoises have been seized during trafficking attempts in the first three months of 2013, prompting a coalition of NGOs to call for urgent action from Malagasy authorities.