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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=ivory&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ivory/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2026 21:11:47 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Ivory</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ivory/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka elephant found with a gunshot wound. How can tuskers be protected?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2026 16:39:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/09151713/1.-the-tusker-Kavanthissa-in-middle-with-Chandi-left-and-Raghu-right-c-Pathum-Bandara--768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South Asia and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation Solutions, Controversial, Elephants, Endangered Species, flagship species, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Mammals, Solutions, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO –- Wildlife enthusiast Pathum Bandara watched Kavantissa, believed to be Sri Lanka’s tallest living tusker, moving gently through the landscape on Sept. 20 around Galgamuwa in the island’s northwestern dry zone, a well-known human-elephant conflict zone. The following day, Bandara noticed that the elephant was limping. A closer look revealed a gunshot wound on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO –- Wildlife enthusiast Pathum Bandara watched Kavantissa, believed to be Sri Lanka’s tallest living tusker, moving gently through the landscape on Sept. 20 around Galgamuwa in the island’s northwestern dry zone, a well-known human-elephant conflict zone. The following day, Bandara noticed that the elephant was limping. A closer look revealed a gunshot wound on his right foreleg, close to the knee. The discovery was alarming because an untreated gunshot wound could become infected and cause severe trauma, potentially threatening an elephant’s ability to walk, feed and survive. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) dispatched a team to treat the elephant. DWC’s veterinary surgeon Isuru Hewakottage said Kavantissa was sedated to enable the cleaning and treatment of the wound. He received several rounds of powerful antibiotics and remains under observation. Following treatment, Kavantissa has begun moving between small forest patches, sometimes crossing human settlements and the well-known elephant passage near Galgamuwa. The tusker appeared to be recovering but became aggressive after the gunshot injury, sometimes even chasing villagers and wildlife officers, exposing the tusker to renewed threats including the possibility of being fired at, Bandara told Mongabay. Iconic tusker Kavantissa, left, with Sankha, a young elephant, photographed in 2022. Sankha had a mobility restriction caused by a previous gunshot injury and died after falling into a pit. Image courtesy of Pathum Bandara. Bandara recalls the plight of another young tusker once closely associated with Kavantissa. Sankha, a young tusker, was about half Kavantissa’s age and was often seen together during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘How did you come to be here?’ Study digs into origins of Zambian wildlife crime</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/how-did-you-come-to-be-here-study-digs-into-origins-of-zambian-wildlife-crime/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/how-did-you-come-to-be-here-study-digs-into-origins-of-zambian-wildlife-crime/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2026 21:22:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex Megerle]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/17070507/Elephants_Zambia_Fawaz_Tairou-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329983</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Global, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Environment, Governance, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Mammals, Organized Crime, Pangolins, Poaching, Rhinos, Trade, trafficking, Ungulates, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The man in the Zambian prison recalled how he ended up there. He’d been approached by someone who had an uncle in the capital, Lusaka, who was willing to buy ivory and pangolin scales. He gave the man a phone and a number to reach him. “He promised that the money I would get would [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The man in the Zambian prison recalled how he ended up there. He’d been approached by someone who had an uncle in the capital, Lusaka, who was willing to buy ivory and pangolin scales. He gave the man a phone and a number to reach him. “He promised that the money I would get would enable me to build a house and take my children to school,” the man said. The story of this inmate — who was eventually arrested and incarcerated for an elephant-related offense — drives home an important truth. Wildlife crime is a multifaceted industry fueled by various participants with a slew of motives, ranging from local people who may occasionally capture and sell an animal to middlemen who handle logistics to heavily armed poaching gangs and the kingpins that rule over large international syndicates. The lower-level links in the chain are simpler to catch and prosecute, but are easily replaceable, so their arrest does little to stop poaching. The NGO Wildlife Crime Prevention (WCP) Zambia, in partnership with Copperbelt University, recently interviewed more than 300 inmates imprisoned for wildlife offenses in the country to learn how and why people on the lower rungs of the industry took their first steps into wildlife crime. “We wanted to understand better the drivers of the more grassroots-levels offenders and why they get involved — and how we might avoid them being involved again,” said one of the study&#8217;s authors, who needed to remain anonymous so not to endanger their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/how-did-you-come-to-be-here-study-digs-into-origins-of-zambian-wildlife-crime/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/how-did-you-come-to-be-here-study-digs-into-origins-of-zambian-wildlife-crime/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329983</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On ivory, follow the trafficking networks and not the headlines (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2026 22:47:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mary Rice]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/25133056/image1-e1786130110289-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325640</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Global, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Charismatic Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Environment, Governance, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Mammals, Organized Crime, Poaching, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In early March 2026, acting on intelligence shared by my organization, the Environmental Investigation Agency UK, Zambian authorities seized a consignment of more than 500 kg (over 1,100 pounds) of ivory and arrested a suspect with long-standing links to regional ivory trafficking operations. One of the suspects involved in the case was convicted in 2019 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In early March 2026, acting on intelligence shared by my organization, the Environmental Investigation Agency UK, Zambian authorities seized a consignment of more than 500 kg (over 1,100 pounds) of ivory and arrested a suspect with long-standing links to regional ivory trafficking operations. One of the suspects involved in the case was convicted in 2019 for possession of more than 200 kg (almost 441 lbs) of ivory and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020. He was released after a matter of months and has continued trading ivory ever since. So, Zambia, which has been exploited by criminal networks operating with relative impunity since at least 2002, is under the spotlight once again. Of particular concern is the involvement of Congolese criminal groups, which continue to operate across Zambia and the wider region, sourcing and moving wildlife products including elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and big cats along complex transnational routes toward Asia, with Vietnam often serving as a key transit hub to other destinations. Exploiting the lack of political will, weak enforcement, corrupt officials and marginalized communities to facilitate their trade, these networks have been orchestrating poaching expeditions into neighboring countries, using Zambian intermediaries to supply their illicit trade chains. This recent interception in Zambia — alongside two other large-scale seizures made in Tanzania and Botswana in April and May respectively — brings the minimum total of ivory seized globally since 2023 to approximately 29 tons, nearly 64,000 pounds. That’s the equivalent of at least 4,000&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325640</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Laos’s illegal wildlife shops keep growing despite enforcement, investigators find</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 01:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/14121851/baby-pagolin-in-market-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Monkeys, Organized Crime, Pangolins, Poaching, Rhinos, Tigers, Tourism, Trade, Traditional Chinese Medicine, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Schemes funneling Chinese tour groups through illegal wildlife shopping sites in Laos appear to be persisting and even expanding in spite of some law enforcement action by authorities, Mongabay has learned. In July 2025, a joint Mongabay investigation identified up to 21 illegal wildlife shopping sites embedded in package tours catering to Chinese [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Schemes funneling Chinese tour groups through illegal wildlife shopping sites in Laos appear to be persisting and even expanding in spite of some law enforcement action by authorities, Mongabay has learned. In July 2025, a joint Mongabay investigation identified up to 21 illegal wildlife shopping sites embedded in package tours catering to Chinese nationals in the Laotian cites of Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Typically masquerading as cultural centers, restaurants, jewelry stores and the like, or as stores embedded in such venues, the shopping sites typically only showcase their products to Chinese-language tours run by Chinese and Laotian operators, while barring entry to anyone else. Since then, the number of these shops appears to have nearly doubled, according to multiple groups investigating these operations on the ground. Mongabay has seen evidence suggesting that as many as 35 shops are now operating in Luang Prabang and Vientiane, with 22 in the former and the rest in the latter. When Mongabay asked the Laotian Department of Forestry about the first 21 shops in mid-2025, a spokesperson suggested that at least some of them were not registered as retail shops and that they would investigate. Since then, authorities have made seizures of suspected illegal wildlife products at several shopping sites in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, including of nearly 50 kilograms (110 pounds) during inspections of 17 unnamed locations In November and December, and of more than 57 kg (126 lbs) at an unnamed location on June 13, according to local media reports.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/laoss-illegal-wildlife-shops-keep-growing-despite-enforcement-investigators-find/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge ivory bust raises questions about follow-up investigations in Tanzania</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/huge-ivory-bust-raises-questions-about-follow-up-investigations-in-tanzania/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/huge-ivory-bust-raises-questions-about-follow-up-investigations-in-tanzania/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 18:06:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/08180430/Elephant_Tanzania_sama093FlickrBYNCND2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320774</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Mammals, Poaching, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A North Korean man is set to face trial in Tanzania this week following his arrest in April while in possession of 500 elephant tusks. Un Hyok Ra was arrested April 19 at a hotel in Dar es Salaam, and is scheduled on June 9 to answer to charges of unlawful possession of the ivory [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A North Korean man is set to face trial in Tanzania this week following his arrest in April while in possession of 500 elephant tusks. Un Hyok Ra was arrested April 19 at a hotel in Dar es Salaam, and is scheduled on June 9 to answer to charges of unlawful possession of the ivory and intent to trade it. Tanzania is a signatory to CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, which requires parties to conduct forensic analysis of ivory seizures of 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) or more to determine where it came from. This is intended to support investigations that go beyond the typically low-level traffickers who are caught in possession. Tanzanian police did not respond to questions from Mongabay about the origins of the seized ivory or who Ra allegedly planned to sell it to. During an administrative hearing on May 28, prosecutor Florida Wancelaus told the court only that investigations are ongoing. Chris Morris, founder of wildlife crime monitoring group Saving Elephants through Education and Justice (SEEJ), based in neighboring Kenya, estimated that 504 tusks would weigh roughly 2,500 kg (about 5,500 lbs). In an email to Mongabay, he said law enforcement in the region does not always meet the CITES requirement to conduct DNA analysis on confiscated ivory. “It remains to be seen if Tanzania will comply with this directive,” Morris wrote. Morris, a former war crimes investigator, said Tanzanian authorities have often withheld information that would help sister agencies in the region and beyond trace&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/huge-ivory-bust-raises-questions-about-follow-up-investigations-in-tanzania/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/huge-ivory-bust-raises-questions-about-follow-up-investigations-in-tanzania/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nigeria aims for stronger wildlife protections with sweeping new law</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nigeria-aims-for-stronger-wildlife-protections-with-sweeping-new-law/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nigeria-aims-for-stronger-wildlife-protections-with-sweeping-new-law/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 10:52:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Valentine Benjamin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13141332/WhiteBelliedPangolin.Phataginus-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319185</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Forests, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Mammals, Pangolins, Poaching, Trade, Wildlife Rangers, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, spectacular seizures of illegally trafficked wildlife products, including consignments of ivory and pangolin scales weighing several tons, have provided plenty of evidence of Nigeria’s position as a hub for international trafficking rings operating across Africa, Europe and Asia. In October 2025, the country’s Senate passed a new bill to strengthen the country’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, spectacular seizures of illegally trafficked wildlife products, including consignments of ivory and pangolin scales weighing several tons, have provided plenty of evidence of Nigeria’s position as a hub for international trafficking rings operating across Africa, Europe and Asia. In October 2025, the country’s Senate passed a new bill to strengthen the country’s wildlife legislation. As the bill awaits the president’s signature, its supporters say the country now has the basis for stronger wildlife protection on paper, but the government will need to provide agencies with the resources, coordination and political backing to enforce the law. “This new bill addresses long-existing gaps in our legal framework,” the bill’s sponsor and vice chair of the environment committee in the House of Representatives, Terseer Ugbor, told Mongabay in September 2025. “The old law was riddled with ambiguities. It failed to specify whether its provisions applied only to international wildlife trade or also to domestic transactions.” Despite many headline seizures of illegally trafficked wildlife, including pangolin scales and ivory, these busts rarely result in prosecution of traffickers. Mongabay previously examined official records covering the decade from 2012-21 and found just 11 cases had gone to court — just three convictions were secured. In each case, those found guilty paid a fine equivalent to $240 to avoid a three-year jail sentence. In interviews with prosecutors, enforcement officials, campaigners and traders at wildlife markets at the time, Mongabay heard that in most cases, seizures of contraband were not followed by investigation; the same&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nigeria-aims-for-stronger-wildlife-protections-with-sweeping-new-law/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nigeria-aims-for-stronger-wildlife-protections-with-sweeping-new-law/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319185</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Poaching down but threats remain for forest elephants, recent population assessment finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jan 2026 15:06:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312624</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Elephants, Endangered Species, Forests, Ivory, Mammals, Megafauna, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 145,000 African forest elephants roam the rainforests of Africa, according to a recent population assessment. Published in December by the African Elephant Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the survey relies on improved DNA-based techniques to provide the first estimate for these critically endangered pachyderms since they were recognized [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 145,000 African forest elephants roam the rainforests of Africa, according to a recent population assessment. Published in December by the African Elephant Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the survey relies on improved DNA-based techniques to provide the first estimate for these critically endangered pachyderms since they were recognized as a distinct species in 2021. African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are found primarily in the dense rainforests of Central Africa, with significant but dwindling numbers remaining in West Africa, and small populations in East and Southern Africa. Hybrids with their close cousins, savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), also occur infrequently where both forest and savanna elephants are found. Counting these shy and elusive giants is a challenge for researchers as they blend into their surroundings or vanish into the dense understory of their forest habitat. A forest elephant with calf in Gabon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Some 153 population surveys, carried out between 2016 and 2024 across roughly three-quarters of L. cyclotis’s known range, counted 135,690 forest elephants. The IUCN’s assessment included 22 elephant populations, mostly in Central Africa, that had not previously been surveyed. The researchers estimate there are as many as 11,000 more elephants in the remaining parts of the species’ range, pushing the total to just over 145,000 individuals. “This report is the first one that shows forest elephant numbers,” report author Fiona Maisels, a conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told Mongabay by email. “In previous iterations, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312624</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Iain Douglas-Hamilton, elephant protector, has died at 83</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/iain-douglas-hamilton-elephant-protector-has-died-at-83/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/iain-douglas-hamilton-elephant-protector-has-died-at-83/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2025 13:46:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09134315/IainDouglas-HamiltonPortrait_SaveTheElephants-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310868</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Elephants, Environment, Green, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Obituary, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For nearly six decades, Iain Douglas-Hamilton worked across the savannas of Africa, his scientific focus fixed on its largest inhabitants — the elephants. It was said he could identify an elephant by the pattern of its ears or the wrinkles in its skin. He liked to note that elephants were like people — capable of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For nearly six decades, Iain Douglas-Hamilton worked across the savannas of Africa, his scientific focus fixed on its largest inhabitants — the elephants. It was said he could identify an elephant by the pattern of its ears or the wrinkles in its skin. He liked to note that elephants were like people — capable of deep social bonds and flashes of temper. Douglas-Hamilton, who passed away on December 8th, 2025, at the age of 83, devoted his life to ensuring that they had a future. Born in Dorset, England, Iain was the younger son of Lord David Douglas-Hamilton, a decorated Royal Air Force (RAF) officer, and Prunella Stack, a pioneer of women’s fitness. From an early age, he was drawn toward Africa. After studying zoology at Oxford, he followed that pull. At 23, he arrived in Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park, where he began the first scientific study of elephant behavior in the wild. It was there that a professional interest became a lifelong responsibility. Douglas-Hamilton’s connection to elephants was not only intellectual. He spent long hours simply observing them — the quiet moments as important as the dramatic ones. He recalled a particular elephant that would approach his vehicle regularly, until a point that he could walk alongside her, feeding her wild gardenia fruits. “She was very special,” he said. “One day, she brought her babies to meet me.” But as he traveled across Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, he saw how the ivory trade was emptying landscapes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/iain-douglas-hamilton-elephant-protector-has-died-at-83/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310868</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As forest elephants plummet, ebony trees decline in Central Africa’s rainforests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 13:05:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29012123/F-afe-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305092</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Ecosystems, Elephants, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Ivory, Poaching, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Seed Dispersal, Solutions, Traditional Knowledge, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially about ebony trees and their dispersal. They all told him that one animal was responsible for the ebony tree’s future survival: the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). Deblauwe observed that in forest patches without elephants, young ebony saplings were few and far between. Over the last three decades, relentless poaching, fueled by the insatiable demand for ivory in China and Southeast Asia, has plunged African forest elephant numbers by a whopping 86%, pushing them perilously close to extinction. However, the long-term impacts of this mass slaughter on the region’s trees remained largely unknown. In the years that followed, Deblauwe and his colleagues braided the Baka people’s knowledge about ebony and elephants with spatial, genetic and experimental data on ebony trees, providing the first convincing evidence of a mutualistic relationship between the two species, now published in a new study in the journal Science Advances. The researchers teased out why elephants play such a vital role in maintaining ebony trees in the forests. When elephants eat the large, pulpy ebony fruits and excrete the seeds, their dung protects those seeds from rodents and other animals that would otherwise eat and destroy them. Ebony fruits, with smooth pulp&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305092</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Large-scale illegal wildlife shops in Laos found scamming Chinese tourists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2025 08:00:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/21121045/AP760576283416-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Consumption, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Mongabay investigation, Organized Crime, Poaching, Tourism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUANG PRABANG, Laos — “No coffee, no coffee,” repeated the security guard. His smile stood in stark contrast to his faded camouflage fatigues and the machine gun slung over his shoulder. Few cafés in the sleepy Laotian tourist town of Luang Prabang boast armed guards, but Kin Liao Coffee is not the average café. While [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUANG PRABANG, Laos — “No coffee, no coffee,” repeated the security guard. His smile stood in stark contrast to his faded camouflage fatigues and the machine gun slung over his shoulder. Few cafés in the sleepy Laotian tourist town of Luang Prabang boast armed guards, but Kin Liao Coffee is not the average café. While it’s unclear if Kin Liao Coffee actually serves coffee, the café situated on the side of the road near the Kuang Si waterfall has been found to illegally sell a wide array of ivory, rhino horn and bear bile products, as well as Angong Niuhuang Wan — a traditional Chinese medicine that is often manufactured in North Korea using powdered rhino horn. Kin Liao Coffee is just one of more than 20 locations across Luang Prabang and the Laotian capital of Vientiane identified in a joint investigation between Mongabay and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) as selling illegal wildlife products at scale. These shops appear to exclusively cater to Chinese tourists, specifically those visiting Laos on pre-arranged low-budget package tours. The tours target elderly Chinese nationals, promising them all-inclusive trips to explore the historic ties between the two countries, often via the China-Laos railway. Upon arrival, tour groups are ferried from one shop to another, where sellers — mostly Chinese nationals themselves — use coercive and manipulative sales tactics to pressure tourists into buying illegal wildlife products, most of which are sold at inflated prices, the investigation found. Large ivory carvings, some&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pandemic-era slump in ivory and pangolin scale trafficking persists, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2025 08:31:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/17082738/White-belliedPangolin_Gabon_BureaubenjaminINaturalistBYNC4.0-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Asia, Cameroon, Central Africa, China, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Asia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Ecology, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Hunting, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Over-hunting, Pangolins, Poaching, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public documents, and criminal intelligence and investigations, analysts at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) found authorities seized more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public documents, and criminal intelligence and investigations, analysts at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) found authorities seized more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales and 193 metric tons of elephant ivory between 2015 and 2024. Seizures began to ramp up in 2015, peaked in 2019, and then declined sharply in 2020. The report found that the pandemic disruption to trade and travel, coinciding with increased enforcement based on intelligence, prompted these declines. Post-pandemic, the decline in trade has continued to hold as countries intensify law enforcement and intelligence gathering. “The report was motivated by a need to present up-to-date findings and offer a current assessment of the evolving criminal dynamics surrounding ivory and pangolin scale trafficking,” Olivia Swaak-Goldman, WJC’s executive director, told Mongabay by email. “From our investigations, we knew there had been some major changes since our last reports … so it was timely to publish updated analysis and highlight these shifts.” Pangolin scales act as armor to protect their body. The WJC report estimates that the 370 tons of pangolin scales seized over the past decade would have come from anywhere between 100,000 and a million pangolins. Image by flowcomm via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Pangolin scales, used in traditional medicine, are in high demand in East Asia. Over the past decade, as Asian pangolin numbers plummeted,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Regulation loopholes fuel illegal wildlife trade from Latin America to Europe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2025 11:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/24110011/spiny-lizard-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296330</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Latin America, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Regulations, Threatened species, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, a biodiversity hotspot home to 40% of the world’s species, is witnessing an alarming decline in its wildlife. Illegal wildlife trafficking to wealthier parts of the world, such as North America and Europe, is one of the factors driving the decline. A recent report highlights the scale of wildlife smuggled illegally from Latin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, a biodiversity hotspot home to 40% of the world’s species, is witnessing an alarming decline in its wildlife. Illegal wildlife trafficking to wealthier parts of the world, such as North America and Europe, is one of the factors driving the decline. A recent report highlights the scale of wildlife smuggled illegally from Latin America into Europe, including the EU and Russia, and discusses how traffickers abuse loopholes in existing EU wildlife trade regulations. Published by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the report stems from a 2024 study that found staggering levels of illegal wildlife crimes in Spanish-speaking America. The report found 34 wildlife trafficking seizures in Europe involving almost 2,500 animals belonging to 69 species between 2017 and 2023. More than half of the seized individuals were amphibians (59%), followed by birds (29%) and reptiles (12%). More than 94% of all seized wildlife were live animals, suggesting the exotic pet trade is a key driver. “The EU is a major market, but it&#8217;s not only for illegal [trade], it&#8217;s legal and illegal, and the problem is, the illegal gets laundered through the legal system,” says Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). “It&#8217;s not new, but the problem hasn&#8217;t gone away.” An iguana with its front legs tied being illegally shipped from Honduras. Image by David M. Hillis / ©&#xfe0f; IFAW. With the EU set to act on its 2022 revised action plan to end wildlife trafficking by strengthening regulations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/regulation-loopholes-fuel-illegal-wildlife-trade-from-latin-america-to-europe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296330</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lives worth living: Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and the fight for coexistence</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/lives-worth-living-elephants-iain-douglas-hamilton-and-the-fight-for-coexistence/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/lives-worth-living-elephants-iain-douglas-hamilton-and-the-fight-for-coexistence/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 17:14:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leonie Joubert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/13164358/IainDouglas-Hamilton1970s_Kenya_SaveTheElephants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295749</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Ivory, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At this point in history, the hubristic belief that people are above nature has allowed humans to bring immeasurable change to the natural systems that all of life depends upon for survival. The documentary A Life Among Elephants — a collaboration between filmmakers Maramedia, elephant “whisperer&#8221; Iain Douglas-Hamilton, his family, and their organization Save the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At this point in history, the hubristic belief that people are above nature has allowed humans to bring immeasurable change to the natural systems that all of life depends upon for survival. The documentary A Life Among Elephants — a collaboration between filmmakers Maramedia, elephant “whisperer&#8221; Iain Douglas-Hamilton, his family, and their organization Save the Elephants — could not be more timely. When Jane Goodall and Iain Douglas-Hamilton sat to compare notes at the start of their careers in the early 1960s, it wasn’t as scientists. Their conversation sprang from their shared and growing wonder at the individuals they were encountering in their work in East Africa. There was a sense of personhood that Goodall saw as she grew to know the chimpanzees she studied, and the elephants that Douglas-Hamilton could have called his family. Douglas-Hamilton’s work led him to a growing realization that each elephant has personality, individuality, and sentience, Goodall says in A Life Among Elephants. “Iain is devoted to conserving them because he knows each of them as an individual with a life worth living,” she says in the film. More than simply studying elephants, Douglas-Hamilton spent a lifetime communing with African elephants, before he went on to champion their conservation as a frenzy of poaching took off in the 1970s and 1980s. He knew individual elephants not just by their unique ear profiles or the slant of their tusks. He knew them by their unique personalities, too. Iain Douglas-Hamilton. Image courtesy Save the Elephants. Goodall and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/lives-worth-living-elephants-iain-douglas-hamilton-and-the-fight-for-coexistence/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vietnam grapples with ‘alarming popularity’ of online illegal wildlife trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/vietnam-grapples-with-alarming-popularity-of-online-illegal-wildlife-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/vietnam-grapples-with-alarming-popularity-of-online-illegal-wildlife-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jan 2025 02:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/25051910/Pangolin_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293440</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Pangolins, Rhinos, Tigers, Traditional Medicine, Turtles And Tortoises, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new investigation by wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC has uncovered an “alarming” slew of online adverts offering illegal wildlife products for sale in Vietnam, despite pledges from multiple platforms to clamp down on such content. The report, based on monitoring of social media groups and e-commerce platforms in Vietnam between June 2021 and July [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new investigation by wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC has uncovered an “alarming” slew of online adverts offering illegal wildlife products for sale in Vietnam, despite pledges from multiple platforms to clamp down on such content. The report, based on monitoring of social media groups and e-commerce platforms in Vietnam between June 2021 and July 2023, focuses on items made from body parts of elephants, rhinos, pangolins, tigers, tortoises and freshwater turtles. Researchers identified 22,497 online posts by sellers based in Vietnam that overtly advertised products related to these species, with elephant ivory and tiger products each accounting for more than one-third of the total adverts. The authors note the actual number of items will be much higher, since the opacity of online groups curtailed the team’s ability to monitor the full range of adverts. The brazen availability of products from threatened and protected species confirms the “continued alarming popularity” for such products in Vietnam, according to the report. “The consistent prevalence of wildlife trade online could suggest a persistent demand, requiring considerable effort to alter social values and discourage illegal wildlife-based purchases,” the report says. More than 8,000 tigers are kept in captivity in China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, where they are farmed to supply the demand for their body parts in traditional medicines. Image by liux2x via Pixabay. Most of the listings were aimed at buyers looking for animal-based traditional medicines, exotic pets, wild meat, and jewelry and other decorative curios. The researchers also uncovered an emerging trend&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/vietnam-grapples-with-alarming-popularity-of-online-illegal-wildlife-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/vietnam-grapples-with-alarming-popularity-of-online-illegal-wildlife-trade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293440</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Elephants, gorillas and chimps hold out in Cameroon’s largest protected landscape</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/elephants-gorillas-and-chimps-hold-out-in-cameroons-largest-protected-landscape/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/elephants-gorillas-and-chimps-hold-out-in-cameroons-largest-protected-landscape/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2025 14:42:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/16140840/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-12-at-13.58.18-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293032</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A survey has found populations of elephant, gorillas and chimpanzees in and around two national parks in southeastern Cameroon has remained relatively stable since 2016. Conservation officials have welcomed this “positive” trend but warn that various threats persist in the region. The survey was conducted by WWF in collaboration with Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A survey has found populations of elephant, gorillas and chimpanzees in and around two national parks in southeastern Cameroon has remained relatively stable since 2016. Conservation officials have welcomed this “positive” trend but warn that various threats persist in the region. The survey was conducted by WWF in collaboration with Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife in Boumba Bek National Park, Nki National Park, and nearby logging concessions and communal forests, covering a total area of 1.08 million hectares (2.68 million acres). It found an estimated 1,004 forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and 19,472 great apes (gorillas and chimps). The results further revealed that elephant density in the parks is 68% greater than in nearby logging concessions. However, the total elephant density in the parks still remains lower than in other protected areas in the Congo Basin. Meanwhile, the population of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in Nki National Park tripled, and that of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) increased slightly in both parks. “The situation is positive,” says Gilles Etoga, conservation director at WWF Cameroon. “The fauna potential of Boumba Bek and Nki continues to be present and representative of the fauna and the great mammals of the Cameroonian forest and is quite well distributed over the two parks and their peripheral areas.” The region’s forest elephants were hit hard in the past. A previous survey, from 2015-2016, revealed a decline of more than 75% in the elephant population of Nki and Boumba Bek, which it attributed to poaching. The IUCN Red List&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/elephants-gorillas-and-chimps-hold-out-in-cameroons-largest-protected-landscape/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293032</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/like-you-i-fear-the-demise-of-the-elephants/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/like-you-i-fear-the-demise-of-the-elephants/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2024 15:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/17153346/QENP23-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291766</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the Safari]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Human Rights, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Ivory, Mammals, Mongabay Data Studio, National Parks, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On June 13, 1959, the Waata hunter Galogalo Kafonde surrendered himself to colonial Kenya’s “Field Force,” Africa’s first militarized antipoaching unit. For centuries, the ethnic Waata had hunted elephants. Killing one was a rite of passage; unlike their neighbors, who raised and kept cows, the Waata lived off game meat and wore elephant skins. Ivory [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first story in the Mongabay Series – Beyond the Safari. Read the others here. On June 13, 1959, the Waata hunter Galogalo Kafonde surrendered himself to colonial Kenya’s “Field Force,” Africa’s first militarized antipoaching unit. For centuries, the ethnic Waata had hunted elephants. Killing one was a rite of passage; unlike their neighbors, who raised and kept cows, the Waata lived off game meat and wore elephant skins. Ivory wasn’t of much use to them, but it could be bartered for other goods with Arab traders in nearby Mombasa. As the ivory trade picked up steam in the 17th century, fueled by the growth of European consumer markets, the Waata’s reputation grew. They were among the best elephant trackers in East Africa, known as the “people of the long bow” for their skilled use of poisoned arrows. But European hunters came to view the Waata and other Indigenous people as competition. In 1897, as Britain set its sights on a permanent Kenyan colony, it banned unauthorized &#8220;native&#8221; hunting. At the stroke of a pen, the core of the Waata’s way of life became illegal. Traders weighing ivory in 1935. Image by Ewing Galloway via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). In 1948, the British created Tsavo National Park, one of the first in Kenya. But its eastern flank was a Waata hunting ground. Richard Sheldrick, one of the 20th century’s most prominent conservation icons, was tasked with stamping it out. Kafonde, the Waata’s most famed hunter, was his prime&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/like-you-i-fear-the-demise-of-the-elephants/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Exploring the science of Asian elephants: Interview with Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/exploring-the-science-of-asian-elephants-interview-with-sanjeeta-sharma-pokharel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/exploring-the-science-of-asian-elephants-interview-with-sanjeeta-sharma-pokharel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2024 11:21:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/12114036/Elephant_SL_RB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282534</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Atlantic Forest, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cities, Conservation, Elephants, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Mammals, Poaching, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Asian elephants traverse vast distances, ingesting things they encounter as they retrace the ancient paths their ancestors followed. In doing so, they alter landscapes, create habitats, and earn the title of “nature’s engineers.” Across the 13 countries in which they’re found today, these giants — among the last remaining megaherbivores — experience immense [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Asian elephants traverse vast distances, ingesting things they encounter as they retrace the ancient paths their ancestors followed. In doing so, they alter landscapes, create habitats, and earn the title of “nature’s engineers.” Across the 13 countries in which they’re found today, these giants — among the last remaining megaherbivores — experience immense stress due to various threats. The historical routes of these Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), known for their remarkable cognitive abilities and sophisticated communication skills, face disruptions due to rapid urbanization and expansion of agriculture. Human persecution, negative interactions with farmland, cross-boundary movements, and infrastructure development all take a heavy toll on an animal that spends 14 to 19 hours daily consuming up to 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of food. Despite their ecological significance, much remains unknown about elephant behavior, internal physiology, and how hormones and environmental stresses influence them. This is where Nepali researcher Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel steps in. A post-doctoral fellow at Kyoto University in Japan, Pokharel investigates how elephants adapt physiologically to ecological, climatic and anthropogenic challenges. Pokharel, a member of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, has conducted pioneering research into stress physiology in elephants in India, particularly in Karnataka and Bengalstates. The findings of her research, which involved analyzing elephant dung, highlight the importance of context, experience and personality in understanding elephants, stressing that results from one study cannot be universally applied. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi recently met Pokharel in Kathmandu to discuss her&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/exploring-the-science-of-asian-elephants-interview-with-sanjeeta-sharma-pokharel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282534</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife trafficking gradually returns after pandemic lull, mostly by sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/wildlife-trafficking-gradually-returns-after-pandemic-lull-mostly-by-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/wildlife-trafficking-gradually-returns-after-pandemic-lull-mostly-by-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2023 20:28:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/20090635/wasser15HR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267229</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, China, Global, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Rangers, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On March 20, officials in Vietnam seized almost 7,000 kilograms (15,400 pounds) of elephant tusks at the port of Haiphong. This confirms the gradual return to normalcy in the illicit wildlife trade industry, which had been slowed down by the pandemic&#8217;s impact on global trade. &#8220;It&#8217;s a very alarming trend to observe — that such [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On March 20, officials in Vietnam seized almost 7,000 kilograms (15,400 pounds) of elephant tusks at the port of Haiphong. This confirms the gradual return to normalcy in the illicit wildlife trade industry, which had been slowed down by the pandemic&#8217;s impact on global trade. &#8220;It&#8217;s a very alarming trend to observe — that such a large quantity of ivory is being trafficked in one shipment,&#8221; Ellen Tyra, an analyst with the wildlife crimes program at C4ADS, a U.S.-based nonprofit that works to expose illicit trafficking networks, told Mongabay. Illegal trafficking of wildlife parts hasn’t fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, but the resumption of trade shows a disturbing pattern of bulk shipments, according to new data. Ivory seizure Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. Photo courtesy of WCS. Elephants are killed to harvest their tusks. Image by Marthijn Brinks via Unsplash (Public domain). The figures from C4ADS show that seizures of elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin products in 2022 were still lower than before global trade was hit by COVID-19-related closures. But the data also indicate a return to large bulk shipments and increased trafficking by sea rather than by land or air. Maritime seizures accounted for more than 50% of the cumulative weight of seized elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales in 2022. Tyra’s team at C4ADS monitors wildlife trafficking using news media, customs websites, reports, and other publicly available sources across five categories of frequently trafficked wildlife: elephants, leopards, pangolins, rhinos and tigers. The resulting data, updated weekly, are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/wildlife-trafficking-gradually-returns-after-pandemic-lull-mostly-by-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267229</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New protections for sharks, songbirds, frogs and more at CITES trade summit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/new-protections-for-sharks-songbirds-frogs-and-more-at-cites-trade-summit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/new-protections-for-sharks-songbirds-frogs-and-more-at-cites-trade-summit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2022 21:40:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/25210549/OceanImageBank_KimberlyJeffries_04-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262955</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Elasmobranchs, Elephants, Endangered Species, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Ivory, Pet Trade, Regulations, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, shark finning, Sharks, Solutions, Species, timber trade, Trade, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid a global biodiversity crisis, nations have agreed to protect threatened species like sharks, songbirds, glass frogs and tropical timber by regulating their trade. Over the past two weeks, member states of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, met in Panama for its 19th meeting, CoP19, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid a global biodiversity crisis, nations have agreed to protect threatened species like sharks, songbirds, glass frogs and tropical timber by regulating their trade. Over the past two weeks, member states of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, met in Panama for its 19th meeting, CoP19, to discuss matters related to the protection of species. By the meeting’s end on Nov. 25, parties agreed to establish new or revised trade regulations on more than 600 animal and plant species. They also discussed ways to address the ongoing illegal trade of species like jaguars, pangolins and elephants, already protected under CITES. Experts say one of the most significant developments was the decision to protect requiem sharks, hammerhead sharks and guitarfish on CITES Appendix II, which restricts trade by requiring export permits. Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), called this decision a “victory” since these sharks account for about 95% of the global fin trade. “Finally, the vast majority of the fin trade will require some regulation that it&#8217;s legal and sustainable,” Lieberman told Mongabay. Before this decision, some sharks were previously listed on CITES, but they accounted for “a relatively small percentage of the global fin trade,” she said. Other vital decisions included protecting all 160 known species of glass frogs (family Centrolenidae), also on CITES Appendix II. Member states of CITES agreed to protect 160 known species of glass frogs (family Centrolenidae) on CITES&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/new-protections-for-sharks-songbirds-frogs-and-more-at-cites-trade-summit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262955</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As poachers poison wildlife, Zimbabwe finds an antidote in tougher laws</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-poachers-poison-wildlife-zimbabwe-finds-an-antidote-in-tougher-laws/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-poachers-poison-wildlife-zimbabwe-finds-an-antidote-in-tougher-laws/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2022 09:07:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/12085002/elephants-in-Zimbabwe-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260173</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Poaching, Poisoning, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly a decade ago, poachers used cyanide to slaughter more than 135 elephants for their ivory in and around Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. In the wake of these poisonings, the Southern African country tightened its laws to prevent similar deadly attacks on its wildlife. A new study shows that, even as international demand for ivory [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nearly a decade ago, poachers used cyanide to slaughter more than 135 elephants for their ivory in and around Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. In the wake of these poisonings, the Southern African country tightened its laws to prevent similar deadly attacks on its wildlife. A new study shows that, even as international demand for ivory fuels poaching across the continent, this pivotal change to Zimbabwe&#8217;s Environmental Management Act in 2018 — combined with efforts to stop poaching before it happens through the improved use of informers — is helping to cut elephant poaching in the country. Under the revised law, it’s no longer essential for prosecutors to establish that an exact concentration of cyanide was used in a wildlife poaching case. “Now you can prosecute people on the basis of intent to use poison maliciously,” says Richard Hoare, a Harare-based conservation consultant and lead author of the study published in the African Journal of Wildlife Research. “Previously, if prosecutors weren’t able to produce evidence of a dead animal, the magistrates would just convict people of illegal possession of a dangerous chemical without a permit,” Hoare says. That allowed suspects to get off lightly, with just a fine or community service. Body of a poached elephant in Zimbabwe. Image by Sokwanele &#8211; Zimbabwe via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). An accessible weapon Cyanide is used in Zimbabwe’s mining industry, and its distribution is supposed to be tightly restricted. But small tablets can be obtained fairly easily by civilians planning to poach. “Small amounts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-poachers-poison-wildlife-zimbabwe-finds-an-antidote-in-tougher-laws/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260173</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Unprecedented crisis’ for Nepal’s elephants: Q&#038;A with conservationist Ashok Ram</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/unprecedented-crisis-for-nepals-elephants-qa-with-conservationist-ashok-ram/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/unprecedented-crisis-for-nepals-elephants-qa-with-conservationist-ashok-ram/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jul 2022 05:13:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/19044440/DSC_0301-1-scaled-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258329</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Elephants, Forest Fragmentation, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Landscape Restoration, Megafauna, Migration, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Throughout much of their range, Asian elephants are regarded as incarnations of the Hindu god Ganesh, the elephant-headed deity of wisdom. But in Nepal, as in neighboring India and across South Asia, this pachyderm that once roamed the entire floodplain of the Ganges is now restricted to a few patches of forest due [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Throughout much of their range, Asian elephants are regarded as incarnations of the Hindu god Ganesh, the elephant-headed deity of wisdom. But in Nepal, as in neighboring India and across South Asia, this pachyderm that once roamed the entire floodplain of the Ganges is now restricted to a few patches of forest due to fragmentation of its habitat. The lethal combination of poaching for ivory, destruction of habitat and conflict with humans has now pushed Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) into the endangered category on the IUCN Red List. Of all the threats to the species’ survival, human-elephant conflict is seen as the most devastating. In Nepal alone, nearly 50 elephants have been killed in the span of 20 years in retaliation for eating farmers’ crops. Ashok Ram, a 30-year veteran of Nepal&#8217;s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, has explored the root causes of human-elephant conflict and ways to address them. Ram, who recently completed his Ph.D. on the issue from Wildlife Institute of India, conducted extensive studies on how elephant habitat has been fragmented since the 1930s, and reviewed all cases of human casualties involving elephants in Nepal&#8217;s entire southern region. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi met Ram in Kathmandu recently to talk about his work, the threats elephants face in Nepal, and the way forward for the conservation of the species. The following interview has been translated from Nepali and edited for clarity. Mongabay: Why did you decide to study elephants? Ashok Ram: There are several&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/unprecedented-crisis-for-nepals-elephants-qa-with-conservationist-ashok-ram/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/unprecedented-crisis-for-nepals-elephants-qa-with-conservationist-ashok-ram/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Myanmar wildlife trade remains opaque, despite focus on border hubs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/myanmar-wildlife-trade-remains-opaque-despite-focus-on-border-hubs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/myanmar-wildlife-trade-remains-opaque-despite-focus-on-border-hubs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2022 08:05:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/07074441/Bengal-Slow-Lor-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258073</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Pangolins, Poaching, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lying at the nexus of South Asia, Southeast Asia and China, Myanmar hosts an extraordinary mix of ecosystems that represent some of the last refuges of an ever-lengthening list of imperiled species: tigers, leopards and pangolins to name a few. But the combination of teeming biodiversity and notoriously lax law enforcement also makes the country [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lying at the nexus of South Asia, Southeast Asia and China, Myanmar hosts an extraordinary mix of ecosystems that represent some of the last refuges of an ever-lengthening list of imperiled species: tigers, leopards and pangolins to name a few. But the combination of teeming biodiversity and notoriously lax law enforcement also makes the country a hotbed of illegal wildlife trade, posing a threat to the survival of many species. A recent review, published in Global Ecology and Conservation, indicates that despite detailed studies of international wildlife trade hubs along Myanmar’s eastern border, much of the country’s wildlife trade remains opaque. Specifically, little is known about patterns of domestic wildlife trade and consumption, such as how subsistence poaching and small-scale wild meat markets interact with larger cross-border markets targeting global buyers. “Myanmar is known to be a conduit and a source of wildlife products internationally,” John McEvoy, lead author of the review and a conservation ecologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), told Mongabay. “But really, it&#8217;s a little bit of a black hole.” Besides direct consumption as wild meat, wildlife is traded for use in traditional medicine, jewelry and trinkets, with live animals sold into the pet trade and commercial breeding. McEvoy and his colleagues from SCBI and several Myanmar-based conservation NGOs built a picture of the wildlife trade by synthesizing decades’ worth of data from 59 separate studies, ranging from peer-reviewed research to NGO reports and press releases. Hunted wildlife sold as wild meat in a market&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/myanmar-wildlife-trade-remains-opaque-despite-focus-on-border-hubs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/myanmar-wildlife-trade-remains-opaque-despite-focus-on-border-hubs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258073</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Twenty years since a massive ivory seizure, what lessons were learned? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/twenty-years-since-a-massive-ivory-seizure-what-lessons-were-learned-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/twenty-years-since-a-massive-ivory-seizure-what-lessons-were-learned-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jun 2022 15:33:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julian Newman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/04222619/Botswana-Elephants-Linyanti-Drinking-Herd-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257709</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, China, Malawi, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In late June 2002, the container ship MOL Independence docked at a Singapore port after a voyage of almost a month from Durban in South Africa. On board was a consignment which had been on a far longer journey. Beginning in an industrial area on the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital of land-locked Malawi in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In late June 2002, the container ship MOL Independence docked at a Singapore port after a voyage of almost a month from Durban in South Africa. On board was a consignment which had been on a far longer journey. Beginning in an industrial area on the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital of land-locked Malawi in southern Africa, the container was taken by road to the port of Beira in neighboring Mozambique and loaded onto a feeder vessel to Durban. According to the Bill of Lading, its contents were stone sculptures. Acting on a tip-off from my organization, London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Singapore customs officers inspected the container and discovered more than 6.2 tons of elephant ivory. At the time, it was the largest seizure of its kind since the international ban on the ivory trade had come into force in 1989 and the lessons learned from it would change the way the illegal wildlife trade was investigated and tackled, evolving from simple seizures and the arrests of any low-ranking criminals to much wider-reaching investigations led by gathered intelligence. Some of the ivory discovered in the ‘Singapore seizure’ of 2002. Photo courtesy of Singapore Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). Unfortunately, the abject failure by authorities at both the source and destination countries to properly investigate and prosecute the case allowed the transnational wildlife trafficking syndicate behind the shipment to emerge largely unscathed. It was able to regroup and, through various incarnations, continued to use Malawi as its base of operations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/twenty-years-since-a-massive-ivory-seizure-what-lessons-were-learned-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/twenty-years-since-a-massive-ivory-seizure-what-lessons-were-learned-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257709</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cash-strapped Zimbabwe pushes to be allowed to sell its ivory stockpile</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2022 16:00:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Farayi Machamire]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/01153705/1-elephants-in-Zimbabwe-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256641</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Mammals, Organized Crime, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HWANGE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government recently concluded a conference to attempt to rally international support for the sale of its ivory stockpile. It argues that selling some of the 136 metric tons of elephant ivory and rhino horn that it’s holding — mostly from animals that died of natural causes — could fund its conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HWANGE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government recently concluded a conference to attempt to rally international support for the sale of its ivory stockpile. It argues that selling some of the 136 metric tons of elephant ivory and rhino horn that it’s holding — mostly from animals that died of natural causes — could fund its conservation efforts. Critics say one-off sales in 1999 and 2008 authorized by CITES, the global convention on the wildlife trade, resulted in a sharp escalation in illegal killing and poaching of elephants across Africa, and that legalizing the ivory trade could drive African elephants to extinction. Africa is home to two species of elephants: forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are found in the forests of Central Africa, while the larger and better-known savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) are found across Southern and East Africa, with small remnant populations remaining in West Africa. A third elephant species, Elephas maximus, is found in Asia. Elephants have been slaughtered for their tusks in huge numbers for more than a century. According to global conservation authority the IUCN, elephant populations across Africa fell by around 111,000 in the decade from 2006-2016, primarily due to a wave of poaching, with elephants killed on a scale that had not been seen since the 1970s and ’80s. Trade in elephant parts has been prohibited by CITES since 1989, but Zimbabwe, with support from Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, and Zambia, plans to call for the lifting of the ban on trading ivory at the upcoming CITES meeting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256641</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Singapore, a forensics lab wields CSI-like tech against wildlife traffickers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-singapore-a-forensics-lab-wields-csi-like-tech-against-wildlife-traffickers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-singapore-a-forensics-lab-wields-csi-like-tech-against-wildlife-traffickers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2022 08:31:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Turrell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/13075628/A-dog-from-the-K9-Unit-undergoing-training-with-test-bags-that-resemble-luggage-bags-on-a-conveyer-belt_Credit-NParks-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255804</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Technology, Crime, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Innovation, International Trade, Ivory, Poaching, Research, Science, Technology, timber trade, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Initially we were all excited because we had intercepted a record-breaking ivory shipment,” says veterinarian Charlene Fernandez of Singapore’s new Centre for Wildlife Forensics. “But when we started carrying the tusks one by one into this room to process, everyone suddenly became very quiet. A lot of the researchers started leaving the room as they [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Initially we were all excited because we had intercepted a record-breaking ivory shipment,” says veterinarian Charlene Fernandez of Singapore’s new Centre for Wildlife Forensics. “But when we started carrying the tusks one by one into this room to process, everyone suddenly became very quiet. A lot of the researchers started leaving the room as they couldn’t take the sight of the elephant graveyard in front of them.” After a decade of working in veterinary pathology, it was the first time that the Cornell alumna had seen anything so upsetting. In July 2019, authorities in Singapore had seized 8.8 metric tons of ivory en route to Vietnam aboard a shipment from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, following the opening of the center in August 2021, it was the job of Fernandez’s team to analyze it. What they didn’t realize at that time was that their work would become part of a breakthrough study, which used the same mode of forensic science adopted to arrest the Golden State Killer. The U.S. serial killer and rapist, who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced in 2020, was caught by using technology to trace family trees. But instead of serial killers, the Singapore wildlife center’s DNA findings would be used to catch poachers. A researcher extracting the DNA from samples in the Centre for Wildlife Forensics. Image courtesy of NParks. One-third of the world’s shipping containers pass through the port of Singapore, so the city-state’s anti-poaching efforts are key in the fight against wildlife&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-singapore-a-forensics-lab-wields-csi-like-tech-against-wildlife-traffickers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-singapore-a-forensics-lab-wields-csi-like-tech-against-wildlife-traffickers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255804</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ivory from at least 150 poached elephants seized in the DRC raid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/ivory-from-at-least-150-poached-elephants-seized-in-the-drc-raid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/ivory-from-at-least-150-poached-elephants-seized-in-the-drc-raid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 May 2022 08:50:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/18082117/Forest-elephants-Congo-Basin-Central-Africa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255946</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Mammals, Organized Crime, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized 2 metric tons of ivory in the city of Lubumbashi, a hub for ivory trafficking. The May 14 seizure is one of the largest in recent years, according to Adams Cassinga, who heads Conserv Congo, an NGO that fights wildlife trafficking and which took part in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized 2 metric tons of ivory in the city of Lubumbashi, a hub for ivory trafficking. The May 14 seizure is one of the largest in recent years, according to Adams Cassinga, who heads Conserv Congo, an NGO that fights wildlife trafficking and which took part in the operation. The seized ivory is estimated to be worth $6 million. Authorities arrested three people, believed to be members of one of the major wildlife trafficking rings in the region. The network is linked to the smuggling of 20 metric tons of ivory in the past five years alone. The latest seizure represents more than 150 elephants killed for their tusks, Cassinga said. The tusks originated from countries in Southern Africa, which has seen a surge in ivory trafficking in the 2000s, fueled by demand from Asia, particularly China. Ivory found in a stash house in Lubumbashi, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image courtesy of Adams Cassinga/Conserv Congo At the height of the crisis, 30,000 elephants were being killed every year, an average of 80 a day. African elephant populations have shrunk by 80% in the past 100 years, according to an analysis by WWF. The African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List, while the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is critically endangered, only a step away from being extinct in the wild. Poaching has declined in recent years, a 2021 report by Geneva-based nonprofit Global Initiative Against Transnational&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/ivory-from-at-least-150-poached-elephants-seized-in-the-drc-raid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/ivory-from-at-least-150-poached-elephants-seized-in-the-drc-raid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘A risky business’: Online illegal wildlife trade continues to soar in Myanmar</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2022 05:25:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/04043001/Pangolin_RhettAButler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254414</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Atlantic Forest, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, COVID-19, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Pandemics, Pangolins, Poaching, Social Media, Technology, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid lockdowns, travel restrictions and wet market closures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, wildlife traders shifted their business online. A trade once dominated by face-to-face interactions now sees sellers and buyers chat via social media, conduct mobile banking transactions, and deliver live animals or their parts by courier — often without fear of legal repercussions. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid lockdowns, travel restrictions and wet market closures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, wildlife traders shifted their business online. A trade once dominated by face-to-face interactions now sees sellers and buyers chat via social media, conduct mobile banking transactions, and deliver live animals or their parts by courier — often without fear of legal repercussions. New research from WWF shows that this trend has taken root in Myanmar. The report, based on monitoring in the Southeast Asian country during 2021, shows that trade in protected wild animals and their body parts via Facebook is escalating. Beyond the impact of the trade on the country’s biodiversity, the report highlights the risks to public health from the trade of several high-risk species, namely civets and pangolins, that are considered to be potential vectors in passing zoonotic, or animal-borne, diseases to humans. It also lays out the mechanisms that facilitate the trade and presents possible ways to curb it. An Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) advertised for sale in a Facebook post in Myanmar during 2021. Image © WWF Asia-Pacific “With Asia’s track record as a breeding ground for many recent zoonotic diseases, this sharp uptick in online trade of wildlife in Myanmar is extremely concerning,” said Shaun Martin, WWF regional lead on illegal wildlife trade cybercrime and report co-author. Martin added that despite widespread knowledge of the biodiversity crisis and the lessons learned over the past few years about the virus spillover risk inherent in the wildlife trade, evidence shows that animals&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/a-risky-business-online-illegal-wildlife-trade-continues-to-soar-in-myanmar/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can we plan for a future without trophy hunting? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/can-we-plan-for-a-future-without-trophy-hunting-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/can-we-plan-for-a-future-without-trophy-hunting-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2022 15:52:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Merrill Sapp]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/04222619/Botswana-Elephants-Linyanti-Drinking-Herd-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253846</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Development, Elephants, Human-wildlife Conflict, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Sustainable Development, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In December, the British government announced a plan to ban the import of hunting trophies into the UK.  The proposal has popular support, but there is a vocal contingent that claims the ban will do more harm than good for both people and animals.  Though the ban would be for all trophy hunted items, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In December, the British government announced a plan to ban the import of hunting trophies into the UK.  The proposal has popular support, but there is a vocal contingent that claims the ban will do more harm than good for both people and animals.  Though the ban would be for all trophy hunted items, the most vocal dissent has come from those who are particularly interested in hunting in Africa, especially elephants.  I support the ban, but it must be accompanied by money and a plan for infrastructure development by other means. Trophy hunting of elephants primarily happens in the countries of southern Africa—Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.  These also happen to be places that suffer from long lasting effects of colonialism and marginalization of local people, often with harsh living environments and few natural resources that result in widespread poverty. The middle 1900s, especially the 1970s and 80s, were rough for elephants in Africa.  Elephants were hunted by Europeans and Americans to perilous levels and extirpated from many areas.  This was both for sport and for ivory.  As elephants gained protection due to their decreasing numbers and demand for ivory went down in many parts of the world, the number of African savanna elephants rebounded slightly.  Elephants have been in decline again since the early 2000s.  Although they are still endangered and at risk of extinction, some people in Southern Africa complain of “too many” elephants because of conflict with humans over space and resources.  People&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/can-we-plan-for-a-future-without-trophy-hunting-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253846</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cold case: Half-hearted prosecution lets ivory traffickers escape in Uganda</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/cold-case-half-hearted-prosecution-lets-ivory-traffickers-escape-in-uganda/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/cold-case-half-hearted-prosecution-lets-ivory-traffickers-escape-in-uganda/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2022 15:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/04145023/elephant-uganda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253384</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Pangolins, Poaching, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In January 2019, authorities in Uganda intercepted a shipment of nearly 4 tons of elephant ivory and pangolin scales on its way to the capital, Kampala, from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. What&#8217;s happened in the three years since then illustrates weaknesses in the country&#8217;s enforcement of laws against wildlife crime. According to news [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In January 2019, authorities in Uganda intercepted a shipment of nearly 4 tons of elephant ivory and pangolin scales on its way to the capital, Kampala, from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. What&#8217;s happened in the three years since then illustrates weaknesses in the country&#8217;s enforcement of laws against wildlife crime. According to news reports at the time, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) arrested two Vietnamese men in possession, and issued wanted notices for 16 others. “The suspects were given bail, which is legally acceptable,” Julius Nkwasire Mponoka, the assistant commissioner for customs enforcement at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), told Mongabay this past February, “but they disappeared.” The URA had busted the suspects, Vietnamese nationals Nguyen Van Thanh and Dinh Van Chung, with 3,299 kilograms (7,273 pounds) of ivory and 424 kg (935 lbs) of pangolin scales. At the beginning of March 2019, URA tweeted that Nguyen and Dinh were caught trying to leave the country. The revenue authority is evasive as to whether they were granted bail a second time, but they never made another court appearance and the case has stalled. Nguyen Van Thanh and Dinh Van Chung were caught at Entebbe airport, attempting to leave Uganda while out on bail. The Uganda Revenue Authority believes the pair somehow later escaped the country to avoid prosecution. Image courtesy the Uganda Revenue Authority. The Environmental Investigation Agency, with headquarters in London and Washington, D.C., says URA&#8217;s failure to prosecute this case is a missed chance to break&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/cold-case-half-hearted-prosecution-lets-ivory-traffickers-escape-in-uganda/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/cold-case-half-hearted-prosecution-lets-ivory-traffickers-escape-in-uganda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253384</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nigeria, a decade of payoffs boosted global wildlife trafficking hub</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/in-nigeria-a-decade-of-payoffs-boosted-global-wildlife-trafficking-hub/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/in-nigeria-a-decade-of-payoffs-boosted-global-wildlife-trafficking-hub/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2022 11:16:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ini Ekott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/03132440/Illustration-of-poachers-raid-on-reserves-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253325</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees, Corruption, Crime, Elephants, Ivory, National Parks, Pangolins, Ports, Protected Areas, Trade, Wildlife Rangers, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LAGOS — Nigeria has for years failed to hold wildlife traffickers and poachers accountable for their crimes, despite federal and state laws that criminalize the killing and trading of protected species, an investigation by Premium Times and Mongabay has found. Our findings are based on an extensive analysis of government and court records and other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAGOS — Nigeria has for years failed to hold wildlife traffickers and poachers accountable for their crimes, despite federal and state laws that criminalize the killing and trading of protected species, an investigation by Premium Times and Mongabay has found. Our findings are based on an extensive analysis of government and court records and other public data going back to 2010, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of law enforcement reports covering five wildlife reserves in the country between 2012 and 2021. In reviewing the data, we discovered a trend: For more than a decade, poachers and traffickers were often not arrested or traced. Most of those who were detained were not prosecuted, and in the few cases that made it to court, defendants were asked to pay a nominal out-of-court settlement fee and continued to operate after release. After federal agencies initially refused our request to access the data, we obtained a submission by Nigeria to CITES, the international convention on the endangered wildlife trade. Nigeria’s customs service later released its records to us following a freedom of information request, and the National Environmental and Standards Agency (NESREA) provided additional information. Nigeria’s forestry department did not respond to requests for its wildlife crimes data. We also interviewed officials, prosecutors, environmental campaigners and traders at wildlife markets in Lagos, Cross River, Abuja, Ogun and Bauchi states. Together, they reveal how Nigeria’s law enforcement and justice system has done little over the past decade to deter the perpetrators&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/in-nigeria-a-decade-of-payoffs-boosted-global-wildlife-trafficking-hub/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/in-nigeria-a-decade-of-payoffs-boosted-global-wildlife-trafficking-hub/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Links between terrorism and the ivory trade overblown, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/links-between-terrorism-and-the-ivory-trade-overblown-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/links-between-terrorism-and-the-ivory-trade-overblown-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Feb 2022 15:32:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/01143634/1-Elephant-ivory-seized-from-poachers-in-Garamba-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252211</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Hunting, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Poaching, Politics, Protected Areas, Terrorism, Wildlife, Wildlife Rangers, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“The white gold of jihad.” “Case proven: ivory trafficking funds terrorism.” “How killing elephants finances terror in Africa.” Just a few years ago, headlines like this were commonplace, as conservation campaigners looking to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants and other wildlife touted the involvement of terrorist organizations like al-Shabaab in Somalia and Boko [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“The white gold of jihad.” “Case proven: ivory trafficking funds terrorism.” “How killing elephants finances terror in Africa.” Just a few years ago, headlines like this were commonplace, as conservation campaigners looking to draw attention to the slaughter of elephants and other wildlife touted the involvement of terrorist organizations like al-Shabaab in Somalia and Boko Haram in Nigeria. But a new study published in the journal Global Environmental Politics says that evidence for those links was flimsy, even as they were cited to justify tougher and more punitive conservation policies in Africa. “The publicly available evidence base for the relationship between poaching and armed non-state actors is very thin,” said Rosaleen Duffy, the study’s author and chair of international politics at the University of Sheffield, U.K. “In the al-Shabaab case I think it’s been largely discredited.” The study presented the findings of 43 anonymous interviews conducted with conservation practitioners who included donor organization staff, ranger trainers, and NGO workers. Despite little evidence that the wildlife trade was a primary source of financing for armed groups, some of the interviewees said the narrative had nonetheless been useful in fundraising and capturing the attention of U.S. policymakers. “The conservation community has not really expressed a whole lot of skepticism because it is driving money their way,” one of the interviewees, described as a “D.C.-based conservationist,” said as quoted in the study. Community rangers guard elephants in Sera Conservancy, Northern Rangelands, Kenya. Image by USAID Biodiversity &amp; Forestry via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/links-between-terrorism-and-the-ivory-trade-overblown-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252211</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife trade hub Vietnam is also hub of impunity for traffickers, report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/wildlife-trade-hub-vietnam-is-also-hub-of-impunity-for-traffickers-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/wildlife-trade-hub-vietnam-is-also-hub-of-impunity-for-traffickers-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2021 18:23:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/09060020/cambodia_160441-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249917</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Governance, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Pandemics, Pangolins, Poaching, Rhinos, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Only 14% of wildlife seizures made in Vietnam in the past decade have resulted in convictions, according to a new report that highlights the weak enforcement in the country and lack of coordination between its agencies in following up on investigations. The report, published by the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency, revealed that of at least [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Only 14% of wildlife seizures made in Vietnam in the past decade have resulted in convictions, according to a new report that highlights the weak enforcement in the country and lack of coordination between its agencies in following up on investigations. The report, published by the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency, revealed that of at least 120 seizures of rhino horns, pangolin scales and elephant ivory made in Vietnam since 2010, only 17 cases led to convictions, or just one in every seven cases. Half of the shipments originated from African countries, underscoring Vietnam’s status as an import hub for illegal wildlife products from the continent, it added. Although pandemic restrictions dampened trafficking activity last year, transnational wildlife crime networks continued operating, “taking advantage of the disruption and quickly adapting to global developments,” the researchers wrote. Ivory items on sale in Vietnam, which is a major import hub for illegal wildlife products from Africa. Image courtesy of TRAFFIC. The illegal wildlife trade is a key contributor to global biodiversity decline, reducing wild populations while fueling local extinctions. With pandemic-related restrictions now easing, the worry is that the cross-border wildlife trade will come roaring back. After lockdown measures were lifted in South Africa, the number of rhinos lost to poaching surged by 50% in the first six months of this year compared with 2020. In Nigeria, three major seizures since January, one of which was destined for Vietnam, have netted 19 metric tons of ivory and pangolin scales. Vietnamese wildlife crime networks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/wildlife-trade-hub-vietnam-is-also-hub-of-impunity-for-traffickers-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249917</doi>				</item>
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