Tag archives for Malaysia
Posted by Guest article by Bernadetta Devi “Rare Earths” are a group of 17 elements that are currently used in a wide array of modern technologies, ranging from hard disk drives to lamp phosphors to hybrid car batteries. At present 90% of these minerals are mined in China due to a range of economic and environmental factors.…
Anson Wong Goes Free
Posted by Bryan Christy on February 28, 2012 Last week, Anson Wong, the world’s most notorious international wildlife dealer, walked out of a Malaysian prison a free man after a Malaysian Appeals Court reduced his sentence for trafficking wildlife from five years to time served—17 months. Will this prove to be a setback for global wildlife law enforcement? National Geographic correspondent Bryan Christy discusses the implications of the release of Anson Wong.
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Authorities in Madagascar this week arrested two men and seized close to 200 of some of the world’s rarest tortoises that they were trying to smuggle out of Antananarivo’s Ivato Airport to Jakarta, Indonesia, TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, said today.
A restaurant owner could face RM600,000 (U.S.$196,000) in fines and time in jail after authorities found him in possession of meat and parts of several protected species including several pieces of dried tiger parts, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said today. “Officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) in Pahang, a…
With only 3,500 tigers hanging on in isolated patches of wilderness scattered across 13 Asian countries, the prospects for the survival of the species outside zoos is grim. The Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is convening a summit in St. Petersburg this weekend to discuss and endorse a plan that would double the population…
News of another wild tiger killing has come on the eve of the international summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, to discuss an urgent strategy to save the last tigers in the wild. A rare Siberian tiger was killed yesterday by poachers near Vladivostok, Russia, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), said in a news…
NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols For four days starting this weekend, government leaders from the 13 tiger range countries will be meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, to confirm a plan to restore and conserve one of the world’s most iconic big cats to its wild habitat. Teams from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia,…
Tiger range countries meeting next week in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the International Tiger Conservation Forum hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, have been urged by conservation activists to “act decisively now or face a future in which the wild tiger is extinct.” The UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said: “It as an opportunity to…
Wildlife Kingpin Jailed
Posted by Bryan Christy on September 7, 2010 On Monday, September 6, the world’s most notorious wildlife dealer, Anson Wong of Malaysia, was sentenced to prison after a lock on his suitcase containing legally protected snakes broke on an airport conveyor belt. From the island of Penang, Wong operates one of the world’s largest legal reptile supply companies, which he has used in…
Humans entering the forests of Borneo 150 years ago were six times more likely to encounter wild orangutans than they would today, a new study finds. The researchers suspect that heavy hunting over the years is to blame. The finding means our understanding of the lives and behaviors of the great ape is based on…
As we head into the Chinese Year of the Tiger (starting on February 14), here’s a bit of encouraging news: All 13 tiger-range countries have pledged to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger. NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols Populations of wild tigers have declined to…
The “spectacled flowerpecker,” a bird species new to science, has been discovered in the heart of the Borneo rain forest,the Oriental Bird Club (OBC) announced today. Presumed female spectacled flowerpecker, with shorter tail. The upperparts, wings and tail are uniform dark gray, with a prominent white pectoral tuft. The lower mandible is dark,indicating that this…
Thirty years ago, Dr. Tom Lovejoy, the chairman of National Geographic’s Conservation Trust, set up a unique experiment to monitor biodiversity in Brazil. It’s to be repeated in Borneo, conservation biologist Stuart Pimm reports from Borneo for Nat Geo News Watch. Photo of oil palm plantation by Stuart Pimm By Stuart L. Pimm Special Contributor…
An Inordinate Passion for Tropical Moths
Posted by Stuart Pimm on August 3, 2009 National Geographic grantee Professor Roger Kitching wants to know how much less diversity there is in tropical rainforest that has been logged than in unlogged “primary” forest. He finds some clues from the moths he draws to his lamp, Stuart Pimm reports in words, images, and video from the field, deep in the Borneo jungle.…
