Heather Sohl's latest posts

I am one of over 2,500 people in Johannesburg, South Africa, meeting to discuss the biggest issues around the illegal trade in wildlife. The 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) has begun. It will be a busy […]

On Saturday 30 April, the world’s largest ever ivory destruction will take place. Kenya will be burning 105 tonnes of ivory, along with 1.5 tonnes of rhino horn, in Nairobi National Park. This will be a strong symbolic gesture that Kenya will not tolerate the illegal wildlife trade that is killing so many of its […]

I remember as a young child thinking how appalling it was that people would buy and sell wildlife into extinction. It seemed so senseless and unnecessary. I thought when I grew up I had to do something about it. It’s illegal and wrong, I reasoned, so it couldn’t be that complicated to fix could it? […]

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 […]