Conservation

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Future Earth on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 agreed to strengthen their collaboration around a number of key areas. The memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed at at the 21st meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, being held from December 11 to 14 in Montreal, Canada, is ...

Andrew Dunn of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) emphasises in this treatise that the Cross River gorilla, which now seems tolerated by enlightened locals, has survived by learning to avoid humans and rarely ventures out of its forest home, except maybe when a young male is in search of a mate Did you know that there are four different types ...

The plight of vultures in Nigeria has been that of orphans who are often neglected by the society to fend for themselves in an environment that is becoming more hostile for their survival due to several factors, among which is the commercial exploitation of the birds for fetish and trado-medicinal uses. The mounting hostility has significantly accounted for the continued ...

As part of a €30 million intervention, the European Union on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 signed a €17.2 million agreement with three United Nations institutions working jointly to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products throughout Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. The new “cross-regional wildlife programme” will focus its activities in the ...

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) have announced a new three-year partnership agreement. The agreement comes on the heels of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (2014-2017) in which the two organisations committed to deliver major eco-conservation programmes for Africa. Commenting on the extended agreement, Frederick Kwame Kumah, WWF Africa Regional Director, said, “This ...

At an event held alongside the 69th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC69) on Wednesday, November 29, 2017, the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) announced generous new funding of $20 million to scale up the fight against illegal wildlife trade. The significant new funding will be provided by the European Union (EU) (€13,500,000), Germany (€400,000) and the ...

Turkish Airlines has signed the “United for Wildlife Buckingham Palace Declaration (UFW)”, pledging for zero-tolerance regarding the illegal wildlife trade. Indeed, the UFW, which was on the agenda of the 73rd International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting held in Cancun, Mexico last June, has been endorsed by 41 airline companies so far. The declaration, also signed by institutions such ...

The Global Environmental Facility/Small Grant Programme (GEF/SGP) says it has spent $39,000 dollars (about N14 million) to execute land reclamation in Delta State. Mrs Ibironke Olubamise, the GEF/SGP’s National Coordinator, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 in Abuja. She said that the project was on reclamation and restoration ...

The number of natural World Heritage sites threatened by climate change has grown from 35 to 62 in just three years, with climate change being the fastest growing threat they face, according to a report released on Monday, November 13, 2017 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the UN climate change conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany. ...

Ivory and pangolin scales worth $355,000 smuggled from Congo have been seized in Thailand, Customs officials said on Thursday, November 9, 2017. Four elephant tusks and 39 ivory pieces weighing 116 kilogrammes, as well as 15 kilogrammes of pangolin scales, were found at Suvarnabhumi Airport on October 30, said Kulit Sombatsiri, Director-General of the Thai customs department. The smuggled goods ...