Group items tagged

Nepal had its first zero poaching year in 2011 and has had three 365-day stretches with no poaching since then, giving its 645 rhinos some breathing room. Last year, the herd grew by 21 percent. It's a bright spot in the bleak world of rhino conservation: In 2015 Africa lost a record 1,338 rhinos to poachers and in India's Kaziranga National Park, which is one of the last strongholds of rhinos on the subcontinent, poaching is still common.

WildAid is running a campaign featuring celebrities biting their fingernails in an attempt to drive home the message that rhino horns -- widely consumed in Asia as a traditional remedy -- are made of the same material found in human nails and hair. That could blunt demand for the horns, helping conservationists defeat poachers who are pushing rhinos toward extinction.

"AB 96 passed 26-13, reflecting widespread support for the measure, which aims to take a step toward reducing pressure on wild elephants and rhinos that are being poached at unprecedented levels across Africa and Asia. "

The last Sumatran rhinoceros in the Malaysian wild has died, the latest grim milestone for a species on the brink of extinction. No more than 100 of the creatures are thought to remain in the forests of Indonesia, with nine more in captivity across Indonesia, Malaysia and the U.S.

Deforestation due to palm oil production is the single biggest threat to orangutans, but new deforestation-free standards that cover about 60% of the industry could help secure the primate's future. "We can now break the link between palm oil and the extinction of orangutans," says Michelle Desilets, executive director of the Orangutan Land Trust.

Hoping to stem illegal wildlife trafficking, the Obama administration on Wednesday introduced an aggressive plan for taking on traffickers that will include using American intelligence agencies to track and target those who benefit from the estimated $20-billion-a-year market.