WASHINGTON, D.C. — On 24 August 2011, agents of the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) raided Gibson Guitar facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, seizing ebony and rosewood material, guitars and guitar parts as evidence of suspected violation(s) of the U.S. Lacey Act. The Lacey Act is a long-standing anti-trafficking statute which prohibits commerce of […]
MONTREAL – While international climate talks remain deadlocked, the Montreal Protocol has been methodically eliminating some of the worst chemicals contributing to global warming. International ozone negotiators meeting in Montreal last week approved country plans to phase out ozone depleting substances (ODS) that are also super greenhouse gases (GHGs) that harm the global climate. By 2015, the reductions approved […]
In the first half of 2011 alone, a number of acute disruptions to seasonal atmospheric and climate norms have occurred, and latest scientific projections indicate the pace of global temperature increase is accelerating. The likelihood of the complete loss of Arctic summer sea ice by 2030, faster melting of the vast Greenland ice sheets, and […]
BANGKOK – A new report released today (July 28, 2011) exposes the pivotal role played by the Vietnamese military in a multi-million dollar operation which is smuggling threatened timber over the border from the shrinking forests of neighbouring Laos. Laos has some of the Mekong region’s last intact tropical forests, but the London-based Environmental Investigation […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A report released today in Australia describes how a major Australian wood products company imports plywood made from forests in Malaysia where systematic illegal logging has taken place. New data revealed by the Environmental Investigation Agency show that the same source is also a significant supplier to the United States market, where […]
The Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf has killed 273 endangered fin whales, and exported more than 1,200 tonnes of fin whale meat and blubber to Japan since 2008. These shipments, worth an estimated US $17 million, and Iceland’s escalating whale hunts, are clear abuse of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as well as the Convention […]