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US war veteran now fighting to save Africa's elephants
A decorated U.S. war veteran with two decades' experience in military intelligence, Lt. Col. Faye Cuevas spent half her career providing intelligence support to U.S. counter-insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. Now she is using her expertise to fight a different kind of conflict: the war on wildlife poaching.
Calling herself "the accidental conservationist," Cuevas, an air force officer and a trained lawyer originally from Le Center, Minnesota, is not your typical wildlife enthusiast. She is determined to use her skills, honed in conflicts all over the world, to help save the planet's remaining wild elephants.
"If you start to really untangle how poaching happens — how poachers are armed, how they're connected into larger networks and how those networks can move ivory and horn on a global scale, who protects them? Who provides logistics? — it resembles a war in anything but name," Cuevas said.
In the U.S. Air Force, Cuevas worked on America's controversial drone program, collecting intelligence on individuals and organizations identified as threats. "Getting left of boom" was the term used to predict and prevent the next bomb attack.
Full story at http://abcn.ws/2r5cPeJ
Demand for elephant skin, trunk and penis drives rapid rise in poaching in Myanmar
Case files and laminated photos of poachers spill out of captain Than Naing’s folder. As the chief of police in Okekan township, one of Myanmar’s recent poaching hotspots, he is trying to track down the men who have killed at least three elephants in the area over the past year. So far, he has arrested 11 people suspected of having assisted the poachers. Meanwhile the poachers themselves remain at large.
“These are the two men who we believe killed one of the elephants,” he says, pointing to two photos. “They are still on the run.”
Reported cases of killed elephants in Myanmar have increased dramatically since 2010, with a total of 112 wild elephant deaths, most of them in the past few years. In 2015 alone, 36 wild elephants were killed, according to official figures from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The figures for 2016 are feared to be even worse.
Neighbouring China is the main destination for elephant products. Despite the ivory ban imposed by the Chinese government earlier this year, ivory is still the most valuable part of the elephant. But worryingly conservationists are now seeing a growing demand for other parts of the animal; trunks, feet, even the penis, to be used in traditional medicine. The hide or skin, which is believed to be a remedy for eczema, is particularly in demand.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2sh0hET
Hong Kong role in wildlife smuggling in spotlight as African rangers beg for ivory ban
African rangers detailed harrowing first-hand tales of elephant poaching at a public hearing in Hong Kong on Tuesday, the latest attempt to halt wildlife trafficking through the Chinese-ruled city, as ivory traders defended their business.
Hong Kong, at the mouth of China's Pearl River Delta, is one of the world’s top global transit hubs for endangered species and their products, like ivory, shark fin, pangolin and rosewood.
Shark fin and pangolin are considered delicacies in China and the scales of pangolin, one of the most widely trafficked wild animals in the world, are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The hearing, held in the legislature, was marked by a testy standoff between traders, who argue their business is legal, and conservationists who say Hong Kong’s prime role is pushing elephants toward extinction.
Full story at http://reut.rs/2sgTTh5
The loneliest chap in the world: Rampant poaching has left this rhino the last male of his kind – can science stop them vanishing forever?
The world’s most pampered rhino is having his mudpack applied by hand. Sudan the veteran northern white rhinoceros stands placidly and allows his personal assistant to rub dollops of wet clay into his hide, to moisturise his skin and keep insects away.
‘He loves that,’ says Zach, his 24-hour-a-day PA. Zach lives next door to the rhino enclosure, permanently on call in case His Lordship should require anything. And Sudan is very high maintenance – he used to have a man whose job was rubbing oil into his hooves.
Little wonder that the staff at Ol Pejeta reserve in Kenya refer to him affectionately as the Hollywood rhino. Sudan even has his profile on dating app Tinder. But there’s a tragic reason for all this attention.
Full story at http://dailym.ai/2r5Bb81
Ivory Coast jail sentences for chimpanzee traffickers
wo men have been sentenced to six months in prison in the first case of wildlife trafficking brought in Ivory Coast.
An Ivorian government lawyer said the judgement "sends a signal" that animal trafficking is being taken seriously.
The men were arrested while trying to sell an infant chimp to a BBC reporter posing as the representative of a wealthy Asian buyer.
Chimpanzees are in such sharp decline they are listed as endangered.
Full story at http://bbc.in/2r5BOhX
US army veterans find peace in protecting rhinos from poaching
The sun has set over the scrubby savannah. The moon is full. It is time for Ryan Tate and his men to go to work. In camouflage fatigues, they check their weapons and head to the vehicles.
Somewhere beyond the ring of light cast by the campfire, out in the vast dark expanse of thornbushes, baobab trees, rocks and grass, are the rhinos. Somewhere, too, may be the poachers who will kill them to get their precious horns.
The job of Tate, a 32-year-old former US Marine, and the group of US military veterans he has assembled in a remote private reserve in the far north of South Africa is simple: keep the rhinos and the rest of the game in the bush around their remote base alive.
The men are not mercenaries, or park rangers –they work for Tate’s Veterans Empowered To Protect African Wildlife (Vetpaw), a US-based nonprofit organisation funded by private donations. All have seen combat, often with elite military units, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2sjVQqs
Poachers kill baby rhino and its mother in 'brazen' raid inside a famous game reserve
A baby rhino and its mother have been killed by poachers in a "brazen" pre-dawn raid in a famous South African game reserve.
Four armed poachers reportedly overwhelmed two guards in theHluhluwe-Imfolozi reserve, then shot the mother rhino and her calf and took their horns.
A further 20 rhinos have recently been orphaned in a series of poaching incidents in the area, 170 miles north of Durban.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2sjBnC3
Uganda’s MFA says Chinese diplomats not involved in ivory trade
Kampala, Uganda | MIN FA| Following leaked reports that President Yoweri Museveni had ordered a probe into collusion between Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and several Chinese nationals, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uganda has come out to clarify that the two accused are not diplomats.
A statement released by the Uganda Foreign Affairs ministry said that “following a thorough review of its records, it has confirmed that both Li Wejin and Yinzhi are not accredited diplomats with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Uganda.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amb. Patrick Mugoya released a statement after a meeting with senior Officials of the Chinese Embassy led by the Ambassador in Kampala.
The meeting was attended by Amb. Philip Odida, head of the Asia and Pacific Department and Margaret Kafeero, Head of the Public Diplomacy Department.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2sjgIOH