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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.

The stash of illicit rhino horns, together with an assortment of other animal parts, was destined for the south-east Asian country of Laos. The National Parks Board of Singapore confirmed this week that 35.7kg of rhinoceros horns, valued at roughly S$1.13 million (just under R15 million), were discovered earlier this month during routine cargo checks. The horns were concealed inside four packages falsely declared as furniture fittings. The shipment also contained about 150kg of assorted animal parts, including bones, teeth and claws.

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.

The Pretoria North Magistrate's Court has denied bail to a 55-year-old man, Lesly Jan Moeng, who was allegedly caught trying to sell a pangolin valued at R160,000. Moeng is facing a charge of possession of a pangolin, a protected species under South African law. His three co-accused - Isaac Leatile Ntsibe, 62, and two police officers stationed at Sun City police station, Mkhanyisi Samuel, 43, and Paulina Mokgaki, 43 - were granted bail of R2,000 each earlier this month.

Singapore seized a record 35.7 kg of smuggled rhinoceros horns worth about S$1,130,000 ($867,430) en route to Laos, the largest haul in Singapore to date, the National Parks Board said on Tuesday. The haul was found earlier this month in a shipment of four pieces of cargo declared as furniture fittings, and also contained around 150 kg of other animal parts, including bones, teeth and claws.

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.

Major plans, including oil drilling and hydropower, are threatening wildlife and natural resource management across the five-nation Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza-TFCA). World Wildlife Fund (WWF) director in Namibia Juliane Zeidler said this at the just-ended 2025 Insaka Symposium held in Namibia. She said a number of activities are being planned in many parts of the Kaza-TFCA, such as drilling for oil in the Okavango River Basin in the Kavango East region, which lies near the elephant movement corridor in the Mangetti National Park.

One of the greatest tragedies in Namibian conservation is playing out on the Kavango River east of Rundu in the Shamvura area where poachers operating from the Angolan side of the river have wiped out 75% of the local hippo population over the past year. Eyewitnesses report seeing Angolan individuals indiscriminately and in open daylight shooting at the hippo pod on the Namibian side of the river in what appears to be a thriving illegal trade in hippo meat across the river.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has commenced a 15-day ear-notching and tagging campaign at Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary and Tsavo West National Park set to have over 100 black rhinos targeted. The agency said in a statement on Tuesday 100 black rhinos will be fitted with LoRaWAN eartags and VHF transmitters over a 15-day period to enhance monitoring, security, and population management. The campaign, supported by partners under the Kenya Rhino Range Expansion (KRRE) initiative, is the country's largest single rhino ear-notching and tagging operation.

The bird man is at his desk, vaping and working the phone. Fly traps coated with insects dangle from the ceiling. Tigers and lions pace fenced enclosures in the backyard. Tilting in his swivel chair - legs crossed, plaid short-sleeve shirt unbuttoned to the chest, reading glasses propped on his balding head - Gideon Fourie takes a long drag on his blue vape and begins to tell me how he became one of South Africa's leading parrot traders. "The African grey is the best talking and friendly [sic] bird in the world," Fourie says, rolling the R's in his heavily Afrikaans-­inflected…

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 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.

The pre-trial of Schalk Abraham 'AB' Steyn and Dawie Groenewald, accused of rhino horn possession, has faced multiple delays since their 2021 arrest. Schalk Abraham 'AB' Steyn and Limpopo game farmer Dawie Groenewald, who face charges of illegal possession and transportation of rhino horns, briefly appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court today. Lowvelder reports the matter was postponed again, this time to January 21, 2026.

Minister Dion George of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has welcomed the successful intelligence-driven operation that resulted in the confiscation of abalone worth over R3 million in Cape Town. The Minister commended the collaborative efforts of the South African Police Service's Operation Lockdown III and the Endangered Species K9 Unit, which uncovered a drying facility containing 6,400 units of abalone with an estimated street value of R3,520,000.

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen's move suggests that, when forced to choose, the DA leadership is more worried about hunters and wildlife ranchers than about lions in cages and a country's integrity on the world stage. Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Dion George and replace him with DA national spokesperson Willie Aucamp. On paper, it's just another reshuffle request in a fragile Government of National Unity.

The move to oust the environment minister exposes a deeper hijacking - of the National Elephant Heritage Strategy, of policy integrity and of conservation itself. When South Africa's National Elephant Heritage Strategy (NEHS) was gazetted this year, it looked like a triumph of inclusive environmental policy - a humane, forward-looking plan to celebrate elephants, not just as wildlife, but as part of our shared cultural and spiritual heritage. It promised to move the country beyond the exploitative logic of the past, into a new era of coexistence and respect.

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.

After the most recent rhino poaching incident in the Omaruru area, the tourism ministry has confirmed that the national total of rhinos poached in 2025 now stands at 37. According to the ministry, a rhino carcass was discovered on private farmland near Omaruru earlier this week, with its horns brutally removed. Investigations are ongoing, and law enforcement units, including the police and the ministry's Anti-Poaching Unit, have been deployed to the area to track down the suspects.

The recent brutal poaching of 19 Angulate Tortoises at the Table Bay Nature Reserve has sent shockwaves through the community and conservation circles alike. Staff members of the reserve made the gruesome discovery on the morning of 1 November 2025, stumbling upon empty shells scattered along footpaths leading to the Environmental Education Centre. This shocking incident has sparked outrage among city officials, wildlife advocates, and citizens dedicated to protecting South Africa's unique biodiversity.

A bull black rhino has been found dead and dehorned on a custodian farm in the Omaruru district, the third rhino poaching incident reported in the area in recent weeks. According to Erongo police senior inspector Judith Shomongula, the case is being investigated under the Nature Conservation Ordinance as it involves the illegal hunting of a specially protected game species and theft of rhino horns. Police said the incident occurred sometime between December 2024 and 16 October this year.

President William Ruto has lifted the ban on logging to allow for the harvesting of mature trees only in forests countrywide. The President noted that there is need to utilise mature timber for commercial purposes rather than letting it rot in the forest. During a public engagement at the Molo Technical and Vocational College in Elburgon, Molo Constituency in Nakuru County, on Monday, President Ruto said: "We shall reopen the timber factories here in Elburgon. I have told my Minister of Trade, Mr Lee Kinyanjui, that importing furniture from China must end.

The High Court has dismissed both the unlawful detention and bail applications filed by convicted wildlife trafficker and corruption suspect Yunhua Lin, ruling that he remains a serious flight risk and that releasing him could compromise ongoing proceedings. Delivering his determination, Judge Redson Kapindu said Lin's previous conduct and the gravity of the offences he faces justified his continued detention. The court has ordered that Lin be held at Dedza Prison pending the next hearing.

The Namibian Police said 696 bull genitalia and 2 225 small animal genitalia were stolen during a break-in at the Henties Bay Seal Factory around 05h00 on Thursday. According to the police, suspects removed the office door to gain entry. The suspects also stole an Acer laptop a hard drive. The stolen items are valued at close to N$950 000. No arrests have yet been made.

A Chinese man has been found guilty of illegal possession of a pair of rhino horns worth US$120 000 and faces the nine-year mandatory jail sentence for the offence. Fuxi Wang, who had initially pleaded not guilty, was convicted after a full trial by Harare magistrate Ruth Moyo. He is expected back in court on Thursday, November 6 2025 for sentencing. The court heard that on February 20 this year, Wang wanted to export a purported sculpture from Zimbabwe to China through the Robert Gabriel International Airport.

The price of pangolin scales has fallen by half or more in Cameroon in the last five years, market data shows. That has coincided with evidence of a fall in demand from China and more effective domestic law enforcement, offering new hope in saving these shy, endangered animals from extinction. Data compiled by the wildlife law enforcement group LAGA shows declines of between 45% and 75% in the average prices of scales for all three species of pangolin found in Cameroon, in both rural and urban areas, between 2020 and 2025.

High Court Judge Andree-Jeanne Tötemeyer has granted relief to conservancies in the Kunene Region, halting mining activities carried out by one Timoteus Mashuna in the Sorris Sorris conservation area, which hosts the endangered black rhino species. The judge said that only about 3,500 remain globally, with Namibia holding close to one-third of the global population. The western Kunene rhinos are the largest population of free-roaming black rhinos anywhere in the world and are classified as a Key-1 population by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Two Matabeleland South men will spend the next nine years in prison after being caught trying to sell a 1.6kg pangolin skin at a long distance bus terminus in Bulawayo. Mlamuleli Moyo (35) of Maphosa Homestead in Matopo and Gugulethu Ncube (21) of Mbofana Homestead, Figtree, were convicted at the Bulawayo Tredgold Magistrates' Court for unlawful possession of a pangolin skin, a trophy from a specially protected animal under the Parks and Wildlife Act.

"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.

The Northern Cape Division of the High Court in Kimberley, on Friday, 31 October, ruled that rhino horn harvested from registered captive breeding operations can be exported for sale, as such facilities are devoted to conservation and not commerce.

A legal international trade in rhino horn is not about to immediately lift off, but a recent judgment raises issues that point to the direction that contestation in this terrain may take. The Northern Cape Division of the High Court in Kimberley, on Friday, 31 October, ruled that rhino horn harvested from registered captive breeding operations can be exported for sale, as such facilities are devoted to conservation and not commerce.

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."

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.

The domestic and international relaxation of bans on trade in rhino horn has been a growing debate within conservation. Currently, international trade in rhino horn is banned under CITES, in response to growing concerns that increasing demand from Asian nations over the last decade has led to a poaching crisis that has decimated many African rhino populations. The reimplementation of South Africa's domestic rhino horn market in 2017 has reignited the debate as how best to mitigate a crisis that could see rhinos extinct in the wild within a few decades.

There are worrying signs that the illegal trade is becoming more organised, with professionals and government officials involved.

Another two rhinos have paid the ultimate price as a result of ongoing poaching.The circumstances surrounding the poaching of two rhinos on a Limpopo farm are being investigated by the Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit. Rooiberg police, in the Waterberg District, have launched a manhunt for unknown perpetrators involved in the poaching of two rhinos on Pomo Estate.

A void left by illegal horn income may now be driving neighbouring communities to snare and shoot species such as African buffalo in the park's southwest sector. Despite the lowveld’s searing heat, thorny canopy and tough terrain, Kruger's staff and honorary rangers say they are fighting back - on foot.

The Eastern Marine Command of Nigeria Customs Service in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said it has made a significant breakthrough in combating wildlife trafficking by intercepting a substantial quantity of pangolin scales, elephant tusks and sacks of used second hand shoes worth N680,290,400 in its area of operation.

In spite of the surge in snaring of animals in the Kruger National Park officials are scrambling to come up with ways to curb the emerging onslaught to the game for bush meat. With less than two months left until the end of the year field and honorary rangers claim to have removed more than 3 000 snares that were placed across the park to trap the animals. According to the statistics, this ruthless form of poaching has been on the increase in recent years claiming more than 7  000 snares in last year as opposed to 4  000 in 2021. According…

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.

Rhino populations in Kruger National Park continue to decline despite innovative strategies implemented to prevent rhino poaching. The latest population count, reported in the SANParks Annual Report 2022/2023, reveals that the total rhino population has declined by 16.2%, from an estimated 2,458 rhinos in 2021 to 2,060 in 2022.

A man was arrested for the possession of 22 kilograms of ivory, valued at approximately US$3 740.

Mozambique's National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) on Wednesday detained two individuals, in Beira city, in the central province of Sofala, who were caught redhanded in the possession of elephant tusks that they were trying to sell.

The defence attorney in the case against a former police officer accused of being a rhino poaching kingpin has disputed that their client has 12 pending cases.

Die ministerie van die omgewing, bosbou en toerisme het vonnisse van minstens 13 jaar tronkstraf elk vir vier renosterstropers verwelkom. Die vonnisse is onlangs in die Windhoek-streekhof opgelê.

The Ministry of the Environment, Forestry and Tourism has welcomed sentences of at least 13 years in prison each for four rhino poachers. The sentences were handed down recently in the Windhoek Regional Court.

Meanwhile, the police at Outjo in the Kunene region arrested a 28-year-old suspect while he was transporting a rhinohorn on Friday evening. He was apprehended when the police stopped and searched the vehicle he was traveling inbetween Outjo and Okaukuejo. The rhino horn’s estimated value is N$300,000.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust's (EWT) plant detection dog, which is trained to detect succulent plants, displayed his training during a police action. Delta the dog assisted in Springbok where two males were arrested for illegal possession of 1 760 endangered plants.

The SAPS plant detection dog "Delta" trained to detect succulent plants displayed his training during a police action in Springbok where two males were arrested for illegal possession of 1760 endangered plants. A multi-disciplinary operation involving the Springbok Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit (STESU), Springbok Public Order Policing (POP) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (Shadi Henrico, Esther Matthew and K9-Delta) was held on Friday, 13 October 2023 at approximately midnight.

Despite declining national rhino poaching statistics, KwaZulu-Natal is becoming a new hotspot for these illegal activities.

The environment ministry has welcomed sentences of at least 13 years in prison each for four rhino poachers. The sentences were handed down in the Windhoek Regional Court last week. Former Brave Warriors chiropractor Gerson Kandjii (51) was also involved in the case, but died in custody in 2021. The arrests stem from an incident in December 2016, when four white rhinos were poached on a private farm in the Gobabis district. On 22 December 2016, the suspects, allegedly without a hunting permit, killed four white rhinos - two…