Mongabay.com: Innovative technology creates safe haven for rhinos

28 November 2016 / Laurel Neme Unveiled last week, the new system integrates a set of technologies — Wi-Fi, thermal cameras, biometrics, closed-circuit televisions, and sensors — to create a security network across an entire game reserve. The new technology system — called Connected Conservation — is a joint initiative between two international technology companies: Dimension Data…

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National Geographic: Justice for Rhinos–When Will it Come?

Nothing prepared me for the venom in his eyes. While not directed at me, nobody in the courtroom could escape the anger seeping from his pores. Through a twist of fate, I was in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), a province on the eastern coast of South Africa, on September 19, the day the trial of a suspected…

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National Geographic: Take it to the People: Model for an Ivory Sales Ban

Posted: 11/24/2015        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…

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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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National 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…

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Vermont 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…

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National Geographic: Will Mobilization of Military Forces Stop Elephant Poaching in Cameroon

  Posted by Laurel Neme in A Voice for Elephants on February 14, 2015      Ten elephant carcasses discovered in mid-January in and around Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park are raising fears that poachers may again be targeting the park. But information remains sketchy. According to the Cameroon Tribune, a government newspaper, the military made several patrols following reports of gunfire…

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Green Mountain Global Forum event on December 4, 2014

  4 Dec 2014 Battle for the Elephants, Poaching for Profit The world’s surging appetite for ornamental ivory is driving the African elephant to the brink of extinction. On Thursday, December 4 at 7PM at the Big Picture Theater in Waitsfield, Green Mountain Global Forum (GMGF) is screening the film Battle for the Elephants and hosting a…

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