Search results

There's no doubt that Appendix II trade has helped protect many species of sharks and rays, as well as countless other beloved species of wildlife. While unsustainable overfishing is the greatest threat to sharks and rays, sustainable fisheries for these animals exist - though these primarily can be found in wealthy countries with well-resourced fisheries management regimes - and are a popular policy solution among scientists and conservationists.

South Africa, where 79% of the world's rhinos live, said it aims to come up with a plan by the end of 2030 to dismantle an almost half-century ban on trading the endangered animals' horns. The proposal, contained in a draft of the country's first rhino biodiversity-management plan released late Tuesday, is controversial because poaching of the animals for their horns has decimated their populations across Africa. The horns are ground into powder and sold in east Asia where they are falsely believed to cure cancer and other ailments.

Pangolins (Order: Pholidota) are considered a very rare and threatened group of mammal taxa, and are widely recognized as the most trafficked mammals globally. In recent years, Africa has become an increasingly important source to supply demand, particularly from Asian markets. However, the extent and scale of the trade within South Africa remains poorly documented. Our study aimed to investigate the extent of the illicit trade in the Temminck’s pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) in South Africa between 2016 and 2024.