Posts by Laurel Neme
Huffington Post: How Legal Markets Fuel Ivory Smuggling in Hong Kong
Posted: 10/27/2015 Hong Kong’s legal ivory market fuels ivory smuggling and elephant poaching says a new report by WildAid, an international nongovernmental organization that aims to eliminate illegal wildlife trade. Together with undercover video by independent investigators provided to WildAid and WWF-Hong Kong, the report, Illusion of Control, released Oct 23 in Hong Kong, reveals that ivory traders…
Read MoreNational Geographic: How World’s Largest Legal Ivory Market Fuels Demand for Illegal Ivory
New report shows that limited oversight of Hong Kong’s ivory traders allows laundering of illegal ivory through legal markets. By Laurel Neme, for National Geographic PUBLISHED October 22, 2015 A new report by WildAid, an international nongovernmental organization that aims to eliminate illegal wildlife trade, together with undercover video by independent investigators provided to WildAid and WWF-Hong Kong,…
Read MoreHuffington Post: Saving Elephants One Kid at a Time
Posted: 10/16/2015 Children’s voices can be extremely powerful–a fact readily apparent on a recent Sunday when more than 325 people–most of them children–participated in Vermont’s first kid-driven Global March for Elephants. The event was initiated by 12-year-old Taegen Yardley, who organized a network ofstudent “champions” at more than a dozen elementary and middle schools across…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Ripple Effect: Saving Elephants One Kid at a Time
Children’s voices can be extremely powerful—a fact readily apparent on a recent Sunday when more than 325 people—most of them children—participated in Vermont’s first kid-driven Global March for Elephants and Rhinos. The event was initiated by 12-year-old Taegen Yardley, who organized a network of youngsters from across the state. Student “champions” at more than…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Undercover Video Confirms Hong Kong’s Retail Market Is “Front” for Smuggled Ivory
September 25, 2015 By Laurel Neme and Maraya Cornell Hong Kong’s retail ivory market acts as both a cover for smuggled ivory and an incentive. A new report, The Hard Truth, released September 7 by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)–Hong Kong, reveals how fundamental flaws in the existing regulatory system help fuel the…
Read MoreMoomah Magazine: Doing Unto Animals: Taegen Yardley – Saving Elephants One Kid at a Time
– By Laurel Neme Saving Elephants one Kid at a Time As a writer, I’ve met children from Hong Kong to Vermont who are transforming attitudes about elephant ivory through a series of small actions. In Hong Kong, the “elephant angels”—three young girls, Nellie Shute, Lucy Skrine and Christina Seigrist (then ages 12, 11 and…
Read MoreNational Geographic: East African Smugglers Push Ivory Out of the Continent
Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on September 18, 2015 Elephant poaching and ivory trafficking in East Africa is driven not only by foreign consumers but also by African nationals who actively “push” ivory to these markets. A recent report, Pushing Ivory Out of Africa: A Criminal Intelligence of Elephant Poaching and Ivory Trafficking in East Africa,…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Elephant Killings in Chad’s Signature Park Cause Alarm
After three years of zero poaching in Zakouma National Park, killing of two female elephants shows no population is safe. By Laurel Neme, for National Geographic PUBLISHED September 01, 2015 A routine aerial surveillance flight over the western part of Chad’s Zakouma National Park has uncovered the deaths of two female elephants and their calves…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Wildlife forensics unmask poachers and traffickers
Mongabay WildTech 10th July 2015 / Laurel Neme When border agents seize two tons of smuggled ivory, how do they tell where it’s from? When meat on sale in Southeast Asia is suspected to be from a tiger, how can the police prove it? And when blood in a hunter’s truck is thought to come from a poached…
Read MoreVermont Public Radio: Laurel Neme talks about Legal and Ethical Questions of Big Game Trophy Hunting of Cecil the Lion
First posted on 2015-08-11 Legal And Ethical Questions Abound In Big Game Trophy Hunting By Jane Lindholm & Patti Daniels • Jul 30, 2015 ShareTwitter Facebook Google+ Email LISTEN AT: http://digital.vpr.net/post/legal-and-ethical-questions-abound-big-game-trophy-hunting In this undated photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Cecil the lion rests in Hwange National Park, in Hwange, Zimbabwe. Two Zimbabweans arrested for illegally hunting a lion appeared…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Two Nations Show Good News, Bad News for Africa’s Elephants
Visits to Gabon and Tanzania show the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that commitment from the top makes all the difference. By Laurel Neme, National Geographic PUBLISHED June 28, 2015 Gabon and Tanzania are both high-stakes countries for elephants and other endangered species, but…
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