With a yearly value estimated between $7 and $23 billion, the illegal wildlife trade is a lucrative business that can quickly decimate targeted wildlife species. When trade regulations are strengthened for a particular wildlife product while the demand for that product remains high, traffickers are never short on stratagems to defy authorities and circumvent laws […]
Tag: Helmeted hornbill
Chinese special economic zones hotspots for wildlife trafficking, surveys say
SINGAPORE — Special economic zones set up to promote trade between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors are facilitating a black-market trade in wildlife products, according to watchdog group TRAFFIC. Tens of thousands of prohibited wildlife parts and products are being sold across open and unregulated markets in five Southeast Asian countries, with a significant […]
Illegal wildlife trade intrinsically linked to drugs and weapons trafficking, report finds
In April 2019, customs officials in Dhaka, Bangladesh, seized 80 turtles and 12 gold bars from a passenger arriving from Thailand. It was not the first time when a passenger was involved in the illegal shipment of a wildlife species alongside another illicit product. But a report has now found the links between the illegal […]
Coronavirus outrage: How traders peddle ‘tiger bone, bear bile and rhino horn’ as cure
The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 2.4 million people worldwide since the first cases were announced in early December. Medical experts across the globe are working tirelessly to develop a vaccine that can halt COVID-19 in its tracks. But in China and other southeast Asian countries there have been reports of countless crooks trying to capitalise on the deadly […]
Palm Oil and Poaching Put the Helmeted Hornbill at Risk of Extinction
When most people think of poaching they think of the terrible ivory poaching that kills rhinos and elephants. There are many animals that are often victims of poaching like pangolins and tigers. The helmeted hornbill is at risk of extinction because they are poached for the use of their heads as amulets and decorations. There […]
Former Hornbill Poacher Becomes a Wildlife Ranger
In Indonesia, a moving experience with a bird caused a wildlife poacher to have a change of heart. Khaedir used to poach endangered hornbills in the Indonesian Leuser rainforest, according to a BBC report. Khaedir turned to poaching as a means of supporting himself financially, feeling he had no better way to earn money. But […]
Hotspots of exploitation: where are species under greatest threat?
By now, almost everyone knows that many rhinoceros species around the world are threatened with extinction because of commercial overexploitation for their horns, which are sold on the black market. Likewise, all pangolin species have been pushed to the brink of extinction, particularly by hunting for their meat and scales. Unsustainable exploitation is the greatest […]
One-two punch of habitat loss, capture hammers Southeast Asian birds
JAKARTA — Conservationists have underestimated the combined impact of deforestation and capture when assessing the threat to Southeast Asia’s bird populations — a one-two punch that a new report warns could lead to the extinction of dozens of species by the end of this century. Focusing on 308 forest-dependent bird species in the Sundaland subcontinent, […]