Search results

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.

From 24 November to 5 December 2025, governments from around the world will gather in Samarkand, Uzbekistan for the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP20) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This meeting comes at a moment of great consequence for some of the world's most threatened species - elephants, rhinos, pangolins, Asian big cats and the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.

The decline in elephant numbers across most of Africa has not been uniform, with many populations growing rapidly in the southern part of the continent. The recent 'Elephant in the Room' conference in Zimbabwe focused on three main options - chopping elephant numbers; limiting further growth via contraception, or finding more space for a species that has already lost 85% of its historic living range due to human expansion. There was also a more limited discussion on the 'do nothing' option.

Facing possible contempt of court charges for illegal elephant hunting in Botswana and violation of court interdicts, Dawie Groenewald's alleged proxy in Botswana, the now-disgraced former Justice Minister Ronald Machana Shamukuni and his dodgy shelf company DK Superior (PTY) Limited, are done and dusted.

The Criminal Investigation Service (SIC), through its Central Directorate for Combating the Illicit Trafficking of Precious Stones, Metals and Crimes against the Environment, in operational coordination with other defense and security forces, and in close collaboration with the General Tax Administration (AGT), international organizations, and NGOs dedicated to wildlife protection, conducted a micro-operation on Thursday, 6 November, on the outskirts of Luanda.

"We have tons of ivory sitting in vaults, gathering dust. Let us sell it. If we flood the market, prices will drop, and poachers will have no reason to kill our elephants." It sounds like a solution, logical, understandable, the kind of idea that fits neatly into an economics textbook: more supply, lower prices, less crime. But the world of ivory doesn't play by those rules. It isn't a clean market driven by transparency and rational behavior. It's a shadow economy built on secrecy, speculation, and status.

Across Africa, the greatest killers of elephants are poaching, illegal ivory trade, habitat loss, and government-sanctioned hunting. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and TRAFFIC have repeatedly identified organized wildlife trafficking networks as the main drivers of elephant declines. The African Elephant Status Report shows tens of thousands of elephants slaughtered over the past decades due to ivory demand, not activism.

South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has dismissed reports suggesting that the country intends to support reopening the international trade in ivory and rhino horn. The department reaffirmed its commitment to the global ban on ivory trade and rhino horn trade ahead of the upcoming CITES COP20 summit. In a statement, the department said: "South Africa remains fully committed to the international ban on commercial trade of ivory and rhino horn. Our policy is guided by science, ethics, and global cooperation, not by commercial interest."