The 78th meeting of the Standing Committee (SC78) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) kicked off in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. This is the body that considers compliance, implementation and enforcement matters, providing guidance to the CITES Secretariat and Parties through recommendations and preparing draft decisions for […]
Climate-damaging F-gases are synthetic substances widely used in refrigeration, air-conditioning and elsewhere. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are the most common and are so harmful that they are to be phased down under the Montreal Protocol and phased out altogether in the EU. However, the chemical industry is pushing to replace them with a new generation of lucrative […]
Senior European lawmakers have been urged to ensure human rights and deforestation issues are kept at the heart of a new forest products risk-ranking system for countries. The proposed country risk benchmarking system will operate under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which seeks to prohibit trade in timber, beef, leather, chocolate, soy, palm oil and […]
The UK’s landmark Ivory Act has been extended to offer protection to an additional four species. EIA UK Executive Director Mary Rice welcomed the move, stating: “The UK Ivory Act was a long, tough fight to achieve and well worth the effort as it proved to be one of the world’s toughest and most comprehensive […]
This year is a big one for CITES, with the 78th Meeting of the Standing Committee (SC78) kicking off in Geneva, Switzerland from 3-8 February. This will be followed by the much larger 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP20) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan later in the year. EIA will be actively engaging at SC78 on a […]
A new species of pangolin has been discovered, but already it is deemed to be threatened by illegal trade. The Indo-Burmese pangolin (Manis indoburmanica ) is the tenth to be found and was identified by scientists who were conducting routine examination of pangolin scales seized in India. Some of these scales were identified as coming from […]