At present, EIA’s wildlife campaigns are focused on investigating and campaigning to end the illegal trade of products from key species such as tigers and other Asian big cats, elephants and cetaceans, and protecting their habitats; my work has been focused on Asian big cats and elephants
This week, as part of the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, over 200 judges, prosecutors, attorneys and legal experts gathered at the World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability.
At the time of the decision to endorse China as a trading partner, the Director of WWF’s International Species programme stated: “The only way to end elephant poaching is through an effective clampdown on illegal domestic ivory markets”
South Africa has seen an uncontrollable wave of poaching of rhinos for their horns, believed to be the panacea for all manner of ailments (without a shred scientific proof) in the Far East yet, staggeringly, in some quarters the argument is still made that a legal trade in horn is the answer to this appalling situation
Three new films following EIA investigators undercover around the world have now had their premiere screenings on either National Geographic Channel or Nat Geo Wild in the US, Asia and the UK, and are currently airing for the first time in Australia and New Zealand
These are just the tip of the iceberg in what’s been a highly productive and busy year for EIA, one in which we also played a key role in achieving a groundbreaking agreement on timber trade between the European Union and Indonesia, and kept tabs on supermarket promises to get rid of greenhouse gases in their fridges