Huffington Post: Hong Kong Open to Closing Ivory Trade Markets (3)

By Laurel Neme Posted: 11/06/2015    In a major policy shift, Hong Kong–the world’s largest retail market for elephant ivory–says it may now consider banning its ivory trade. “The Government is open-minded on the ban on domestic trade” was how a spokesperson for Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) put it in an email…

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Huffington Post: Unraveling Latin America’s Illegal Wildlife Trade

  Posted: 11/23/2015  The trafficking of elephants in Africa has gained tremendous media attention. Not so the illegal trade in birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and fish of Central and South America — a problem of epidemic proportion. Wildlife trafficking transit chains in Latin America are complex, secret, and as varied as the many common and threatened…

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Huffington Post: Take it to the People: Model for an Ivory Sales Ban

    Elephant ivory seized by officials in Hong Kong. Photo courtesy of Alex Hofford. Voters in Washington state sent a strong message to the world on November 3 when they passed the country’s first-ever comprehensive state ban on commerce in endangered animal species. The Washington Animal Trafficking Initiative 1401 (I-1401) prohibits the purchase, sale,…

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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…

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Huffington 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…

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