In response to the alarming decline in global biodiversity, the Canadian government has announced groundbreaking measures to address the crisis facing African elephants and rhinos. Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate change, recently unveiled stricter regulations aimed at curbing the trade of elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn across Canadian borders. This historic decision reflects […]
Tag: rhino horn
![The world's remaining rhinos are mostly in Africa [File: Daniel Irungu/EPA]](https://focusingonwildlife.com/news/wp-content/uploads/10494899-1695265748.jpg "Malaysian nicknamed the ‘Godfather’ jailed in US for rhino horn trafficking - Video Investigation")
Malaysian nicknamed the ‘Godfather’ jailed in US for rhino horn trafficking – Video Investigation
Teo Boon Ching, a Malaysian wildlife trafficker known by a range of aliases including the Godfather, has been jailed for 18 months in the United States for smuggling hundreds of kilos of horns from endangered rhinoceros. Ching, 58, was arrested in Thailand on a US extradition request in June 2022, after a covert operation exposed […]
African Parks to rewild 2,000 rhinos from controversial breeding program
On Sept. 4, African Parks, a multinational nonprofit conservation organization, announced that it had purchased Platinum Rhino, John Hume’s controversial intensive rhino breeding operation, and intended to rewild the more than 2,000 southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) that came with it. The news was universally welcomed by those Mongabay has spoken to in South […]
World’s largest private rhino herd doesn’t have a buyer — or much of a future
On May 1 this year, an online auction for a controversial captive-breeding project that comes with one in eight of all southern white rhinos in the world ended in a whimper — with a grand total of zero bids. According to a press release on the website of the Platinum Rhino project, it received offline […]
The Sale of 2,000 Rhinos Could Boost Conservation Efforts
Rhinos are in trouble. Poaching has decimated their numbers in the wild, and there are now only about 22,000 rhinos across Africa. Enter John Hume, a South African entrepreneur who, 15 years ago, launched a massive rhinoceros breeding farm to combat poaching. Hume aimed to create a sustainable horn trade, with a legal supply from […]
Thai Poaching Kingpin Sentenced to Prison
After years of investigations and appeals, Bach “Boonchai” Mai, the alleged leader of a major international wildlife trafficking ring, has been sentenced to five years in prison by the Thai Supreme Court. Mai was convicted of attempting to smuggle 14 rhino horns into Thailand, but his network, Hydra, has been involved in trafficking ivory, rhino […]
Mozambique busts notorious rhino poacher
MAPUTO — Authorities in Mozambique have arrested two men for allegedly attempting to sell rhino horn in the country’s capital, Maputo. Hilario Lole, a spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), said the men — notorious rhino poacher Simon Ernesto Valoi, widely known by his nickname, “Navara,” and an associate, Paulo Zukula — were […]
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe pushes to be allowed to sell its ivory stockpile
HWANGE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government recently concluded a conference to attempt to rally international support for the sale of its ivory stockpile. It argues that selling some of the 136 metric tons of elephant ivory and rhino horn that it’s holding — mostly from animals that died of natural causes — could fund its conservation […]