wildlife trade news reports, seizures, policy, development, conservation

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 13th March 2019 – two Vietnamese nationals have been jailed and fined for illegal possession of several parts of threatened wildlife, including tiger, leopard, and Sun Bear parts, in two separate court cases in Malaysia this week. read full story >

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10th August 2018—Indonesia has slapped a stiff sentence on a wildlife trader caught with a freezer full of wildlife parts which included 64 bear paws. The move sends a strong signal to wildlife criminals targeting Sun Bears Helarctos malayanus for their products. read full story >

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26th April 2018—A study of Lao PDR’s bear farms suggests that foreign business ventures and tourism may be propping up the bear bile industry in the Economic Zone on the country’s border with China where bear farming facilities have tripled in size between 2012 and 2017, finds a new TRAFFIC study published in Global Ecology and Conservation.  read full story >

Bangkok, Thailand, 9 February 2017—A recent discovery of a dozen Tigers at a property in eastern Thailand serves as a reminder that Tiger farming is still a threat to Southeast Asia’s wild Tigers and an enforcement challenge for the region’s authorities. read full story >

Bangkok, Thailand, 2nd November 2017—Tigers, elephants, bears and pangolins are four of the most widely traded species in the Golden Triangle—the border area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar connect—according to a new report.   read full story >

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11th September 2017—Global experts have begun the development of a conservation plan for the world’s smallest bear, the Sun Bear Helarctos malayanus. This plan marks the first to be initiated for any bear species in the world. read full story >

Hanoi, Viet Nam, 17th November 2016—TRAFFIC’s research finds the illegal market for bears, bear parts and derivatives in Viet Nam is still strong, with only a moderate decline in open availability following the introduction of legislation to ban their sale in 2006.   read full story >

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 25th October 2016—A bear cub rescue in Malaysia this week and other recent bear-related seizures in Southeast Asia underscore the severe and continued threat illegal trade poses to bears in the region. read full story >

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 3rd March 2016—Malaysians are turning Facebook into a wildlife marketplace, driving a roaring and often illegal trade in iconic and threatened animals, according to a new report from TRAFFIC. read full story >

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 29th May 2015—A new TRAFFIC study has found that the illegal trade in bear bile and gall bladder for traditional medicine is open and widespread across Malaysia and is potentially a serious threat to wild bears.  read full story >

Cambridge, UK, 29th October 2014—The number of bears in farms supplying the widespread and expanding bile extraction industry in Lao PDR has tripled in recent years, with strong evidence the animals are illegally sourced from the wild, a new study published in Oryx finds. read full story >

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 21st August 2014—A new TRAFFIC analysis of hundreds of seizures sounds the alarm on Asia’s ongoing widespread bear trade and the need for immediate international action. read full story >