Heather Sohl's latest posts

WWF-UK’s species conservation work is almost exclusively focused on protecting species abroad. This means I work from our base at the Living Planet Centre in Woking focused mostly on activities happening thousands of miles away. However, this week the global attention on one of our priority issues – the illegal wildlife trade – was focused [...]

On 12 and 13 February the London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade will seek to inject a new level of political momentum into global efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. I’ve been working alongside colleagues from TRAFFIC (the joint wildlife trade programme of WWF and the International Union for Conservation of Nature – IUCN) [...]

Sometimes when people think policy, they think boring – talking about document wording, and who’s saying what on which issues. For me it’s exciting – there’s a rush when a delegate repeats on the floor what you’ve said in the lunch break – and highly important, because without the right policies in place you can’t [...]

It’s been an unusual CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP) so far. A big debate on secret voting earlier on delayed the main agenda, so we’ve only today gotten on to some of the higher profile agenda items we’re here to discuss. Elephant discussions began and a number of Parties, including the EU member states, [...]

Policy work can sometimes be disappointing. Hours of talking, ‘working the room’ (as my good friend and roommate here in Thailand likes to say) to meet delegates, and staying up late to work on the development of policy text – and the outcome can still go the wrong way. Not today though! Today was the [...]

Stay tuned for the latest updates from the CITES conference in Bangkok, Thailand. As things develop, we’ll update you with the latest news and blogs via Storify. [View the story "We want to give CITES teeth" on Storify]

Over two a day. That’s how many rhinos have been killed by poachers in South Africa this year. Their horns likely destined for illegal markets in Asia, mostly in Vietnam. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is often considered one of, if not the most effective international [...]

Large-scale organised criminal syndicates are more engaged in wildlife trafficking, seeing the money to be made. And their methods are getting more sophisticated – helicopters, GPS and tranquiliser darts are all being deployed in these criminal activities. So it’s essential that we ramp up our efforts and make greater use of technology to combat the threats to rhinos.

Today, we’ve got the latest update from rhino ranger Rotiken Dennis, ahead of ‘Flight of the Rhino’ – showing on Saturday at 8.30pm on BBC 2. But why is action needed urgently? We can go to great lengths to protect these amazing creatures – and indeed we do, as Drew described yesterday in his blog. [...]

Hope you enjoyed my last post about the amazing work of wildlife crime officers in the UK. But now they need your support. Wildlife crime officers are supported by the incredibly effective National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), which was created in 2006. Based in Scotland, the unit gathers intelligence on wildlife crime, and provides analytical [...]