Speakers at the recent Pretoria conference on rhino horn trade, where experts from around the world warned that South Africa would fail to control a legalised trade in rhino horn, have reacted with dismay, but no surprise, at the news that 40-70 rhino horns have been stolen from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency.
Is it time to reconsider a legal global trade in tiger, elephant and rhino products? That was the question being debated last Thursday (October 17) at an EarthWatch Institute event held at the Royal Geographical Society in London.
Too often, and too commonly, environmental crime is seen as a ‘victimless’ crime. But the grim reality is that alongside the terrible toll taken on endangered species such as tigers, elephants and rhinos, the activities of highly organised transnational wildlife crime syndicates also exact a huge price in human life.
At the upcoming 22nd Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) meeting in Vienna, we have been invited to speak on the issue of wildlife and forest crime together with WWF in a session hosted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Download our joint briefing with WWF and TRAFFIC to CCPCJ here
EIA campaigners are in Vienna for a meeting of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), which begins on Monday (April 22). EIA and others will be pushing for it to expand the work of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to address illicit trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora