The China Africa Project
10.23.17China’s Appetite for Abalone Spurs Organized Crime in South Africa
Cape Town-based journalist Kimon de Greef joins Eric and Cobus to discuss the lucrative illegal abalone trade between South Africa and China that threatens the survival of this prized shellfish. The abalone trade, according to recent reporting by de...
The China Africa Project
10.04.17North Korea’s Diplomats in Africa Are Making Big Money Selling Ivory to Chinese Consumers
The tightening of international sanctions against North Korea is helping to fuel the illicit ivory trade in Africa as the increasingly isolated country searches for new ways to generate revenue, according to a new report from the Global Initiative...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.14.17As Attitudes Change, Chinese Lawmakers Seek Better Protection for Rhinos and Other Endangered Animals
Washington Post
Slowly but surely, Chinese attitudes toward wildlife conservation are changing.
Conversation
01.10.17Can Beijing’s Ivory Ban Save the Elephants?
On New Year’s Eve, Beijing announced it will ban the ivory trade in China, potentially shutting down the world’s biggest ivory market. Why did Beijing decide to curb the ivory trade? Will it put enough muscle behind it to enforce the decision? What...
Environment
12.06.16The World’s Saddest Polar Bear
from chinadialogue
Pizza, “the world’s saddest polar bear,” is to be granted at least a temporary reprieve from the display case in which he lives in the Grandview shopping mall in Guangzhou, southern China. This follows a global outcry, a one-million-signature...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.22.16Meet Pizza, the World’s Saddest Polar Bear
Quartz
Pizza is just one of thousands of “wild” animals languishing in China's malls
ChinaFile Recommends
07.25.16China Sets Up South China Sea Environment Protection Fund
Reuters
The funds would initially be spent on exploring the world's deepest underwater sinkhole.
The China Africa Project
06.30.16Namibia’s Chinese Ivory Smugglers
Namibia is the rare country in Africa that seems to be holding its own against ivory poachers. Whereas in most other southern African countries the elephant population is being decimated, in Namibia, according to the government, the number of...
Environment
06.09.16Namibia’s Secret Ivory Business
from chinadialogue
Many locals and wildlife conservation institutions I talked to didn’t even know about the existence of the ivory black market in Okahandja.It was a quiet evening in Zambezi, until a herdsman heard a gunshot in the wilderness. By the time the police...
Depth of Field
04.03.16Meet ‘Depth of Field’: The Month’s Best Chinese Photojournalism
from Yuanjin Photo
Welcome to ChinaFile’s inaugural “Depth of Field” column. In collaboration with Yuanjin Photo, an independent photo blog published by photographers Yan Cong and Ye Ming on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, we will highlight new and...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.17.16Q. and A.: Patrick Bergin on China’s Role in Protecting Africa’s Wildlife
New York Times
President Xi Jinping announced that China would “enact nearly complete bans on ivory import and export.”
The China Africa Project
02.19.16Why Reducing Ivory Demand in China Will Not Curb Poaching in Africa
“When the buying stops, the killing can too,” reads the popular slogan that WildAid uses in its anti-ivory campaign to raise awareness in China. WildAid, along with most Western environmentalists, contend that curbing demand in China for ivory is...
Green Space
02.04.16Rescuing China’s Abused Animals
We start with a heartwarming note, which I recently heard about in a New Year’s greeting from Animals Asia, a NGO started by Jill Robinson, originally from the U.K., in Chengdu to rescue Asian bears from their torture-chamber-like cages throughout...
Sinica Podcast
12.17.15Out of Africa: the Swifts of Beijing
from Sinica Podcast
With amazing research now suggesting that Beijing swifts, the tiny creatures most residents pass by without noticing, are some of the most well-travelled birds on the planet, averaging an astonishing 124,000 miles of flight in their lifetimes,...
The China Africa Project
12.16.15‘China is Doing More to Protect Elephants than Africa [Is]’
For the first time in years, there is positive news to report in the fight to save Africa’s elephants from extinction. A new study by Save the Elephants revealed that the price of ivory in China has halved over the past 18 months, indicating that...
Green Space
12.16.15Ivory Price Has Halved, But No Celebration Yet
International NGOs such as Save the Elephants have shared the great news that the price of ivory has decreased by almost 50 percent over the past year and a half, thanks to successful campaigns by NGOs in educating the public, and also to...
Green Space
12.04.15Green Activists Detained for ‘Prostitution,’ Yangtze Dolphins Rebound
Given that the Paris climate negotiations are underway, it is fair to start off with something about rising temperatures. This comes from a neat animation posted on Data Seeds’ WeChat Account that visualizes the warming trend within China’s borders...
The China Africa Project
09.15.15Growing Demand in China for Africa’s Lion Bones
Traditional Chinese medicine—popular throughout Asia—long has prized the supposed medicinal value of tiger bones. Now, though, as the world’s wild tiger population is disappearing fast, even facing extinction, the Chinese medicine industry may have...
The China Africa Project
07.14.15China’s Rapidly Changing Views on Wildlife Conservation in Africa
A dramatic shift in Chinese public opinion about animal welfare and global wildlife conservation appears to be underway. Supported by high-profile celebrity campaigns by NBA legend Yao Ming and actress Li Bing Bing, there is growing awareness in...
The China Africa Project
06.10.15China’s Proposed Ivory Ban: Breakthrough or B.S.?
China’s surprise announcement that it will phase out the trade and manufacturing of ivory came as a rare piece of good news for Africa’s rapidly shrinking elephant population. While most major international wildlife groups welcomed Beijing’s new...
The China Africa Project
04.17.15China’s Controversial Trade in Africa’s Natural Resources
China often faces blistering criticism for its voracious appetite for Africa’s natural resources. Chinese companies are spread across the continent mining, logging, and fishing to feed both hungry factories and people back home. In most, if not all...
Environment
04.02.15‘Wolf Totem’ Trainer Sees Risks, Rewards for Hollywood in China
from chinadialogue
Wolf trainer Andrew Simpson has just wrapped up three years in Beijing coaching wolves to perform in the film version of the novel Wolf Totem. The Sino-French adaptation of Jiang Rong’s best-selling 2004 novel opened in Beijing and Europe in...
The China Africa Project
04.02.15The Politics of Banning Ivory in China
In February 2015, China announced a one-year ban on ivory imports. While many conservation groups such as the Environmental Investigation Agency denounced Beijing’s policy as “ineffective,” the San Francisco-based group WildAid said the ban is an...
Environment
03.05.15Beijing Says Panda Population Up 17%, But Experts Doubtful
from chinadialogue
China's claims that its population of wild giant pandas rose around 17% in just over a decade are being disputed by some experts, who point out that the latest census was over a much wider area than the previous one.The giant panda, a global...
The China Africa Project
12.23.14China in Africa: 2014 Year in Review
Two thousand fourteen marked another landmark year in Sino-African relations as bilateral trade set new records while political, diplomatic, and military ties strengthened across the board. Yet despite the tangible progress made this year, this...
Media
10.23.14Pandas Were Monsters
"Rich Chinese are literally eating this exotic mammal into extinction," read a recent Global Post expose of the devastating trade in the pangolin, a scaly anteater that Chinese consider a delicacy. According to the Post, the adorable...
Environment
06.12.14The Dead Swans of Dongting Lake
from chinadialogue
I’ve lost track of how many nights I spent traveling to Dongting Lake, a large, shallow lake in Hunan province, central China, famed for being the origin of dragon-boat racing.In mid-January 2013 I met the Yueyang River Porpoise Conservation Society...
Video
05.28.14Staying Afloat
In “Staying Afloat: Life on a Disappearing Lake,” Chinese filmmakers Lynn Zhang and Shirley Han Ying train their camera on the people who have been both perpetrators and victims of Lake Baiyangdian’s decline in water supply. They show us not just...