Your daily dose of bad news from around the world about poaching,
wildlife and environmental crimes
in the spotlight today ……………………
Op-Ed: Are rhinos abandoned by all but South Africa? (CITES followers might want to read this thought provoking article. extract: As Sellar concludes about the world’s response: “In the race to catch up with criminals, our feet are not even on the starting blocks.” http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-10-29-op-ed-are-rhinos-abandoned-by-all-but-south-africa/#.VFCJIslFt7w
No 250 Wildlife Trade News 29th October 2014
European authorities must act on illegal timber.
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Credit: Greenpeace extract: Sawmills in the Brazilian Amazon are laundering illegal timber and sending shipments overseas. It’s against the law to place illegal timber on the European market, yet the authorities are doing very little about it. We’ve informed the authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands about these shipments. We’re waiting to hear if they’re going to take action. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/forests/european-authorities-must-act-illegal-timber-20141028 (NA comment: Are Belgium and the Netherlands flouting the CITES Convention? We wonder if CITES will do anything about this? What do you think?)
Logging supervisors charged in Sarawak http://www.nst.com.my/node/47401
Norway’s Deadly Export: Whale Meat The Scandinavian country has killed a record number of the marine mammals this year in defiance of an international moratorium on commercial whaling. (NA comment: Coincidentally, the Chairman of the CITES Standing Committee responsible for enforcing the CITES Convention, comes from Norway – a country we see here flaunting another convention. How does this look to you? http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/10/27/norways-deadly-export-whale-meat
Campaign mounted in Vietnam hub to educate students on rhino protection http://tuoitrenews.vn/education/23618/campaign-mounted-in-vietnam-hub-to-educate-students-on-rhino-protection
Final remand for rhino horn suspects (Namibia) http://www.newera.com.na/2014/10/28/final-remand-rhino-horn-suspects/
Misappropriation of ivory funds threatens rhino horn sale (South Africa) http://mg.co.za/article/2014-10-28-misappropriation-of-ivory-funds-threatens-rhino-horn-sale
Vietnam seizes 1 tonne of elephant tusks, 6kg of rhino horns
(NA comment: Think of all the dead rhinos this represents. and maybe wonder, why, despite all you read here every day, this trade in rhino horns is still growing in scale. How can this happen? The cause and effect are well known, as are the countries complicit in the trade.) Have you ever seen a country sanctioned by CITES for its complicity in a) the rhino horn trade b) the ivory trade? No punishment = no fear, doesn’t it?) The CITES Standing (Sleeping?) Chairman and Committee has a lot to answer for, don’t they?)
extract: 6kg of rhino horns worth $188,000 seized
Also on Monday, customs officers at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi found rhino horns hidden in the luggage of a Vietnamese woman, 29-year-old Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tu, who flew in from Bangkok. http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/23616/vietnam-seizes-1-ton-of-elephant-tusks-6kg-of-rhino-horns
The inconvenient solution to the rhino poaching crisis http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1028-schuurman-rhino-interview-hern.html
The African Lion Endangered, Mostly Killed by ….Americans
http://www.wallstreetotc.com/african-lion-endagered/211348/
New Environment and Forestry Ministry: A Force for Good or Bad? (Indonesia) http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/new-environment-forestry-ministry-force-good-bad/
Halong Bay bears banished
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2014/10/halong-bay-bears-banished/
Asian Palm civet cat poop business runs into millions http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/asian-palm-civet-cat-poop-business-runs-into-millions/articleshow/44956792.cms?curpg=2
Two logging company workers claim trial to corruption charges (Sarawak) http://www.nst.com.my/node/47111
Welsh Guards from Hounslow take on Kenyan poachers http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/welsh-guards-hounslow-take-kenyan-8008729
Guns, bush meat impounded during anti-poaching crusade (Tanzania) http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=73627
?’Nail in coffin for Norwegian seal hunting’: Govt cuts subsidies http://rt.com/news/199691-norway-seal-hunting-subsidies/
INTERPOL holds first environmental crime training for Portuguese-speaking countries
LISBON, Portugal – Identifying new threats and trends and tackling a range of environmental crimes were among the key areas addressed during a training course organized jointly by INTERPOL, the Portuguese National Guard and the Brazilian Federal Police for law enforcement in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
The five-day training course (6-10 October) brought together 25 participants from Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sao Tomé and Principe. The aim was to develop and improve the research skills necessary to detect environmental crimes, and to promote the exchange of best practices and knowledge among participating countries.
Training was provided by INTERPOL, the Portuguese National Guard, the Portuguese Prosecutor, the Brazilian Federal Police, the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forestry and the Portuguese Environment Agency.
“On behalf of the Portuguese National Guard, we were pleased to facilitate this training programme with INTERPOL, which brought together a prestigious team of international and national trainers and diverse learners to address the issues of the environment which are evident across the members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries,” said Lt. Gen. Manuel Mateus Costa da Silva Couto of the Portuguese National Guard.
This was the first INTERPOL training event targeting Portuguese-speaking countries, as evidence has revealed that environmental crimes including wildlife trafficking and forest crimes are being conducted by transnational criminal networks in these regions. Future support will include cooperation programmes to combat cross-border environmental crime within the Portuguese language community.
