Rhino horn trafficking as a form of transnational organised crime 2012-2021

Stephen Wiggins Studies Leave a Comment

“Poaching rates across Africa have decreased by more than 50% since the peak in 2015, but they remain high, at equivalent levels seen at the start of the crisis. Poached horns from South Africa continue to be a key source for the illicit supply chain. Investigations indicate the main consumer market is China where rhino horn is …

To skin a cat: how organised crime capitalises and exploits captive tiger facilities

Stephen Wiggins Studies Leave a Comment

“Although the international trade in tigers has been prohibited since 1975 when they were classified as an Appendix I species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), tigers continue to be bred in legal and illegal captive facilities – otherwise known as tiger farms. In …

Bringing Down the Dragon

Stephen Wiggins Studies 1 Comment

The case of the Chen Organised Crime Group (OCG) is significant not only because it is the largest ivory smuggling case that has been convicted in China, but because it effectively dismantled an entire smuggling network from the source point in Africa to distribution in China. “In December 2020, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s …

The Tiger Mafia

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Hopefully, this chilling documentary will be on general release soon – highlighting the cruel commodification of thousands of tigers in South East Asia to profit from a gullible tourist industry, supply executed tigers for the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry and the trade in derivative tiger body parts….. The Tiger …

Call for China to Amend its Wildlife Protection Law

Stephen Wiggins Article 1 Comment

Considering how China’s pharmaceutical industry continues to blatantly utilises wildlife (with the support of naïve western investment), the call is long overdue for China (and others) to curtail the commercial exploitation of species such as pangolins, leopards, tiger, bears and elephants…..for ‘cures,’ trinkets and status symbols.   27 non-governmental organisations call …

Bitter Pill to Swallow – China’s flagrant trade in leopard bone products

Stephen Wiggins Studies 1 Comment

EIA research reveals that at least 24 Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been listing leopard bones as an ingredient in their traditional medicines, although there are fewer than 450 wild leopards left in that country. “Bitter Pill to Swallow – China’s flagrant trade in leopard bone products,” Environmental Investigation Agency, April …

Zoonotic Diseases of Mass Destruction

Stephen Wiggins Article 4 Comments

Banner image courtesy of artist Olaf Hajek and The New York Times Sunday Review The ‘true’ cost of wildlife abuse – Coronavirus and the viruses to follow…. “If we fail to understand and take care of the natural world, it can cause a breakdown of these systems and come back …

China’s ban on wildlife consumption is an overdue death knell for lion bone industry

Stephen Wiggins Article 5 Comments

by Don Pinnock, Daily Maverick, 24 February 2020 The Chinese government has placed an immediate ban on the illegal trading of wildlife and the consumption of wild animals. This follows a link between pangolin meat and the coronavirus outbreak.  Despite international outrage, South Africa is allowing a quota of at …

Live Wild Animal Markets, Human and Animal Health, and Biodiversity Protection

Stephen Wiggins Article, Speaking Out 20 Comments

Joint open letter (prepared by Mark Jones, Head of Policy, Born Free Foundation) to: Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organisation Dr Monique Eloit, Director General, Office International Epizoologies Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme   Live Wild Animal Markets, Human and Animal Health, and Biodiversity …