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From sharks, rhinos to giraffes - they are the focus of the species conservation conference in Samarkand. As of November 24, 185 states in Uzbekistan will be wrestling over trade bans and restrictions. There is a lot at stake: the fate of more than 230 animal and plant species is being decided. The organization Pro Wildlife warns in advance of dangerous steps backwards in the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates or even prohibits the international trade in plants and animals.

In recent years, traders in west Africa have used social media to advertise wild meat directly and connect with customers. Platforms like TikTok and Facebook act as online storefronts linked to physical markets, enabling sellers to reach much larger audiences than they would have by selling at traditional stalls. This change is bringing new, often urban, buyers into the market and altering how wild meat is sold and the overall scale of the trade. A screenshot of a wild meat TikTok channel. Supplied We are wildlife researchers studying the trade in wild animals in west Africa.

Surveying elephants is hard, risky work. Dedicated biologists have been doing this challenging task across Africa for decades. Systematic surveying started in the late 1960s but has been sporadic, as access to remote areas takes logistical planning, funding and well-trained teams. Surveys can easily be derailed by civil unrest or lack of available survey teams. Consequently, the information on the numbers of elephants across Africa is spotty. Even for a single population, survey effort and coverage can change over the years.

South Africa's succulents - small, fleshy, green plants sometimes shaped like roses or stars, and often found peeping out between rocks in dry areas - are sought after by an increasingly international collector market. The popular Conophytum, Lithops and Tylecodon are part of the group of rare and aesthetically unique succulents which are now being illegally traded all over the world. Since 2019, over 1 million succulent plants from 650 species unique to South Africa have been illegally harvested in South Africa.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife remains confident in the effectiveness of its rhino dehorning programme, despite the recent loss of 20 dehorned rhinos targeted for their horn stumps in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP). Since the programme's launch in April, over 1 000 rhinos have been dehorned, resulting in a significant drop in poaching numbers. Initially, Ezemvelo was hesitant to dehorn rhinos due to cost concerns and the sanctuary's unique appeal for tourists seeking to see rhinos with horns.

Somkhanda Game Reserve has embraced the latest tracking technology in their fight against rhino poaching within the reserve. The game reserve, based in the Zululand District in KwaZulu-Natal, carried out a successful three-day rhino dehorning project last month, during which they also implemented tracking technology to key individuals in the herds.

The recent sentencing of three wildlife poachers has been hailed as a success in the anti-poaching efforts of the Greytown community. Farmers, SAPS and security companies working together to curb poaching in the Greytown area have welcomed the sentences handed down to three men aged between 27 and 42 years old, who were found guilty of illegal hunting by the Greytown Magistrate's Court. The three men were each sentenced to eight months' imprisonment or a R2 000 fine.

The Kruger National Park rhino population has again decreased from 2 809 at the end of 2020 to 2 458 rhinos at present.

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.

Almost 260 rhino were poached for their hornsin South Africa in the firstsix months of this year.

A zebra and its foal have been found dead, caught in the grip of a snare in the Bisley Nature Reserve.

Three people were arrested for alleged poaching inside the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park in the northern KwaZulu-Natal. This was confirmed by the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife on Sunday, which said the trio were arrested before they could kill a rhino. The first man was arrested on June 6 and two others were caught two days later. These arrest bring the number of alleged poachers caught inside the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park this year to five. "The Park has been under siege since the beginning of 2022.

Magma Security and Investigations said while their officers were patrolling in the Karkloof area, a suspicious vehicle was observed on a client’s property just after 2am, on Sunday morning. It said that upon stopping the vehicle, the officers found six occupants with six dogs. "They had poached and killed two warthogs and six porcupines. Knives were found in their possession. Suspects were handed over to Howick SAPS," said Magma Magma Security and Investigations.

The South African National Parks (SANParks) warned people on Saturday about a video circulating on social media depicting a "severely injured White Rhino cow", saying it was "distressing to watch". In a statement, SANParks said that its rhino dehorning team made the gruesome discovery of a badly mutilated female rhino in the South of the Kruger National Park (KNP) on Thursday. "According to the SANParks Veterinarian and the Section Ranger who attended to the rhino, it appeared as if the animal had been shot a few days prior to being found.

South African National Parks (SANParks) has welcomed sentences imposed for rhino poaching related crimes in two separate cases that have been finalised in Mpumalanga.The trials were concluded in the Mhala regional court in February and March. In one matter three people who were arrested in August 2018 were convicted of rhino poaching related charges including possession of two sets of rhino horns, a high calibre hunting rifle, ammunition and trespassing in a national park with the intention of committing crime as well as the illegal hunting of an endangered animal.

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the highest value illicit trade sectors globally, threatening both human well-being and biodiversity. A prominent example is ivory poaching, leading to an estimated 30% decline in African elephant populations between 2007 and 2014 and costing African states an estimated US$25 million annually in lost tourism revenues.