© WWF THAILAND

Press Release

WWF representatives hand over the half-million signature petition calling for a complete ban on the Thai ivory trade to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (center) in Bangkok. 27 February 2013.
Leonardo DiCaprio Joins WWF to Launch “Hands Off My Parts” Initiative to Stop Wildlife Crime
Leonardo DiCaprio Joins WWF to Launch “Hands Off My Parts” Initiative to Stop Wildlife Crime
© HOMP Launch 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.



‘Revenge’ Stars Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman Launch PSA for WWF’s ‘Hands Off My Parts’ Wildlife Crime Initiative

© WWF

 

Poachers kill at least 89 elephants in Chad
Up to 120 fresh elephant carcasses with their tusks removed were discovered in the northern section of the park. The ivory most likely supplies the Sudanese Ivory markets that service trafficking to Asia.
© Bouba N’Djida Safari Lodge

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.



© WWF Thailand

Governments start to rein in ivory and rhino horn trade, give sharks and timbers better protection at wildlife trade meeting
A white tip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus) swimming in Beqa lagoon, Fiji. Shark diving and feeding is becoming a popular tourist activity off Beqa lagoon not too far from Suva, capital city of Fiji. There is regular shark feeding at this venue. Suva, Fiji
© Brent Stirton / Getty Images

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.



© WWF Korolczuk

Polar bears, WWF and CITES trade bans
The five countries where polar bears live (Russia, US, Canada, Norway, Denmark [Greenland]) signed an agreement in 1973 to protect polar bear habitat. In a 2009 meeting, those countries agreed that “...their common obligations to protect the ecosystem of which polar bears are a part can only be met if global temperatures do not rise beyond levels where the sea ice retreats from extensive parts of the Arctic.”
© WWF / Mireille de la Lez/www.vanishingworld.se

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.



© WWF Korolczuk

Images of a female rhino who 4 months ago survived a brutal dehorning by poachers who used a chainsaw to remove her horns and a large section of bone in this area of her skull, Natal, South Africa, November 9, 2010. The poachers surveyed the area by helicopter, mapped out the movements of the Rhino and the Guards and then darted the animal and hacked of the horn with a chainsaw. In an act of callous brutality they left the animal alive when they left with the horns. This Rhino was consequently found the next day wandering around in unimaginable pain. She also had a young 4 week old calf who was seperated in the incident and subsequently died of starvation and dehydration. The female adult miraculously survived the dehorning and with some vetrinary supervision has gone on to join up with a male bull who accompanies her and helps her to survive.
© © Brent Stirton / Getty Images / WWF-UK

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

Carlos Drews, head of WWF’s delegation at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) issued the following statement today in response to decisions from world governments to offer better protection for rhinos:



© WWF Korolczuk

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) mother with youngster, captive, Chimfunshi Orphanage, Zambia
© naturepl.com/Andy Rouse / WWF

Apes swing into CITES

Governments at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, today agreed to develop a comprehensive reporting mechanism on the illegal killing and trade of great apes.



© WWF Korolczuk

Governments fall short on immediate efforts to curb illegal ivory trade at wildlife trade meeting
African elephants head to head (Loxodonta africana), Kenya.
© naturepl.com / Karl Ammann / WWF

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.



© WWF / James Morgan

Large numbers of threatened reef fish still traded
Humphead Wrasse
© WWF

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).



© WWF / James Morgan

New study reveals scale of persistent illegal Tiger trade
Tiger bones, skull & skin recovered by staff of the Royal Chitwan National Park, Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal
© Soh Koon Chng / WWF

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.



© Martin Harvey / WWF

Central African elephants heading toward extinction
Elephant bones, Gabon
Auerlie Kombi and Tuburse Mouyamba showing an elephant carcass and bones that they found in the forest outside Sounga village in the Gamba district, Gabon. Tuburse holds up the elephant's skull.
© WWF / James Morgan

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.


Cameroon shows initiative as poaching gangs approach: WWF Director General

Statement by Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International, regarding Cameroon’s decision to send 600 soldiers to deter incursions from large and organized poaching groups recently detected moving across the Central African Republic from the direction of Sudan.

Poachers kill over 11,000 elephants in Gabon
Forest Elephant killed by poachers for tusks. Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, Central African Replublic (CAR).
© Martin Harvey / WWF

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.



© WWF / James Morgan

New agreement between South Africa and Vietnam - A turning point in tackling rhino poaching crisis, say WWF, TRAFFIC
Success! A tranquillized rhino being loaded into a crate
© WWF/Sujoy Banerjee

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.



© WWF

WWF launches efforts to counter wildlife trade on Wildlife Conservation Day
Kill the trade
© wwf thailand

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.

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