2016 saw a record 200 killings of people defending their land, forests, and rivers against destructive industries

13 July 2017 (Global Witness) – It has never been deadlier to take a stand against companies that steal land and destroy the environment. Our new report Defenders of the Earth found that nearly four people were murdered every week in 2016 protecting their land and the natural world from industries like mining, logging and […]

Japan passes whaling bill with view to resume commercial whaling

By Rachel Mealey 7 July 2017 TOKYO (ABC News) – Japan has passed a law enshrining the practice of whaling and is considering upgrading its fleet of vessels in a step toward returning to the controversial commercial practice. The new whaling bill sets out Japan’s plan to one day resume commercial whaling, with one MP […]

Orphaned for its mother’s horn: Baby rhino left alone as poachers slaughter up to 30 animals in one weekend in South Africa

By Gareth Davies5 July 2017(The Daily Mail) – A heartbreaking photo of an orphaned baby rhino standing next to its dead mother after she was slaughtered by poachers for her horn has become the tragic symbol of a weekend rhino massacre in South Africa.The picture of the calf was posted online by anti-poaching campaigners in […]

Hunting accounts for massive declines in tropical animal populations

13 April 2017 (Radboud University) – Hunting is a major threat to wildlife particularly in tropical regions, but a systematic large-scale estimate of hunting-induced declines of animal numbers was lacking so far. A study published in Science on April 14 fills this gap. An international team of ecologists and environmental scientists found that bird populations […]

Deforestation increased 79 percent in Amazon rainforest protected areas from 2012 to 2015

By E. Araújo, P. Barreto, S. Baima, and M. Gomes [Translation by Google.]26 March 2017 (Imazon) – Conservation Units (CUs) cover 22% of the Amazon forest and are an effective strategy to conserve animals, plants and environmental services, contain deforestation and maintain the planet’s climate balance. However, deforestation rates in PAs have been increasing – […]

Satao II, one of the last “giant tusker” elephants, killed in Kenya by poachers

By Caroline Mortimer 7 March 2017 (Independent) – One of Kenya’s last tusker elephants has been killed by poachers, conservationists have said.  Satao II’s body was found during a routine aerial reconnaissance by the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) near the Voi river in Tsavo East National Park, according to the Tsavo Trust, a non profit […]

Rhino shot dead at Paris zoo by poachers who cut horn off with chainsaw

By Sunita Patel-Carstairs, News Reporter7 March 2017 (Sky News) – A rhino has been shot dead by poachers who broke into a zoo and sliced its horn off with a chainsaw. Four-year-old Vince was found dead by one of his keepers at Thoiry zoo, near Paris, on Tuesday morning. One or more attackers are believed […]

More than 25,000 elephants were killed in a Gabon national park in one decade – “The central and northern parts of the park have been emptied”

By Mike Gaworecki24 February 2017 (Mongabay) – New research suggests that more than 25,000 forest elephants were killed for their ivory in Gabon’s Minkébé National Park, one of the largest and most important wildlife preserves in Central Africa, between 2004 and 2014. That’s a decline of somewhere between 78 and 81 percent in the park’s […]

How poaching is killing off the world’s largest reindeer herd on Taimyr Peninsula

7 February 2017 (The Siberian Times) – A small motorboat stalks a herd of reindeer as they cross the Khatanga River in the far north of Siberia. In a barbaric act, poachers use axes and cleavers to cut the antlers from the helpless animals as they swim in the cold Arctic waters. Often, the frontal […]

60 percent of primate species face impending extinction, and 75 percent have declining populations globally

By Russell A. Mittermeier and Anthony B. Rylands24 January 2017 (mongabay.com) – The Year of the Monkey has just ended, and won’t come around again for another 12 years. In the meantime, what is happening with our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates? A recent paper in Science Advances by 31 of us indicates that […]

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