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‘Given that this crosses many borders, co-ordinating effective efforts to tackle the illegal trade in wildlife is not easy,’ said WWF-UK’s wildilfe trade advisor, Heather Sohl. “It’s great to see 18 countries all working simultaneously to investigate and curtail the trade in traditional medicines containing threatened species. This can be a blueprint for future action on other areas of illicit wildlife trade too.’

The bust comes as WWF is preparing to call on countries which are members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to improve law enforcement, using intelligence-led, coordinated and cross-border approaches, to stop the illegal wildlife trade, when they meet in Doha, Qatar from 13 to 25 March.

‘Such measures will help protect some of our most valued and yet threatened species such as tigers, rhino and elephants,’ Sohl said.

For details about the operation, which were released today, see http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2010/PR014.asp

Spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) is the most important income source for a large number of coastal communities as it fetches high market prices.

Central America, 1 March 2010 – For the first time in Central America Caribbean, Spiny lobster fishing will be banned from the region’s waters during the species’ reproductive season, raising hopes for more responsible fishing practices in the region.

Of all the fishing resources in this region, spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) is the most important income source for a large number of coastal communities, especially as it fetches high market prices.

The species is intensively fished from Belize to Panama and compared with other sea food products, it is considered a high valued dish. Both market demand and prices are ‘high end’, fuelling its overexploitation.

Lobster fishery has been the backbone of the fishing economy in Central America for over 100 years, but recently the dwindling catch has worried both the government and fishermen.

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“WWF celebrates this first regional closed season and is proud to have been part of this joint effort’ said Bessy Aspra, WWF Fisheries Officer.

“This regional closed season is an important step for the protection of the most valuable fishing resource in the region, but it is also a clear sign of the regional and national commitment with the conservation of marine ecosystems.”

The ban will be in place from the beginning of March until the end of June.

WWF works with governments, the private sector and fishermen in order to ensure the viability of lobster populations and to help implement better, more sustainable fishing practices. Scientific studies on ecosystem based fisheries management are also conducted, helping reach policy decisions such as the regional ban on lobster fisheries.

This ban responds to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Integration Policy and the ordinance OSP-02-09 for the “Regional Regulation of Caribbean Lobster Fishing (Panulirus argus)”, issued by the Organization for Central American Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector (OSPESCA) and signed by the governments of the isthmus on May 21 2009.

The incident, part of a surge in rhino poaching in Zimbabwe and South Africa, is made worse by a lack of enforcement support in Zimbabwe in particular.

As 175 countries prepare to meet to for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 15) in Doha, on March 13, the increased poaching of rhinos and trade in rhino horns—compounded by failed enforcement efforts—is threatening to undermine conservation successes to date.

Most rhinos are listed in the Convention’s Appendix I, which bans trade in their parts for commercial purposes. Countries participating in the CITES convention have been tasked with combating illegal trade in rhino horn.

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“Zimbabwe’s failure to live up to its obligations to CITES is unacceptable and has caused its already endangered rhino population to decline,” said Colman O’Criodain, Wildlife Trade Analyst, WWF International. “The time has come for the CITES Parties collectively to decide how to address this failure.”

This incident, coming so soon after Zimbabwe was specifically urged by the CITES Secretariat to tighten up its law enforcement to protect rhinos, will reduce Zimbabwe’s ability to defend its wildlife management policies at the forthcoming CITES conference

Last year, rhino poaching worldwide hit a 15-year high due to increased demand for rhino horn. A recent report by TRAFFIC and IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, showed that since 2006, 95 percent of the poaching in Africa has occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The report also showed that the conviction rate for rhino crimes in Zimbabwe is only three percent.

WWF and TRAFFIC urge Zimbabwe, South Africa and all CITES Parties to uphold the commitments they have made as signatories to the Convention and dramatically improve law enforcement, including investigation of poaching incidents and prosecution of rhino crimes.

“Rhino poachers are currently operating in an environment where they are allowed to break the law without appropriate consequences,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC. “This kind of ineffective law enforcement increasingly undermines the success of more than a decade’s work of bringing rhinoceros populations in southern Africa back up to healthy levels.”

Most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for medicinal markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam, where demand has escalated in recent years.

With an average of 100,000 tons of seafood consumed each year, Singapore is one of the biggest seafood consumers in Asia-Pacific. It is also an important seafood hub and almost all of it is imported from the Coral Triangle, the world’s most diverse marine environment.

Yawning Sea Otter Card

“The fragile marine ecosystems of the Coral Triangle are under increasing threat because fish are being taken out of the seas faster than they can be replenished”, says Dr Geoffrey Muldoon of WWF’s Coral Triangle Program.

“In the past most people have been unaware of where the fish on their plates comes from or whether the species they are eating are heavily overfished or caught in ways that are damaging to marine environment”, said Amy Ho, Managing Director at WWF Singapore. “Much of the seafood you see in Singapore may be from areas that have been overfished for years”.

In an opinion poll of Singaporeans commissioned by WWF, 80% of those asked said they would either stop or reduce eating seafood if they were made aware that it was being unsustainably harvested.

Easy to carry around when buying seafood or dining out, the pocket-sized guide gives Singaporeans support in choosing species that are fished and farmed responsibly. The guide uses a simple traffic light system: GREEN – recommended eating choice; YELLOW – only eat occasionally; and RED – avoid eating.

The WWF Singapore Seafood Guide is one element of the broad and far reaching marine conservation work of the WWF network which promotes sustainable seafood by working along the entire ‘change of custody’ – from the ocean to the plate.

In Singapore WWF will be working together not only with consumers but also with retailers, hotels, restaurants and traders to raise awareness of more sustainable, responsibly farmed and fished seafood.

“We look forward to collaborating with the Singapore seafood campaign to generate greater awareness to our guests and diners about the urgent need for being sustainable and eco-friendly with our dining choices” says Mr. Ian Wilson – General Manager, Fairmont Singapore. “We will kick start this by making necessary adjustments in our menus.”

The Singapore Seafood Guide is available as a free download from the WWF Singapore website (www.wwf.sg) and will also be distributed free of charge throughout Singapore in a range of outlets in the coming months, including the National Geographic Store, Sentosa Nature Discovery, Sinema, Singapore Botanic Gardens, SuperNature, WISMA Atria, (see www.wwf.sg for further information).

“If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean,” said Wendy Elliott, Species Manager at WWF-International. “What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as ‘scientific research’. But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place.”

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The IWC has maintained a ban on all commercial whaling since 1986. But, defying this ban, Japan, Norway and Iceland use loopholes in the IWC’s founding treaty to kill more than 1,500 whales a year. The loopholes allow whaling under ‘objection’ to management decisions (Norway and Iceland) and “scientific” whaling for research purposes (Japan).

The IWC also provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometre whale sanctuary in 1994. This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere’s whale populations.

Additionally, the proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which haven’t yet had a full and proper scientific review. “It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress,” added Elliott.

The are some positive aspects of the compromise including increased efforts to secure the recovery of depleted whale populations, action on critical conservation threats facing whales such as such as bycatch and climate change, and improved governance and compliance. However, the compromise cannot be accepted by WWF as long as it allows whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The new compromise which will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, is intended to be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in June this year.