Last month, the tortured body of a man who filmed hunters in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province was found in the mansion of an influential politician and feudal lord. A day before, the hunting party – foreign guests of the politician – had been attempting to hunt houbara bustard, an endangered bird coveted for the supposed […]
Tag: WWF
Southeast Asia losing tigers as deadline looms to double population by 2022
Tigers once roamed throughout the dense forested interior of mainland Southeast Asia and several islands of Indonesia. Positioned at the pinnacle of the food chain, tigers maintain ecosystem balance, and by protecting them, we can preserve entire biodiverse landscapes. However, the long-term survival of this flagship conservation species now hangs in the balance. In 2010, […]
Rhino poachers are back after South Africa eases lockdown restrictions
Rhino poaching is on the rise again in South Africa since the government loosened coronavirus restrictions, following a year-long lull due to the pandemic, wildlife parks say. The strict limits on travel, including international travel, imposed in March last year had the happy side effect of keeping poachers at bay. In 2020, 394 rhinos were […]
Spanish farmers deeply split as ban on hunting wolves is extended
“There have always been wolves. We humans have hunted and killed all the animals around us because we want everything for ourselves,” says Laura Serrano Isla, who tends her flock of 650 sheep near Burgos in north-west Spain. “We think we rule the world but if we kill all the rest of the animals, the […]
Jaguars in Suriname’s protected parks remain vulnerable to poaching
In mid-June 2012, a few months after she started monitoring the jaguars inside Brownsberg Nature Park in Suriname, biologist Vanessa Kadosoe saw Amalia for the first time. Through the pictures from a camera trap, she observed the little jaguar cub walking beside her parents, Máxima and Willem Alexander, the monarchs of the jungle until then. […]
For South America’s wilderness areas, COVID-19 brings risk and respite
The Bolivian government’s decision to close all national parks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March was supposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But it’s also had unwanted consequences for the wildlife and for the financial viability of the very parks themselves, not just in Bolivia but across Latin America. Within days […]
WWF-Austria Warns: Criminals Taking Advantage of COVID-19 Crisis for Attacks on Protected Birds of Prey in Central and Eastern Europe
9 April, 2020 (Vienna) – Criminals are using the COVID-19 pandemic as cover for a significant increase in wildlife crime in Central and Eastern Europe. In March alone, in total at least 27 protected birds of prey were illegally killed in Austria and another three in neighboring Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Several other suspected cases […]
A new protected area (PA) for tigers and leopards in Russia
More than 200,000 acres of a transboundary territory for tigers, leopards, and other species have been established in the Russian Far East as a new protected area. Known as the Komissarovsky Wildlife Refuge, and created with support from WWF-Russia, the land is home to 16 species listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature […]