Wildlife

Written by: John E. Scanlon There is no global agreement on wildlife crime, nor any universally agreed definition of wildlife crime. In the absence of such an agreement, CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a trade convention created to...

Written by: Kimberly White U.S. government officials recently seized 1,400 pounds of shark fins at a port in Miami, Florida. Wildlife inspectors discovered the shark fins hidden in eighteen boxes on a ship docked in Miami last month.  Officials estimate that...

Written by: Kimberly White The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has reclassified the Mountain Gorilla from “critically endangered” to “endangered.” The status change comes after a survey released in May 2018 by authorities in the Democratic Republic of...

Written by: Kimberly White A new alliance has formed to take on the illegal wildlife trade. To mark World Environment Day, an alliance of environmental, policy, legal, business, and public health experts have banded together to address the serious gaps in...

Written by: Kimberly White  The Government of Malawi has joined a growing call for an ambitious new global agreement to tackle wildlife crime.  Last year, Gabon and Costa Rica began advocating for embedding preventing and combatting wildlife crime into the international...

Written by: David John Eldridge After 200 years of European farming practices, Australian soils are in poor shape – depleted of nutrients and organic matter, including carbon. This is bad news for both soil health and efforts to address global warming. The native...

Written by: Shreya Dasgupta There may be a glimmer of hope for the critically endangered gharial, a unique crocodile known for its long, narrow snout that ends in a bulbous growth resembling a cooking pot called a ghara. The fish-eating crocodile was...

Written by: Karla Mendes Brazilian authorities announced the seizure of almost 29 tons of shark fins in June, exposing the extent of what they described as illegal fishing in the country. It was apparently the world’s largest confiscation in history:...

Written by: Elizabeth Claire Alberts The Polynesian tree snail, a tiny mollusk about the size of an aspirin pill, used to be found in abundance on Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia. But about 30 years ago, the little snail...

Written by: Kimberly White Once plagued with wildlife crime, the Niassa National Reserve has become a safe haven for elephants. On June 17th, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced an extraordinary success from the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique. Niassa...