Tanzania’s hardly been out of the headlines since quietly slipping in an application earlier this month to reduce international protection for its elephant populations and auction off 101 tonnes of stockpiled ivory
At an event specially organised at the New York Stock Exchange, in Wall Street, the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono boasted to the assembled businessmen of the abundant natural resources on offer to potential investors
The international community is finally recognising that environmental crime is not some small-scale criminal activity taking place deep in the jungles of Africa or Asia but is serious, growing, transnational and, shockingly, highly organised through the involvement of notorious criminal syndicates and terrorist groups
The use of rhino horn as a recreational drug or cancer treatment in Asia is based on myths, but has escalated exponentially over the last few years. As a result, rhino in Africa and Asia are brutally slaughtered in huge numbers for their horns. The trade is attracting the attention of organised crime
“The media tend to focus on wildlife crimes they can see,” says Bryan Christy, journalist and author. Christy, who earlier this year addressed INTERPOL’s Wildlife Crime Working Group, wants to see a shift in the way environmental crime is talked about and tackled: shift the focus onto the villains
Gibson Guitars has finally faced the music. After nearly a year of crying fou, seeking audience with every possible media outlet and hiring a DC lobbying firm to change the law under which it was being investigated, Gibson Guitars has acknowledged that it did, in fact, import illegal wood in violation of the Lacey Act