On 21st October 2022, Born Free, representing the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, co-hosted a high-level event alongside the governments of Peru and Gabon at the 11 th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC).
In the first nine months of this year, poachers have killed 190 rhinos in state-run protected areas in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. That’s one rhino killed every 35 hours. Most of this surge in poaching has taken place in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, better known as HIP. HIP is one of Africa’s earliest proclaimed conservation areas, established […]
Rhinos are fast disappearing from South Africa’s game reserves, under the constant onslaught of poaching. And as private reserves struggle to fund the cost of securing these iconic animals against poachers, many are being forced to give up or sell their rhinos.
This is about killing and trafficking for profit of our biodiversity by criminal syndicates. This is about crimes that are actually not isolated from other crimes, including corruption, drug dealing and human trafficking. How do we prosecute them? And is there a direct link with international crimes? Olivia Swaak-Goldman, executive director of the Wildlife Justice Commission, is the guest of our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts. Her organization is tackling transnational organised wildlife crime. And it is based in The Hague, the capital of international justice, because it’s about peace and security, and it’s about accountability.
LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo Three chimpanzees have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom after intruders broke into a primate sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Franck Chantereau, founder of the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre, says the kidnappers got into the 7-hectare (17-acre) facility in the southern city of Lubumbashi at […]