Resources

EIA is attending the 77th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee to engage on issues important to the protection of elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolin, vaquita, rosewood, and more.

As usual, some of the news about rhinos coming out of South Africa is good, some is bad, and most is complicated.

Officials in Japan’s largest city are on the verge of making a crucial decision – will Tokyo go further than the national government of Japan to take real action to address its role in the illegal international trade in elephant ivory?

On July 19, thieves stole 51 rhino horns from the ostensibly secure store room in South Africa. This isn't the first time something like this happened. Unless kept for legitimate enforcement or scientific purposes, rhino horn stockpiles are counterproductive to rhino conservation efforts.

As long as the demand for ivory continues, elephants will be poached for their ivory. Japan’s legal ivory market remains a threat to a mostly consensus approach among the global community that closing domestic markets is essential to protect elephants from poaching.

Aside from Brazil itself, there is perhaps no other country with as great an opportunity to help prevent this deforestation than China, Brazil’s biggest customer for the two agricultural commodities that are the main drivers of deforestation: soy and cattle.