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Two Zimbabwean men have earned themselves jail time after being caught in possession of a pangolin, a specially protected species, without a permit. The pair were arrested on 10 July in a joint operation conducted by the police's Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit in Musina and private security. Abednego Nyathi (51) and Personal Sibanda (41), both from the Mangwe District in Zimbabwe, were arrested and charged on two counts. Count 1 was for contravening the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, Act 10 of 2004, by being in possession of a specially protected…

Instability, enforcement gaps and poverty combine to enable the rampant trafficking of cheetah cubs to the Middle East. Cheetah trafficking in the Horn of Africa has reached crisis levels. Research has documented at least 1 884 incidents involving around 4 000 live cheetahs and cheetah parts related to the illegal wildlife trade from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula between 2010 and 2019. A more recent study sheds light on how baby cheetahs are smuggled from the Horn of Africa to Gulf countries and sold as exotic pets.

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.