• Animals

COVID-19 Is Devastating Ecotourism and That Makes Another Pandemic Even More Likely

• animals. wildlife trafficking
• COVID-19
• ecotorism
• elephants
• endangered species
• great apes
• Lions
• science

Wildlife sanctuaries, game reserves, and national parks in Asia, Africa, and South America have closed during the COVID-19 pandemic as borders have been shut, visas restricted and quarantines enforced to limit the spread of the virus.

Why This Matters:  Globally this drastic reduction (80% in most places) translates into losses of trillions of dollars and millions of jobs to local communities for whom this is their only income, and these declines in travel are expected to last at least a year.

• Animals

Poaching on the Rise as Coronavirus Wipes Out Ecotourism

• Africa
• ehinos
• elephants
• IFAW
• poaching
• WWF

While we’ve seen the headlines of animals reclaiming cities and roaming wild as humans are stuck indoors, COVID-19 lockdowns have not been entirely beneficial for wildlife. In fact, in many regions of the world (like India, Southeast Asia, Africa and South America) poaching has increased.  As the Independent explained, “the sudden fall in tourism income […]

• Animals

The Brave Ones: An All Female Ranger Unit Guarding Wildlife In Zimbabwe

• #WorldWildlifeDay
• elephants
• poachers
• wildlife trafficking
• Zimbabwe

An elite unit of rangers protects the Phundundu Wildlife Area in Zimbabwe — it’s a 115 square mile former trophy hunting area that is home to 11,000 elephants — and it’s the first nature reserve in the world to be managed and protected by only by women.  The women rangers – many of whom came from backgrounds of abuse – call themselves the Akashinga, ‘the Brave Ones’ and are changing the face of conservation in Zimbabwe.

• Animals

Something To Be Thankful For: The Efforts of African Parks

• 30 by 30
• Africa
• African Parks
• Campaign for Nature
• elephants

We asked our partner, National Geographic’s Campaign for Nature about a success from this past year for which they’re thankful. They shared with us the story of African Parks which helps to privately manage vast protected areas throughout Africa as a means to save critically endangered wildlife from poaching. The Beginning: Established in 2000, African […]

• Animals

Room to Roam

• ecosystems
• elephants
• endangered species
• habitat
• protected areas
• wildlife corridors

By Beth Allgood, U.S. Country Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare The plight of endangered wildlife has been brought sharply into focus in recent months by an alarming report from some of the world’s most renowned scientists warning that nature is in rapid decline globally with the rate of extinction accelerating beyond levels previously imagined. […]

• Animals

Singapore Makes Huge Wildlife Bust

• China
• Democratic Republic of China
• elephants
• ivory
• organized crime
• pangolin
• Singapore
• tusks
• wildlife trafficking

On Tuesday, the government of Singapore announced it had seized nearly $50 million in ivory tusks and pangolin scales (a record for the nation) found in shipping containers from the Democratic Republic of Congo that supposedly contained timber but instead were filled with 12 tons of pangolin scales and nearly 9 tons of ivory.  The illegal wildlife parts were bound for Vietnam, but will now be destroyed so that they will not re-enter the market, the Singapore government announced.