news reports, seizures, policy, development, conservation

Cape Town, South Africa, 11th February 2021— A suite of TRAFFIC reports into high-value African marine products highlights yet another burgeoning, under-reported, unsustainable, and illegal trade that threatens the long-term survival of key marine species and the potential for sustainable human development. read full story >

Cambridge, UK, 15th December 2020—This festive season, consumers are being encouraged to use their purchasing power to ensure that our wellbeing and the livelihoods of some of the most impoverished and marginalised communities and ecosystems around the world are sustained during these difficult times. read full story >

Deqing, China, November 2020—Industry leaders representing 13 companies1 from the hardwood timber industry in China signed an “Initiative Against Illegal Wildlife Trade” co-launched by TRAFFIC and China Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association (CTWPDA) during the 10th Global Wood Trade Conference and 2020 China Global Sustainable Hardwood Conference held earlier this month in Deqing, Huzhou, China. read full story >

30th October 2020—TRAFFIC and the Kazakhstani NGO Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) hosted a virtual stakeholder workshop on the topic of “Sustainability of Liquorice root trade from Kazakhstan” earlier this month. The meeting was organised in collaboration with the Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which presented a study on Liquorice production and trade from Kazakhstan and its sustainability. Producers, conservation specialists and local policy makers joined to share their take on the issues. read full story >

Ha Noi, Viet Nam, 23rd October 2020—TRAFFIC and the Enterprise Development Foundation at the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) co-sponsored a forum today on how technology could contribute to sustainable tourism in Viet Nam. The event gathered 200 representatives from the country’s tourism sector, now under considerable stress from COVID-19 travel restrictions, who discussed strategies for the long-term survival of tourism in Viet Nam. read full story >

Cambridge, UK, 16th October 2020—Fourteen international organisations are urging practitioners and decision-makers to develop practical and scientifically-informed responses to reduce risk from zoonotic diseases and build more collaborative approaches in human health and wildlife management. read full story >

Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province, Viet Nam, 2nd October 2020 —TRAFFIC and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) held a workshop today aimed at promoting local and international best practices among local businesses, including the adoption of measures to counter illegal wildlife trade. read full story >

Cambridge, UK, 18th September 2020—A sobering new report was launched earlier this week by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5) assesses progress against the nature conservation commitments made by world governments in 2010 for the decade ahead—the so-called Aichi biodiversity Targets. read full story >

Kathmandu, Nepal, 1st September 2020—a three-year project in Nepal has been helping local harvesters of Jatamansi—a plant used in aromatherapy, cosmetics, and food—to boost their income by increasing the value of their product through sustainable harvesting, improving their international market access and clarifying legal issues around the trade. Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi, syn. N. grandiflora) is one of Nepal’s most commercially valuable and utilised species: between 100–500 tonnes of rhizomes are harvested from high-altitude Himalayan regions every year. At least 15,000 people across the Himalayan region depend on Jatamansi harvesting for 25% of their annual income.  read full story >

Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, 17th August 2020—Congolese artisanal fishers are increasingly turning to shark fishing because of increased scarcity of other stocks overfished by industrial fisheries: urgent legislative and management improvements are needed to prevent a collapse of shark fishing and protect local livelihoods finds a new TRAFFIC report. read full story >

During the global lockdown, our innate need to commune with nature and the outside world has never been more apparent—which is why FairWild Week 2020, the annual celebration of the essential role wild plants play in our everyday lives, is more important and relevant than ever. read full story >

Cambridge, UK, 18th June 2020—wild plant species used in herbal treatments of COVID-19 are set to come under heightened harvesting pressure, both as a result of increased demand and because of more people turning to wild harvesting as an alternative source of income during times of high unemployment and economic crisis. The future availability of plant ingredients to support human health—through medicines, food and well-being products—is dependent on prioritising the conservation and sustainable use of their source species in the long-term. read full story >