S.F. man gets 2 months for selling endangered fish
San Francisco, USA, Mar 28, 2008 ( San Francisco Chronicle) - A San Francisco man has been sentenced to two months in federal prison and four months in home confinement for selling an endangered species of fish over the Internet.  Danny Yep, 27, sold an Asian arowana fish in July 2004 to an undercover U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent on an Internet site called Aquabid, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said in sentencing Yep. At a hearing March 20 in San Francisco, White also fined Yep $2,000 and placed him on three years' probation.

Bush meat poaching hits alarming levels
Kenya, Mar 26, 2008 (Daily Nation) - Poaching for bush meat has reached unprecedented levels in the neighbourhood of Tsavo National Park, according to Tsavo East senior warden Julius Cheptei. “While very little poaching is going on inside the park, outside, especially at community ranches, the menace has increased tenfold and we are now calling on the ranch owners to cooperate with us to save the small game from extinction,” said Mr Cheptei.

Shady Rhino Hunting Under Spotlight
South Africa, Mar 25, 2008 (The Star) - Unscrupulous Asian businessmen are allegedly posing as big-game hunters to slaughter South African rhinos and export the horns - quite legally - as hunting trophies.  But instead of ending up in trophy collections, the horns are being sold illegally to merchants to be crushed into powder for use in Eastern traditional medicine.  The Professional Hunters' Association of South Africa (Phasa) and representatives of Wildlife Ranching South Africa have reported their suspicions to the department of environmental affairs and tourism, which is responsible for enforcing international laws designed to ban illegal trade in endangered animal and plant species.

World Wildlife Fund to protect Russian polar bears
Vladivostok, Russia, Mar 25, 2008 (RIA Novosti – Russian News and Information Agency) - The World Wildlife Fund began an operation on Tuesday to protect endangered polar bears in Chukotka, in Russia's northeast, from poachers, a spokesperson for the organization said. The illegal trade in hides of polar bears, a species in steady decline throughout the Arctic, is on the rise in Russia. The current polar bear population in Chukotka is estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000. Some 200 of the bears are killed annually, according to World Wildlife Fund statistics. Internet monitoring carried out from April 2007 to March 2008 revealed 30 adverts offering polar bear hides for sale. The average number of adverts has significantly increased since 2003, and the price has doubled, reaching up to $6,000 per hide.

Nigeria is suspended from CITES wildlife trade pact
Abuja, Nigeria, Mar 20, 2008 (AFP) - Nigeria has been suspended from the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species for alleged breaches of its provisions, an environment ministry official said Thursday. Fidelis Omeni, who monitors the west African country's adherence to the international pact, said that Nigeria is held to have failed to respect CITES clauses on illegal trade in endangered species. The Nigerian news agency NAN said that such a suspension would mean a total ban on imports or exports of every species of fauna and flora covered under the convention, which Nigeria ratified in 1974.

Crackdowns on wildlife trade on the rise in South-East Asia
Bangkok, Thailand, Mar 19, 2008 (DPA, reprinted in EarthTimes) - Recent crackdowns on illegal trade in endangered species has demonstrated a growing level of cooperation among South-East Asian authorities to protect the region's biodiversity, the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) claimed Wednesday. According to ASEAN-WEN, a cross-border enforcement network that has been in operation since 2005, there were five major crackdowns on illicit trade in endangered species this month in South-East Asia. "Indonesian officials, fresh from an intensive three week ASEAN-WEN Network Investigation Course in Bogor, West Java, led the way with major busts that will send a clear message to other wildlife traffickers in the region," said ASEAN-WEN in a statement.

Cambodia opens Asia's first bear preservation centre
Phnom Tamao, Cambodia, Mar 19, 2008 (AFP) - Wildlife conservationists in Cambodia on Wednesday opened Asia's first centre to preserve local bear populations, under severe threat from poachers and exotic pet traders.  …The Asiatic black bear and Sun bear, both found throughout the region, are considered vulnerable according to the World Conservation Union's Red List of threatened species.  "There are not as many as there should be, and the Sun bears are on their way to becoming an endangered species," according to Mary Hutton, founder and chairwoman of Free the Bears (FTB), adding that there are currently 88 bears at Cambodia's Phnom Tamao Zoo, where the centre is based. According to the FTB, which says it has rescued more than 100 bears from the wildlife trade in Cambodia, the animals are hunted in large numbers throughout Southeast Asia to feed growing demand for their parts to be used in restaurants.  More than 14,000 bears are also thought to be kept on farms in China and Vietnam where their bile is extracted and used for traditional medicine.

Ranger held over gorilla killings
Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mar 19, 2008 (BBC) - A senior wildlife park official in Democratic Republic of Congo has been arrested amid claims that he organised the killing of rare mountain gorillas.  Ten gorillas were killed in 2007 in the Virunga National Park, a Unesco world heritage site.

Warlords turn to ivory trade to fund slaughter of humans
Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 17, 2008 (The Independent UK) - In Chad, Janjaweed militia from Sudan killed 100 elephants in one afternoon; in Kenya, Somali warlords armed with rocket-propelled grenades killed four wildlife rangers during a bloody raid on herds in the Tana Delta; in Democratic Republic of Congo, a whole host of rebel groups have turned the country's dwindling elephant population into a new cash crop.  The fight to protect Africa's elephants has just got more dangerous. Across the continent, armed groups linked to civil wars and conflicts are using the illegal ivory trade to fund their activities. Groups like the Janjaweed, responsible for carrying out countless atrocities in Sudan's western Darfur region, are now the "greatest problem for the protection of elephants in Africa", according to Michael Wamithi, the head of the elephant programme for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

So many chimps on TV, so few in the wild
Chicago, USA, Mar 14, 2008 (Chicago Tribune) - Movie producers and advertisers have long relied on chimpanzees comically dressed as humans to entertain their audience, but scientists say the practice is bad for chimps not only as individuals but also as a species threatened with extinction. Primatologists reported Thursday in the journal Science that only 66 percent of visitors to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago thought chimps were endangered. Many people surveyed said they assumed that because the apes are so widely used in the entertainment and advertising industry, wild chimps must be plentiful and thriving.

Related News:

Don't let TV fool you; chimps need help, too - Northwest Herald

Chimp depiction angers famed scientist Goodall - Canada.com

Ex-servicemen to tigers rescue
Bangalore, India, Mar 14, 2008 (Deccan Herald) - The State Forest department has decided to hire ex-servicemen to protect its tiger reserves and keep poachers at bay. "We have decided to hire the services of ex-servicemen under the proposed Special Tiger Protection Force. Ex-servicemen are trained not only to handle weapons but also work in tough conditions like forest areas," Principal Chief Conservator of Forest A K Verma said. Lack of trained personnel to counter poaching has been the biggest handicap for the department. "It is essential to prevent poachers from laying their hands on tigers. But what the department staff have been doing is arrest them only after they poach," sources said.

Seventh Defendant Pleads Guilty in Turtle Smuggling Case
Washington, DC, Mar 13, 2008 (Media-Newswire.com) - Martin Villegas Terrones, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Denver for his role in an illegal smuggling operation that trafficked in protected turtle species, the Justice Department announced today. Villegas pleaded guilty on March 11, 2008, to federal smuggling charges in connection with his sale and shipment of endangered sea turtle skins and skin products from Mexico to the United States.

Company Charged under Federal Wildlife Legislation 
Winnipeg, Canada, Mar 12, 2008 (Environment Canada Press Release on Marketwire) - Environment Canada has laid fourteen charges against Jayson Daeninck and Saltwater Connection, of Winnipeg, for allegedly importing protected wildlife species from Indonesia without a permit, in contravention of Canada's Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act. Ten of the charges stem from the alleged importation without a permit of approximately 9,508 kg (over 20,000 lbs) of live rock based on stony corals, as well as live species of giant clams, seahorses and stony corals.

Tiger population critical, species at crossroads: WWF
Stockholm, Sweden, Mar 11, 2008 (Reuters) - The world's tiger population may have halved in the past quarter of a century and at least one of the remaining five sub-species is in danger of becoming extinct, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) experts said on Tuesday.  Chinese demand for tiger parts used in traditional medicines and habitat destruction are the two greatest perils facing the big cat, scientists and conservationists said.

Trade of mongoose does not bother wildlife officials
Bhubaneswar, India, Mar 11, 2008 (Statesman News Service) - Wildlife Society of Orissa has alleged that state forest and wildlife mandarins turned a deaf ear to its plea to stop illegal trading of mongoose at a fair near Paramhansa temple in Cuttack for Sivratri. … society secretary Mr Biswajit Mohanty said "though we had informed the additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden on 3 March about the sale of large number of live mongoose and parakeets in the fair near Paramhansa temple on Maha Sivratri on 6 March, the concerned offices showed negligence and reached the spot too late only to seize 16 mongooses, while at least 380 were already been sold."  The mongoose is valued for its fur, used in paint brushes, and as a pet.

Rhino on the run
Guwahati, India, Mar 9, 2008 (The Tribune) - The pride of Kaziranga National Park, the one-horned rhino, is under threat from poachers. Lack of well-equipped manpower, insurgency and a flourishing world trade in animal parts threaten the disappearing rhino. Till January this year, the park was manned by a force that was crippled by presence of majority ageing staff. The poachers have killed 22 rhinos till date since last year, including four so far this year. The sudden spurt in rhino poaching inside the national park has put under the scanner its "remarkable success story" of conservation of the one-horned Asiatic Rhinoceros. There were only 437 wildlife staff to man the 859 sq km wildlife habitat. The park is bound by the Brahmaputra on the north and the existence of the arterial and busy National Highway 37 along its southern fringe of the Park has made it vulnerable for poachers. A single horn of the rhino is worth an exorbitant amount (about $45,000 per kg) in the international underground market of wildlife parts. The rhino horn is much sought after in South Asian and Arabian countries where people believe it to possess "medicinal and aphrodisiac values".

U.S. linked to growth of illegal wildlife trade
Washington, DC, Mar 6, 2008 (Atlanta Journal Constitution) - A bottle of "wine" made from tiger bones sells for $100. Boots made from sea turtle skin go for $480 a pair. A shawl woven from the wool of Tibetan antelopes retails for $30,000. A tiger skin fetches $50,000.  The $10 billion to $20 billion generated each year in illegal international wildlife trade trails only the revenues of drug and arms smuggling among global criminal activities, and the proceeds are increasingly going to organized crime and even terrorist groups, witnesses told the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday.

Call of the wild: Is the prohibition of trade saving wildlife, or endangering it?
London and San Francisco, Mar 6, 2008 (The Economist) - In 1989 the signatories of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) agreed to ban trade in ivory. Last year CITES, which now has 172 member countries, extended this ban for a further nine years, having sanctioned but two sales from stocks, of which only one has taken place. A stroll in Chinatown suggests that trade is thriving nonetheless. A forthcoming report by researchers for Care for the Wild, a British animal-welfare and conservation charity, says that around half the ivory in this market comes from illegally killed elephants. Other studies reveal similar stories elsewhere in the West.

A new hope: A new piece of legislation promises to stem illicit trade of endangered wildlife
Malaysia, Mar 4, 2008 (The Star – Malaysia) - Thinking about buying the pretty star tortoise for a pet? Think again. Under newly passed laws, you face a fine of up to RM100,000 for having one of those reptiles. Same goes for other exotic pets such as the Madagascar radiated tortoise, African leopard tortoise, pig-nosed turtle, Madagascar tomato frog, South American poison arrow frog and Indonesian yellow-crested cockatoo.  Parliament passed the International Trade in Endangered Species Bill 2007 last December. The long-awaited Bill promises to stem unbridled sale of wildlife as it specifies the wildlife allowed for trade and imposes licensing requirements. It essentially enables Malaysia to fulfill CITES obligations and enforce CITES wildlife trade rules.

Endangered pangolins rescued from Cambodian Bus
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Mar 4, 2008 (The Earth Times) - Cambodian customs officials acting on a tip rescued eight endangered pangolins from a bus in the central province of Pursat, local media reported Tuesday. The rescued animals weighed a total of 22.7 kilograms and included a 5-kilogram female which had just given birth to a healthy baby, the Kampuchea Thmey daily reported. The paper said the scaly anteaters had been packed in boxes and concealed with paper. The smuggler escaped, it reported, and the animals were handed over to forestry officials for release.

Related News:

Customs seizes thousands of smuggled pangolins
Intellasia

Hanoi seizes thousands of smuggled pangolins
Borneo Bulletin

India Builds $12.5 Million Force To Guard Its Tigers
New Delhi, India, Mar 3, 2008 (Reuters) - India will spend $12.5 million to create a special force to guard its last surviving tigers, as numbers dwindle in the face of rampant poaching and destruction of their habitat.  Poorly armed and badly paid guards, mismanagement and corruption undermine the protection of tigers in India. There are thought to be just 1,411 left in India, according to a new survey that cut numbers by half since 2002 census. The decline is even more alarming considering India had about 40,000 tigers a century ago. Conservationists say it is unlikely the dwindling population will ever recover, but the government is not giving up just yet.

Related News:

India Announces $13 Million in Funding to Protect Tigers
Voice of America

Officials, NGOs welcome more money to save tigers
Hindustan Times

Thailand a key player in illegal wildlife trade
Bangkok, Thailand, Mar 1, 2008 (Bangkok Post) - Thailand is a key player in the wild elephant trade, with the country being used as a transit point for jumbos from neighbouring countries on their way to foreign zoos, according to a report from the Thai Wildlife Protection Network… It is estimated that at least 50 elephants have been smuggled from Burma to Thailand each year.

Extinction Trade: Endangered animals are the new blood diamonds as militias and warlords use poaching to fund death
Mar 1, 2008 (Newsweek - Mar 10, 2008 issue) - The marauders galloped into Zakouma National Park in Chad, the last refuge of that country's once thriving elephant population. Rather than bother with the few remaining elephants, the attackers last May were after the 1.5 tons of ivory—worth as much as $1.3 million—that Chadian officials had seized from poachers over the years and stored in a strongroom at park headquarters. Neither the audacity of the attack nor its brutality—the raiders killed three park rangers—shocked wildlife officials: some 100 rangers, outgunned and outmanned, are killed every year defending Africa's wildlife. Rather, the shock was the identity of the attackers. In an ominous sign of how the killing of endangered animals has evolved from a crime committed by small bands of unorganized, mostly poor operators, these attackers were Janjaweed, the militia that has carried out genocidal attacks in Darfur. Lured by easy money, the Janjaweed have expanded their killing fields to endangered species. In the past two years, they have butchered hundreds of elephants around Zakouma, say Chadian authorities, carrying the tusks back to Sudan, where they are secreted on ships bound mostly for Asia—or traded for weapons.

PHOTO GALLERY: Grim Managerie

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