|
|
Welcome to this week's news update
Back to the news this week, and in the aftermath of the killing of Vince, the young rhino in a Paris zoo, a number of other zoos in the region are taking the drastic step of removing their rhinos' horns as a means of deterring poachers. Although we await developments to see if the Paris case was an isolated one, it seems like a sound precautionary move by these establishments, although secure storage or transparent disposal of the removed horns will need to be addressed, while it is a sad refection of the dire situation currently facing rhinos and the lengths to which some people will go to get their hands on rhino horn. Also this week, there was positive feedback on a meeting to assess the operation of AFRICA-TWIX (Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange) after its first year of operation. There are already around 100 active users from enforcement agencies across the four Central African countries where the secure information sharing system is being trialed, while four investigations have been triggered as a result. Finally, the week ended on a hugely positive note (and a highly appropriate one as the Cambridge office looks forward to celebrating #EarthOptimism later this month - more on that later). A TRAFFIC-facilitated workshop helped Vietnamese government agencies and the business sector - including pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, and wild plant processors - work together to integrate sustainable wild medicinal plant collection practices into the certification requirements for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) guidelines. It was another important step in our efforts to promote sustainable, legal wildlife trade. Next week, we look forward to celebrating International Day of Forests, on 21st. Keep an eye out for some timber-related updates. If you have questions about any of the issues TRAFFIC is engaged with or would like to know more about its work, please do get in touch, we'd love to help. Either e-mail Richard Thomas, Global Communications Co-ordinator: richard.thomas@traffic.org (or Tel: +44 1223 331981), or contact traffic@traffic.org
Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If your TRAFFIC Dispatches e-newsletter is not displaying correctly, you can view all of our news stories at our online news archive. Write a message to your friend
|
|||||
This will be the last in the present format of this newsletter as next week we aim to switch over to a new system - there's nothing you as subscribers need to do, but I hope you like the new format and approach.
