Conservation

The involvement of local communities in forest conservation actions at all levels is key to the success of conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources in the Central African region, experts say. According to African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), engaging local communities in natural resource management enhances conservation activities including the fight against poaching and wildlife trafficking. “The local forest communities ...

Global changes in temperature have already impacted every aspect of life on Earth from genes to entire ecosystems, with increasingly worrying consequences for humans, according to a new study co-authored by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Species Survival Commission’s Climate Change Specialist Group (SSC CCSG), and published in a recent edition of Science. The IUCN is ...

Ahead of the International Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade scheduled to hold next month in Vietnam, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has commenced a campaign against the poaching of the rhinoceros, an animal species characterised by its large size, herbivorous diet and thick protective skin. Often abbreviated to rhino, it is believed that nearly 1,400 were slaughtered across Africa last year. ...

Global partnership organisation proposes protected status for area of the Atlantic identified as vital for marine biodiversity BirdLife International has presented a proposal to create a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) under OSPAR, the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic. If accepted by OSPAR, the MPA will be the first of its kind to ...

In support of an ongoing commitment to save the world’s most endangered species, Discovery Communications and the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced on Wednesday in Johannesburg, South Africa at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) summit a multiplatform campaign to raise awareness and reduce demand for illegally sold ...

Three new reports published on Monday by the Python Conservation Partnership (PCP), a partnership between Kering, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Boa and Python Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reveal that the wild harvesting and farming of pythons is ecologically sustainable and results in socioeconomic benefits for poor households in South-East Asia. ...

Delegates to the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) that began on Saturday in Johannesburg, South Africa, will be asked to consider bringing more sharks and rays under CITES trade controls. This entails adding silky sharks, thresher sharks and devil rays to the ...

Africa’s overall elephant population has seen the worst declines in 25 years, mainly due to poaching over the past 10 years – according to IUCN’s African Elephant Status Report launched on Sunday at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa. The report is said to be an authoritative source of knowledge ...

Environmentalists have urged governments attending a global wildlife conference in South Africa this month to impose maximum restrictions on the trade of endangered pangolins, a scaly mammal that is the inspiration for two Pokemon characters. The long-snouted, nocturnal pangolin, the size of a small dog and found in Africa and Southeast Asia, is the world’s most illegally trafficked mammal, according to the ...

No longer classified as endangered, the iconic species, symbol of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is one step further away from extinction In a welcome piece of good news for the world’s threatened wildlife, the giant panda has just been downgraded from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Vulnerable’ on the global list of species at risk of extinction, demonstrating how an integrated approach ...