Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb 18, 2013  Today, actor and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Board Member Leonardo DiCaprio helped launch WWFs Hands Off My Partsinitiative. The initiative represents a week-long effort tied to WWFs Stop Wildlife Crimecampaign to raise awareness and mobilize support to end the illegal trade of wildlife.

Yaoundé, Cameroon - At least 89 elephants were killed by poachers last week in Chad, according to local officials, in one of the region’s worst poaching incidents since the massacre of over 300 elephants in Cameroon’s Bouba N’Djida National park in February 2012.

Bangkok, Thailand - A critical wildlife trade meeting closed Thursday with decisions from world governments to regulate the international trade in several species of sharks and timber, and to start taking action against countries doing little or nothing to stop the illegal ivory and rhino horn trades.

12 March 2013 -- CITES listings control only international trade in wildlife and wildlife products. At WWF we often support complete international trade bans, for example when it comes to tigers and rhinos. But right now polar bears are a different case.

Statement: Carlos Drews responses to decisions from world governments to offer better protection for rhinos

Apes swing into CITES

Bangkok, Thailand - World governments at the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) on Tuesday opted against immediate trade sanctions against several countries that have repeatedly failed to tackle the trade in ivory.

The humphead wrasse, a tropical reef fish, is still suffering from illegal and unreported international trade despite being listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Bangkok, Thailand, 7th March 2013—Parts of more than 1400 Tigers have been seized across Asia in the past 13 years, according to TRAFFIC’s latest analysis of confiscations, which includes new data for 2010-2012.

Populations of forest elephants in the epicentre of the ivory poaching crisis have declined by 62 percent in the past decade, according to a report released today by conservationists. The study, which examines the largest ever amount of Central African elephant survey data, comes as 178 countries gather in Bangkok to discuss wildlife trade issues, including poaching and ivory smuggling.

A new study confirms what has been long suspected: elephant populations are being decimated to the point that the survival of the species in Central Africa is now in question.

Ha Noi, Vietnam, 10th December — A pivotal moment in efforts to tackle the current rhino poaching crisis took place today as the governments of South Africa and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve co-operation between the two states on biodiversity conservation and protection including tackling illegal wildlife trafficking.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by H.E. Edna Molewa, Minister for the South African Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and H.E. Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam during a visit by Minister Molewa to Vietnam.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calls on individuals around the globe to join the fight to help save endangered wild animals. As December 4 marks Wildlife Conservation Day in the United States, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an end to wildlife smuggling, which she emphasized as a major foreign policy and security issue. She added that wildlife trafficking is a global issue that requires a concerted global response.