From the AP (via IHT):
Hundreds of reptiles including some endangered species were rescued from traffickers and released into their natural habitat in Cambodia, a conservation group said Thursday.
Twelve endangered yellow-headed temple turtles were among the nearly 300 reptiles — weighing a total of 925 pounds — that authorities confiscated this week in Cambodia’s northwestern Battambang [...]
As the price of oil around the world continues to rise, gas smuggling in Thailand has been increasing as well.
From the Bangkok Post:
An increase in oil prices has intensified petrol smuggling from Malaysia into four districts of the southern province of Songkhla.
Oil business operators have stocked up on the illegally imported petrol in the hope [...]
From AFP:
Smuggling of ozone-depleting chemicals in the Asia-Pacific region is much worse than expected, a study released at a UN-backed environment conference said Wednesday.
The study analysed the trade of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are controlled under an international treaty, and discovered wide discrepancies in export and import figures between trading countries.
“If you compare figures between countries [...]
In a report by the AP on the arrests of two smugglers of animal skins, the continued disappearance of tigers due to poaching is mentioned.
From the AP (via CNN):
Poaching is one of the main causes that has driven India’s wild tigers to the verge of extinction. Government figures released last month said India’s wild tiger [...]
From the Christian Science Monitor:
The recent fight in Basra between Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen was about more than a government bid to reassert itself in a city where Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army was digging in. It was also about oil – and smuggling.Before the assault [...]
As Italy’s trash crisis continues, the spread of the smell of toxic trash has spread to the world famous mozzarella cheese of the region.
From the NY Times:
In the last few months, sales of buffalo mozzarella have dropped 40 percent, the product’s trade association says. The problem makes for a near-perfect morality play about Italy: For [...]
The International Herald Tribune reports on Siberian carvers who are using extinct Woolly Mammoths tusks to create ivory figures.
As global warming melts the tundra in Siberia, remains of the Woolly Mammoth emerge from the ground. Carvers then use the ivory tusks to create figures to sell in Asia.
Conservationists are encouraging the use of the Woolly [...]
From the Independent:
Its many fans call it black gold, and with good reason. The price of wild caviar has shot up by 60 per cent over the past 12 months, prompting a smuggling boom that has thrown the survival of sturgeon into doubt. The illegal trade in the little black eggs is worth an estimated [...]
The BBC reports on the gas smuggling business in Bolivia.
From the BBC News:
Government subsidies mean Bolivia has a low retail price for oil - about 50 US cents a litre.
Those subsidies have boosted the smuggling business, as the price of diesel oil in border countries such as Brazil and Peru, are up [...]
From the BBC News:
The Congolese Nature Conservation Institute (ICCN) is reported to have brought the charges against Honore Mashagiro - one of its members.
Ten gorillas were killed in 2007 in the Virunga National Park, a Unesco world heritage site.
The park is in a volatile region where rebels have set up a base.
The area [...]
