In the spring, the Pirmagrun mountain, one of the world’s last refuges for the endangered Persian leopard, towers over the surrounding countryside in Iraqi Kurdistan, its rocky snow-capped peaks fading into an ancient oak forest that starts out sparsely before running into narrow, densely-wooded valleys. As recently as the 1980s, the forest covered the slopes […]
Tag: COVID-19
Albanian restaurant serves bear meat in illegal wildlife trade that’s ‘out of control’
A restaurant in Albania is offering diners meat from illegally hunted bears– part of an illicit trade in wildlife that is “out of control” in the country, investigators claim. Researchers said it was the first time they had seen bear meat cooked in Europe, and experts warned that the crude butchering of animals may lead […]
South African proposal to breed wildlife for slaughter courts disaster
There are times of spectacular policy myopia – and promoting a revision to the Meat Safety Act by the South African government is surely one of these moments. In late February the government proposed adding over 90 local and non-indigenous species to the list of animals regulated under the Meat Safety Act. Prior to this […]
Petition: Shut Down Illegal Online Wildlife Trade!
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, China and other countries temporarily banned the wildlife trade. However, wildlife trade hasn’t actually stopped, It unfortunately just moved online. This is terrible for many reasons — it affects animals who are already endangered, still poses a risk to public health, and it’s difficult to regulate the wildlife trade online. […]
Māori push for pandemic stimulus spend to save Raukūmara Forest
Two Māoriiwi, or tribal groups, are campaigning for a portion of the New Zealand government’s new COVID-19 economic stimulus package to help save their treasured, ancestral Raukūmara Forest from being overrun by introduced pests. The Raukūmaras stretch across around 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of national park and private land along the North Island’s East Cape. […]
Banned: No more pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicine
The Chinese government has officially removed pangolin scales from a list of approved ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, a momentous move that could bring an end to the large-scale illegal trade in the scaly anteaters, conservationists say. The eight species of pangolins are together one of the most widely trafficked animals in the world, with […]
Trump Opens Marine Sanctuary to Commercial Fishing
In a move that environmentalists warned could further imperil hundreds of endangered species and a protected habitat for the sake of profit, President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation rolling back an Obama-era order and opening nearly 5,000 square miles off the coast of New England to commercial fishing. “We’re opening it today,” Trump […]
Trump Administration Continues Effort to Strip Away Bird Protections
WASHINGTON – “While America is in turmoil, the Trump Administration is continuing its relentless war on nature,” said David Yarnold, president and CEO of the National Audubon Society. “This administration is churning out policies that make it easier to kill birds, pollute our air and water, and endanger our health. The ’comment periods’ where the […]