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On 5 January 2021, a Court in east Zhejiang Province sentenced 17 people to imprisonment for smuggling more than 23 tonnes of pangolin scales into the country.
The scales, worth about US$27.9 million (HK$216 million), were smuggled by the gang from Nigeria in three batches in 2018 and 2019, and would account for the death of around 50,000 pangolins.
Read MoreA building firm that carried out demolition work at a site known to be inhabited by bats has been handed a £600,000 fine, the largest ever issued by a Court for a wildlife crime.
Read MoreA Chinese national is in federal custody in New Jersey after investigations said he financed an international smuggling ring that shipped more than 1,500 endangered turtles from the United States to China and Hong Kong, valued at more than US$2.2million (approximately HK$17million).
The turtles, many of which were bound by duct tape, stuffed into socks and shipped in mislabelled packages, were sold for as much as US$20,000 (approximately HK$155,000) each on the Asian pet black market, authorities have said.
Read MoreOn 9 November, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise department seized 1.9 tonnes of dried shark fins (valued at HK$1.4 million) believed to have been cut from endangered shark species in a container arriving in Hong Kong from Indonesia.
In related news, Florida became the 15th state in the Unites States to ban the shark fin trade. The Kristin Jacobs Ocean Conservation Act (SB680) recently signed into law, means a ban for shipping shark fins across state borders as well as the import or shipping of international fins through Florida, but still allows local fishermen to continue fishing.
Courtesy of Daphne Ng.
Read MoreThree Chinese internet companies have joined the fight to combat against the illegal wildlife trade. The pledge is part of a mission to raise awareness for online wildlife crimes by developing new technology to counter the sale of wildlife via the internet.
Courtesy of Arial Ng.
Read MoreLawyers have warned High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd might be felling trees illegally, after an ecology report found evidence of the Western barbastelle, one of the UK’s rarest bat species, in an area of ancient woodland being cleared for the high-speed rail line.
Courtesy of Arial Ng.
Read MoreThe Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department have made the year’s biggest seizure of pangolin scales, finding 1000 kg of the contraband (estimated to have come from 50,000 pangolins) along with 13kg of dried snake gall bladders in a shipping container from Indonesia.
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