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Multiple arrests have been made recently in connection with pangolin trafficking in operations in Gauteng, Free State and Mpumalanga. Prof Ray Jansen, founding member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Pangolin Specialist Group, and his partners rescued a trafficked pangolin in Midrand in a sting operation last week. It was the 12th pangolin rescued this year. Jansen said the pangolin was in a critical condition and might not survive.

The Wildlife Justice Commission said a threat assessment on the state of rhino horn trafficking in the past decade showed that much was needed to fight the trade via law enforcement, policymakers and conservation. The assessment found that over the last decade, six countries dominated the supply chain as source, transit and destination locations and that a third of rhino horns were smuggled unconcealed, suggesting a potential reliance on corruption to move shipments along the supply chain. They found that large amounts of harvested horns have been diverted from legal…

Rhino poachers are heartless and kill every rhino they see - young or old, with of without a horn - just to get rid of them from the reserve and to "try and make their job easier", should they come back. This is according to Ezemvelo Wildlife spokesperson Musa Mntambo. This week, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Barbara Creecy said that KwaZulu-Natal recorded a loss of 133 rhinos in the first half of the year - which is more than triple the 33 rhino killed in the first six months of 2021.

Cape Town - Poaching continues to decimate the rhino population with 451 rhinos poached in South Africa last year, 327 of them from government reserves and 124 from private property.

Cape Town - Two men who were caught with R9 million rand worth of abalone have been sentenced to a year behind bars while authorities have warned this is still a very serious crime being committed and is often linked to the drug trade.

Currently going for about $3,300 (about R46 000) per pound, the global trade in ivory is worth about $23 billion annually, a reality made plain by the gruesome photos of butchered elephants that have become almost commonplace. In recent years, massive seizures of ivory seemed to signal a headlong rush toward extermination. In response, the EU this year proposed a near total ban on the trade of ivory anywhere in the bloc.

Three alleged pangolin poachers were bust red-handed and arrested when they tried to sell an animal to a "potential client" at a Shell garage on the N1 in Midrand on Friday. Olivia was the seventh pangolin rescued this year from poachers.