The work of our Forests team is about far more than trees and the protection of the Earth’s precious remaining forests – it also keeps a sharp watch on the issue of forest conversion for cash crops, especially palm oil, and on related human rights issues such as corruption, governance and land rights
It can be a little frustrating (if somewhat predictable) to see our findings dismissed out-of-hand by official mouthpieces for those governments we have cause to identify as either directly promoting harmful, even criminal, environmental policies or turning a blind eye to corruption on their watch
The beginning of any New Year should be filled with hope and expectation but 2017 is barely weeks old and already several multi-tonne seizures of pangolin scales in Africa and the end markets in Asia has injected a dash of forlorn reality
At the end of 2016, elephants made headlines as China announced a timeframe for closing its domestic ivory market – long held by many conservationists as the single biggest step that could be taken to end the slaughter of elephants. It is now imperative the ban be strongly enforced and any potential loopholes closed
At the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) we will be campaigning to increase protection of vulnerable rosewood species under the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Demand for tropical rosewood species in China's Hongmu (red wood) furniture industry threatens their survival in the wild.
Estimates suggest that at least one million pangolins have been traded in the past decade. Although there is no population data for any pangolin species, the levels of observed trade and the patterns of exploitation strongly suggest that all pangolin species are in decline and that trade is the primary reason