The Global March for Elephants and Rhinos (GMFER) is a worldwide call to action to condemn the poaching of elephants, rhinos and the trafficking of wildlife trophies.
The 2018 Global March for Elephants and Rhinos was postponed to precede this year’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
This year’s march proved to be the biggest Global March. A team of trained volunteers from several universities and organizations provided support during the march. Participants were draped in black and white t-shirts and carried procession banners, flags, placards during March. They chanted and marched displaying placards with different messages from ‘No Market No Trade’, End Trade End Poaching, Stop poisoning wildlife, End the slaughter to show their solidarity in protecting wildlife.
Vince (22 September 2012 – 5 March 2017) was a Southern white rhinoceros who was killed by poachers inside a zoo in Thoiry near Paris, France.
Rhinoceros horns are among the world’s most valuable black market goods. [Online until: June 13, 2019] Rhino horns are more expensive than gold or cocaine and fetch as much as 30,000 Euros per kilogram. The illegal trade in the coveted raw material is firmly in the grip of the Mafia.
On April 7, 2017, a rhino was shot dead in the Thoiry Zoo near Paris and one of its horns sawn off. It was the first time that a rhinoceros living in Europe had become a victim of poachers, but in Africa it has become an everyday business: a rhino is killed there every eight hours. Although the trade in rhino horns has been banned for forty years, the precious raw material continues to fetch huge profits on the black market. In Asia, rhinoceroses are said to have an aphrodisiac or cancer-inhibiting effects and consumption and possession are regarded as status symbols. Well-organized crime syndicates that are also involved in global arms and drug trafficking are behind the trade in the horns. “Rhino Dollars” documents one of the least known and yet most profitable smuggling rackets in the world. Corruption, violence, and power games: not just innocent animals that are often facing extinction but also many people fall victim to their criminal operations.
The world’s insect population has declined by three quarters in the last 30 years and many species have become extinct. And it’s all man’s fault. This documentary looks at the dramatic consequences of this hitherto unrecognized catastrophe.
The results of long-term monitoring published in 2017 have confirmed that as much as 75 percent of the world’s insect population has disappeared in the last 30 years. The extent of species extinction is so vast that many researchers fear that it will knock the entire natural cycle of life out of balance. Not only the decline of the bee population but mass insect mortality as a whole will have devastating consequences for all the Earth’s inhabitants. Top scientists from around the globe are warning that the developments are much more widespread and serious than anyone had realized. Many animals feed on insects. Insects also help to convert dead tissue into nutrient-rich soil. In addition, they even regulate each other. Species that humans see as pests are often the preferred prey of useful predators. But massive human intervention has thrown the functioning balance in the insect world out of whack. Chemical poisons, the progressive sealing of soils and the widespread use of fertilizers are affecting the world’s most species-rich animal class. This documentary looks at current studies and explains what is going wrong and where urgent action is needed. There’s still some hope: although many species have been irrevocably lost, mass extinction in the insect kingdom could still be stopped – but only if humans finally begin to act against it. And we’re running out of time.
