The fourth international Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade in London seeks to strengthen international partnerships across borders and beyond governments, with a focus on tackling illegal wildlife trade as a serious organised crime, building coalitions and closing markets
At the forefront of calls for transnational wildlife and forest crime to be properly recognised and tackled, our campaigners are attending to push for positive outcomes on a number of important campaign issues and to get the results of our investigations and analysis into the right hands to drive meaningful change
This week, we have been taking part in the 70th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Animals Committee in Geneva, calling on the global community to end international trade in lion parts and products and presenting information to show how this trade endangers all big cats
Czech Republic authorities raided premises in Prague and other locations, revealing a nightmarish tiger slaughterhouse at the centre of an international criminal trade ring. Dubbed Operation Trophy, the raids were the culmination of two-and-a-half years of work
There have been significant shipments of lion parts in the past 10 years to South-East Asia and China where they are marketed as tiger, further exacerbating demand for the world’s most endangered big cats.
Leopards are Asia’s most trafficked big cat, with more than 4,900 seized from illegal trade in Asia since 2000 – but despite this, new evidence indicates the Government of China is issuing permits to trade and use their bones to produce health tonics and used to produce traditional ‘medicines’