In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...
Tag: Ivory
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Week in Review: Pangolins, Power and Payments
Nigerian customs authorities at the port of Lekki sized a record 7.1 tons of pangolin scales on Wednesday and arrested three suspects. A fourth, believed to be the smuggling kingpin is still at large. The endangered pangolin is now the most hunted mammal on earth and a seizure ...
How COVID-19 is Impacting the Africa-Asia Wildlife Trade
Amid the shutdowns in both Asia and Africa due to the COVID-19 outbreak there've been serious disruptions to the illegal wildlife trade between the two continents. But even though it's been harder to get African wildlife products to markets in China, ...
CITES Under Pressure to Crack Down on Elephant Trade and Loosen Restriction on Ivory Sales
Wednesday marked World Elephant Day (yes, apparently elephants also have their own day) and that sparked a heated discussion over the African ivory trade and Zimbabwe's controversial sales of young elephants to China. While conservationists and those who advocate for more relaxed wildlife trade regulations ...
Tweet of the Day: Ambassador Lin Songtian Engages South African Environmental Journalist on Twitter About the Fate of Baby Elephants Sent From Zimbabwe to China
China's outspoken ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, took his new Twitter account to respond to directly to criticism about the recent sale of 30 baby ...
Conservation Update: Rhino Horn Trafficking Trial in Malawi | Ivory Sales in China via Japan | China’s Distant Fish Fleet Needs More Transparency
Poaching and wildlife conservation issues have largely fallen off the broader China-Africa agenda ever since Beijing outlawed its domestic ivory trade in 2018. Even as Chinese demand for endangered African wildlife products, particularly pangolin, and other animals such as donkeys whose skins are used to make a ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Environmental Issues Force Their Way Onto China-Africa Agenda
Environmental and conservation issues have long been secondary priorities in the Sino-African relationship, lagging far behind economic development. Pollution, over-fishing, poaching and other ecological problems were all seen as the necessary downsides of economic modernization. Now, however, mounting public pressure on leaders from both ...
Green Issues Likely Sidelined at Upcoming China-Africa Summit
Environmental issues no longer appear to be a top priority in the China-Africa dialogue. While there have been a lot of discussions about health, military and media issues in the run-up to next month's FOCAC summit, there's been little to no mention of wildlife ...
2017 China-Africa Year in Review
2017 was an eventful year in China-Africa relations. Overall the two sides remain deeply engaged with one another, however indications began to emerge this year that the relationship is undergoing a profound change. No longer can we expect to see steadily rising ...
North Korea's Diplomats in Africa Are Making Big Money Selling Ivory to Chinese
The tightening of international sanctions against North Korea is helping to fuel the illicit ivory trade in Africa as the increasingly isolated country searches for new ways to generate revenue, according to a new report from the Global Initiative against ...
[COMMENTARY] China's Plan To Ban Ivory Sales Will Not Save Africa's Elephants
Hooray! The Chinese government finally came to its senses and announced that after 2017 it will no longer be legal to sell or trade ivory. Today’s announcement was long overdue and highly anticipated, particularly among Western wildlife conservationists pegged a Chinese ivory ban ...
2016 China-Africa Year in Review
After years of relatively trouble-free development, 2016 marked a turning point in the China-Africa amid turbulent changes in the global economic and political order. China increased its deployment of combat troops to the continent, suffering some its first casualties ...
Does Just One Man in China Control the Fate of Africa's Elephants?
In the powerful new Netflix documentary "The Ivory Game," Elephant Action League Executive Director Andrea Crosta ominously warned that the entire fate of Africa's elephants is in the hands of a single man, Chinese president Xi ...