Earth Protect Blog

Interested in learning more about the wildlife trade? Watch The Ivory Game from our friends at Vulcan Productions TODAY and share the trailer on Facebook and Twitter!    From executive producers Leonardo DiCaprio and Paul G. Allen, The Ivory Game is an epic ...

Leonardo DiCaprio may have – finally - bagged an Oscar this year for his performance in survival film The Revenant, but his next role everyone's talking about right now is behindthe camera. If you’re one of Leo’s dedicated 11 million Instagram followers, you’ll be well aware of his involvement in c...

Recently, Animal Planet aired a documentary entitled "Saving Africa's Giants with Yao Ming." The show, developed in conjunction with the environmental non-governmental organization WildAid, depicts the Chinese basketball player Yao Ming meeting with wildlife conservationists to discuss the future of...

Poachers hunting for ivory illegally killed more than 100,000 elephants in Africa in a three-year period, a new CSU study says. Scientists say it’s the first time they’ve ever been able to provide such a specific number of illegal elephant killings, and raises questions about the species’ survival ...

Poachers killed an estimated 100,000 elephants across Africa between 2010 and 2012, a huge spike in the continent's death rate of the world's largest mammals because of an increased demand for ivory in China and other Asian nations, a new study published Monday found.   Warnings about massive...

Thailand has until next March to take measures to shut down domestic trade in illegal elephant ivory or it will face trade sanctions, an international meeting on wildlife trade announced today. Governments at a meeting of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) r...

The availability of ivory items for sale in Bangkok has nearly tripled in the last 18 months, according to a report released days before a major international meeting on wildlife trade.The report, Polishing off the ivory: Surveys of Thailand’s ivory marketreleased today by the wildlife trade mo...

The steps are part of a broad effort announced Tuesday by the White House to stem a global boom in wildlife trafficking that threatens species such as the African elephant and the rhinoceros with extinction. "Record high demand for wildlife products, coupled with inadequate preventative m...

China’s demand for luxury knickknacks lies beneath some spectacular carnage of late. As we highlighted in August, the illegal ivory trade funds al-Shabaab, the terrorist group behind the Westgate Mall massacre in Kenya late last month. Al-Shabaab finances as much as 40% of its operations&n...

The sweeping grasslands of the African savannah might not exist without elephants. They knock down so many trees that forests transform into plains, where other grazers and birds feed. Elephants maintain the shape of the land, and without them, everything would change. And for many, that would make ...

Elephant ivory ads on eBay and Google Shopping threaten conservation, advocates say By Carl Franzen E-commerce has disrupted a number of industries, but it's only helped expand the global market for items made of illegal African elephant ivory. Online sales listings for items made of the highly-co...

Stop ivory poaching or face sanctions, nations warned at Cites 'Gang of eight' countries at the heart of surge in elephant slaughters must deliver plans with goals for the next 12 months by Damian Carrington The "gang of eight" nations at the heart of an unprecedented surge in African elephant ki...

SCB Engages Religious Leaders to Help Protect Elephants Demand for ivory in Asia for religious purposes threatens elephants in Africa WASHINGTON – Elephant poaching and ivory smuggling in Africa are at their highest levels in more than a decade, according to a 2012 report from the Convention on In...

The new wave of killing of elephants in Africa is in many ways far graver than the crisis of the 1970s and 80s. Firstly there are fewer elephants, and secondly the demand for ivory is far higher. Record ivory prices in the Far East are fueling poachers, organized crime, and political instability rig...

Yaoundé, Cameroon — Six months after the killing of hundreds of elephants in a Cameroon national park, WWF today is releasing exclusive video material from the scene of the shocking event. The release comes on the eve of World Elephant Day on Sunday, August 12, 2012. WWF fears that soon this event m...

Large-scale tusk smuggling has reached a record high this year, with at least 2,500 dead elephants used for ivory.Organised criminals - particularly Asian syndicates - are increasingly involved in the illegal trade, according to environmental agency Traffic.Experts believe it has been the worst year...