Animals

On Tuesday, June 8, 555 juvenile African spurred tortoises were rescued from international trafficking by customs officers in Koudougou, Boulkiemdé province. They were hidden in the baggage compartment of a bus travelling between Bamako in Mali and Lomé in Togo. They were placed in wooden crates, cardboard boxes and canvas and plastic bags. False CITES permits accompanied the shipment. CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The African spurred tortoises are listed in Appendix II. Their international trade is still allowed. Export permits are required. The seizure is the result of cooperation between Mali Customs and Burkina Faso Customs.

Rosatom, the prime contractor and spearhead of the Russian nuclear industry, has found a new way to extend its influence on the African continent in the fight against poaching.

Rory Young, co-founder and CEO of Chengeta Wildlife, David Beriáin and Roberto Fraile, Spanish reporters, were murdered on 26 April 2021 in Arly National Park in Burkina Faso while participating in an anti-poaching patrol with soldiers and rangers. One Burkinabé is still missing. The Arly park is home to elephants, lions and leopards. In 2015, Robin des Bois praised the work of Rory Young in its bulletin “On the Trail” dedicated to poaching and smuggling.
Extract from “On the Trail” n°9 p.75 :
Arrest of 81 suspected poachers. Malawi. May 2015.
Rory Young is a specialist of the anti-poaching battle. He joined the French Foreign Legion when still very young and later becomes a forest ranger in Zimbabwe after 5 years of training. Yet he’s no warmonger. On mission in Malawi, he helps the wildlife agents use to their furthest extent the meager logistical resources at their disposal. 33 poachers have been arrested in 15 days during the month of April around Livonde by 30 rangers who have nothing more than a car and a half and an old boat. A true success compared to the 28 arrests made in all of April in Kruger Park watched over by thousands of guards, drones, helicopters and to some extent by thousands of tourists.

Only in French.

On the Trail n°29 – April, May and June 2020
990 events with references, along with analyses,
iconographic documents, maps and historical archives
182 pages (pdf), 11.6 Mo

On the Trail n°29 – April, May and June 2020
990 events with references, along with analyses,
iconographic documents, maps and historical archives
182 pages (pdf), 11.6 Mo

On the Trail n°29 – April, May and June 2020
990 events with references, along with analyses,
iconographic documents, maps and historical archives
182 pages (pdf), 11.6 Mo

On the Trail n°29 – April, May and June 2020
990 events with references, along with analyses,
iconographic documents, maps and historical archives
182 pages (pdf), 11.6 Mo

On the Trail n°29 – April, May and June 2020
990 events with references, along with analyses,
iconographic documents, maps and historical archives
182 pages (pdf), 11.6 Mo

This is the feat that a herd of calves aged between 6 and 12 months has just undergone, leaving Tarragona (Spain) on December 18, 2020 and returning to Cartagena (Spain) on March 19, 2021. They were 1,776 at the start. We do not yet know how many they are at the finish. In any case, they will not be welcomed as heroes. They will be destroyed as suspicious and expired goods. The cargo was suspected in Türkiye of carrying bluetongue disease and was refused entry on the grounds that outbreaks of the disease had been identified in the autonomous community of Aragon on the border with France. Attempts to land in Libya and Egypt failed for the same reason. The health certificates for the Charolais and Limousin calves attested to their Aragonese origin, but according to the shipowners and cargo owners, this was an administrative error and the calves, which spent 3 months at sea behind bars, came from regions unaffected by the internationally notifiable viral disease.