Decades of poaching and regional conflict in and around Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park has decimated one of Africa’s most prolific wildlife hotspots. Some species, such as the northern white rhino, were driven to extinction, elephant numbers crashed from 14,000 to less than 800. The instability and insecurity not only had a devastating impact on…
Is this the future of marine conservation? A remote island community in Indonesia is restoring damaged coral reefs and reclaiming its fishing heritage. By Adam Cruise and Leïla Ezzat Along with the spectre of global warming and ocean acidification, decades of dynamite fishing, the use of chemicals, sewage and agricultural run-off, plastic debris and poor or…
Vultures wheel in the hot humid air. The sighting is followed by the smell of rotting flesh. We are getting close. The African bush is dense at this time of year after a season of summer rains making progress difficult. The thick foliage increases the danger of a sudden wild encounter too. Elephants and buffalo…
South Africa and Kenya will hold talks with other African countries to find a common position on ivory trade ahead of the 17th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg in September-October. Kenya, as part of a group of 27 African…
At the 66th meeting of the Standing Committee for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in Geneva, Switzerland, from the January 11 to 15, deliberation over the plight of rhinos was brushed over in less than an hour. Despite considerable efforts by range, transitional, and consumer states…
The Lao Peoples Democratic Republic recently became the latest of the countries most implicated in the illicit trafficking of elephant tusks to be let off the hook. Here’s the background. At the 16th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Conference of the Parties, in Bangkok, Thailand,…
Given that in Africa wild lions are in catastrophic decline–the latest International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) figures suggest that fewer than 20,000 remain–it may come as a shock to discover that as many as 10,000 of the continent’s iconic big cats were legally hunted and exported as trophies in the ten years ending…
To save African elephants from extinction, “range states should put their ivory stockpiles beyond commercial use immediately and simultaneously,” says South African economist Ross Harvey. Using a theoretical two-player, river-crossing game in a paper called “Preserving the African Elephant for Future Generations,” Harvey—a senior researcher with the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), the…
In the first full research report of its kind, the trophy hunting industry in South Africa has been exposed as the main source of Asia’s rapidly expanding lion bone trade. The implications are that thousands of lions are being raised in South Africa to shot in cages, stoking a market for lion bone medicine that…
Zimbabwe’s most well-known and much-photographed black-maned lion, affectionately named Cecil, was killed by sport hunters just outside the nation’s premier wildlife park, Hwange, last week. Wildlife enthusiasts say Cecil, possibly Hwanges’s largest lion, was a favorite among visitors to the park as he was relaxed around safari vehicles. Conservationists are concerned that the killing of the…
By Adam Cruise Pohamba Shifeta, Namibia’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, said the country will not destroy its stockpile of ivory and rhino horns—a measure adopted by other countries in Africa and elsewhere to combat poaching by raising public awareness and removing the possibility of the products going onto the black market. Speaking to a…
By Adam Cruise Two of South Africa’s largest private rhino breeders have taken the South African government to court in an effort to lift a moratorium that bans domestic trade in rhino horn. In 2012, Johan Kruger, a Limpopo game farmer and rhino breeder, introduced litigation against the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and its…
By Adam Cruise Elephants, rhinos, and other wildlife across the globe are being slaughtered for their tusks, horns, pelts, and bones with no end in sight. Last week, the battle lines for an offensive were drawn. At a conference in Cape Town, South Africa, experts from around the world gathered to tackle the problem. Unfortunately,…