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Only in French.

Sunday 28 December 2025

Free and sparkling, Brigitte Bardot was catching the light. She hijacked the spotlight and turned it on the animal world, with tenderness and relentless dedication.

“On the Trail”, the Information and analysis bulletin on animal poaching and smuggling, is supported by the Fondation Brigitte Bardot and the Fondation Franz Weber. When Franz Weber departed for another world in 2019, Brigitte Bardot wrote: “It is thanks to him that I have become the warrior, the fighter against all kinds of atrocities that humans inflict on animals throughout the world”.

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In the wake of the Spiridon II and her 3,000 wandering cows, a global coalition of animal welfare organisations was born. The initiative originated in Australia. The first action taken by Stop Live Exports is to send a letter to the Secretary-General of the IMO (International Maritime Organisation).

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Press release CITES CoP20 n°11

Of the 185 countries that are signatories to CITES, 165 were present (157 had the right to vote after being accepted by the Credentials Committee). The CoP20 registered a record participation.

Press release CITES CoP20 n°10

Fifteen pieces of good news

– South Africa obtained consensus for the transfer of the endemic euphorbia Euphorbia bupleurifolia from Appendix II to Appendix I.

Press Release CITES CoP20 n°9

2007. CoP14, The Hague, Netherlands. Brazilwood is listed in Appendix II. International trade in wood and its by-products is subject to approval by Brazil, the only range country. Bows and other finished products remain in free trade.
2022. CoP19, Panama City, Panama. Bows produced in Brazil are subject to an export permit.
2025. CoP20, Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Brazilwood and its by-products remain in Appendix II with a zero quota for specimens taken from the wild. This annotation is equivalent to a ban on international trade, as no Brazilwood plantations are approved by Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).

Press release CITES CoP20 n°8

Will six years of work, she wondered, exchanges with around fifty NGOs from around the world and more than 500 veterinarians sensitive to the cruelty of the market, discussions with experts from the French National Museum of Natural History and contacts with the Ministries of Agriculture and Ecology fall into the water, will the chapter “Frogs hunted, frozen, falsified, irradiated” from the Atlas du business des espèces menacées (“Atlas of the Business of Endangered Species“, 2019) and the publication of the report “Deadly Dish” in 2022 be of any use, did the side events on November 22, 2022 in Panama and Friday November 28, 2025 in Samarkand have a positive echo, will Türkiye stand its ground, what will Indonesia’s position and influence be? All the euphoria and discouragement that accompany any long-term campaign come to her mind at this crucial moment.

Press release CITES CoP20 n°7

Enhanced protection for dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas)
The proposal by Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia to list dorcas gazelles in Appendix II was accepted by consensus.

Leaving Dunkirk on Saturday November 15, the Mikhail Dudin, carrying about 10 containers of reprocessed uranium containing traces of plutonium and other fission products, arrived in the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Wednesday November 26. It takes about 5 days for parcels from Ust-Luga to arrive by rail at Tomsk-7, the secret city in Siberia now known by the euphemism of Seversk.

Press release CITES CoP20 n°6

Press release CITES CoP20 n°5

Press release CITES CoP20 n°4
Brazilwood or pau-brasil

Brazil’s proposal to list Brazilwood in Appendix I received overwhelming support, but the European Union, driven by France, proposed a working group, which Brazil accepted for the sake of diplomacy. The vote, which would have been approved by two-thirds of the delegations with flying colours, did not take place.

The sea transport of cows and sheep serves as a cover for international cocaine trafficking. In its report about “78 EU-approved livestock carriers” (2021) written with the support of the German NGOs Animal Welfare Foundation and Tierschutzbund Zürich, Robin des Bois had already noted that “during the trading life of livestock carriers, additional and illegal traffics have been reported or suspected.”

Press release CITES CoP20 n°3

CITES Conferences of the Parties are not just hot air. Their decisions are binding. CITES, also known as the Washington Convention, is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. 185 countries are signatories.

Press release n°4 – 9:15 a.m.
Update – November 27, 2025, 12:30 a.m.

Last minute news and latest twist

Spiridon II – Press release n°3

Instead of returning to Montevideo (Uruguay), the Spiridon II turned back and is now in the port of Benghazi in Libya.

“On the Trail”, English version
“A la Trace”, French version
Quarterly information and analysis report on endangered animals poaching and smuggling

N°47
1,157 events between July 1 and August 31, 2025
279 illustrations and 6 maps
951 sources, 196 pages, 6,1 MB

Press release CITES CoP 20 n°2

The violin and other bowed string instrument sector coalition endlessly repeats that the use of Brazilwood for the purposes of bow making does not endanger Brazilwood populations.

Spiridon II – Press release n°2

Spiridon II – Press release n°1

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Press release CITES CoP 20 n°1
October 30, 2025

On the eve of the 20th Conference of the Parties to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), to be held in Uzbekistan, from November 24 to December 5, 2025, the maestros and the coalition of violon and other bowed stringed instrument bow makers (1) are once again beginning to sing their laments. For decades, they have refused to develop an alternative to the use of Brazilwood for bows. They are digging in their heels.

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Deutsche Marine has just sent to Aliaga for demolition, 7 missile patrol boats commissioned between 1982 and 1984 and decommissioned in 2015 and 2016. The Puma, Hermelin, Zobel, Frettchen, Ozelot, Wiesel and Hyaene (58 metres long, 350 tonnes) were loaded on August 11 in Kiel onto the Happy Sky, a Dutch flag vessel specialising in the transport of heavy goods, and unloaded on September 1 in the cargo port of Aliaga. They are now being towed to the demolition yards.

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The warquake caused by the friction between the territorial plates of Israel and Palestine are centering around and dragging on in a territory that was once a paradise. The Gaza Strip covers 365 km² on the eastern Mediterranean coast, the same area as Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the western Mediterranean coast.

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Only in French.

Here we are for the Morning Midas, 5,000 metres below sea level, 830 km from Adak Island, one of the 302 Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Morning Midas, which had been on fire since June 3, was operated by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime. The wreck contains 3,048 vehicles, including 70 electric and 681 hybrid, 350 tonnes of diesel and 1,530 tonnes of fuel oil, plus fuel for combustion engine and hybrid cars.

4:45 p.m

A few days after Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, the NGO Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) was the first, or among the first, to stress the urgent need to impose the inviolability of nuclear sites in war zones that international diplomacy has been unable to prevent (1).

On May 25, 2025, the dilapidated container ship MSC Elsa 3, which was certified as suitable for sea transport by the French group Veritas, sunk south of Kochi, State of Kerala, India. Fifteen days later, a white tide of plastic pellets is invading ports and beaches. Twenty-five kilogram (plastic) bags of pellets wash up on the shore as well. Fishing is banned in a large area. This means desolation for the coastline and thousands of fishermen who live there. The government of the Indian Union is trying to reassure them. Currently 100 meters below sea-level, the wreck of the Elsa 3 should be raised from the seafloor to recover all of the containers in her hold. All the containers that were on the bridge are already adrift. Initial findings suggest that a malfunction in the ballast water tank filling system caused the sudden and uncontrollable list.

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The Swiss-Italien maritime company MSC plays both sides.

The third largest cruise company worldwide, MSC just commissioned two World Class mega-cruise ships from the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire with great fanfare: 3.5 billion euros for “Choose France” and mass tourism (see press release of May 31, 2017).

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On the 80th commemoration of the Normandy landings, Robin des Bois publishes its 9th inventory of discoveries and blasting of unexploded ordnance after the wars.

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The meeting of the HCTISN (High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Safety) on March 28, 2024 was enlightening.

According to Jimmy Energy’s management heard at the meeting, an agreement in principle will be announced on April 22 with a food processing plant in the Grand Est region of France, for the construction of a 20-megawatt high-temperature nuclear reactor whose stated  utility will be to supply carbon-free industrial heat. The mayors of the siting town and four neighboring towns have already been informed, and are respecting a confidentiality clause contrary to their basic obligations to inform the municipal councils and their citizens. According to Robin des Bois’ information, this pioneering industrial site is the Cristal Union/Cristanol complex at Bazancourt in the Marne department, which includes a sugar refinery and France’s largest bioethanol production plant. The Cristanol distillery is subject to the Seveso high threshold directive and co-produces animal feed and alcohols for the cosmetics industry.

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Nuclear, gas, forest fires, maritime safety…
Publications of Robin des Bois on the war in Ukraine and the French-Russian nuclear issue:
“Ukraine : Robin des Bois keeps a close watch on grain”, August 2, 2022
“La guerre du nucléaire”, 8 juin 2022 (Only in French)
“Le gaz russe avance masqué – suite”, April 26, 2022 (Only in French)
“Ukraine/Russie. Exclusif : les cargos et les marins otages de la guerre”, April 20, 2022 (Only in French)
“L’Union fait la farce”, April 14, 2022 (Only in French)
“Les roublards” (Gaz et Nucléaire), April 7, 2022 (Only in French)
“Arrivée du Clean Planet au terminal gazier de Dunkerque”, March 30, 2022 (Only in French)
“Le virus russe”, March 25, 2022 (Only in French)
“Russian gas is covering up”, March 18, 2022
“Despite the tensions, the current flows”, March 7, 2022
“Russian gas on the trail”, March 4, 2022
“White flag on nuclear sites”, February 28, 2022
“The Atom of Discord”, February 25, 2022
“Sanctions against Russia: will they dare?”, February 24, 2022

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Only in French.

Only in French.