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

Cambridge, UK – 26 March 2021: Governments must prioritise the sustainability of their vaccination programmes if they are to prevent risks from an improper stewardship of wild ingredients used in vaccines. This warning from TRAFFIC comes in light of the news earlier this week from IUCN that an extra 39 species of sharks and rays are now facing extinction in the wild. read full story >

Cambridge, 23 March 2021 By Willow Outhwaite – Senior Programme Officer at TRAFFIC The pandemic has tragically claimed millions of lives and placed countries in complete economic and social lockdown, with the threat of a global recession looming. But the pandemic is not just an immediate human health crisis; it also poses a long-term socio-economic ramifications for people who depend on natural resources such as timber, fisheries and wildlife. read full story >

New brief, Shared Skies, demonstrates that examining the links between different trafficking operations including wildlife, drugs and weapons is key to securing the aviation industry against transnational crime. read full story >

Wildlife trade is an issue at the heart of tensions between biodiversity conservation and human development. Whether for medicine, construction, food or culture, a huge proportion of our trade, economy and way of life is reliant on wildlife products, including those harvested from forests. read full story >

Cambridge, Geneva, 15th October 2020—ETIS Online, a new online platform for the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) was launched today by TRAFFIC.The new website, named ETIS Online, was produced following a request made at the 69th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee in 2017. The site aims to bolster the collection of data on seizures involving elephant specimens and access to such data by submitting Parties. The new functionalities will facilitate enriching data available for analysis to inform international policy relating to preventing and addressing illegal ivory trade. read full story >

Cambridge, UK, 30th September 2020—member states of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have approved a proposal by the Kenya government for the development of guidelines for the prevention and suppression of wildlife smuggling using international shipping. The decision was taken at the 44th meeting of the FAL Convention on facilitation of international maritime traffic. 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 >

Cambridge, UK, 4th August 2020—People not Poaching, an online learning platform that aims to support community-based approaches to tackling illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has recently added its 100th case study.  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 >

With COVID-19 cases, related human mortality and socio-economic disruption rising rapidly around the globe there are overwhelming reasons to concentrate on immediate emergency responses, the here and the now.  read full story >

Background A new coronavirus, designated SARS-CoV-2, is causing a health pandemic with people infected by a new disease known as Covid-19, which can have fatal consequences. As of 24th March 2020, 16,365 human fatalities had been reported across more than 150 countries with over 378,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. read full story >