Asia

Catastrophic Collapse of Saiga Antelopes in Central Asia

More than 120,000 saiga antelope have been confirmed dead in central Kazakhstan, representing more than a third of the global population. This is a major blow for conservation efforts given that saigas have in the past ten years only just started to recover from a global population size of less than 50,000 animals following a 95% crash in numbers.

28 May 2015

Update: More than 27,000 Saigas Confirmed Dead: CMS Sends Out Emergency Expert Mission

In response to a request from Kazakhstan, the CMS Secretariat is sending out an expert mission today to strengthen work to identify the cause of the current saiga die-off.

21 May 2015

More than 10,000 Saigas Found Dead in Central Kazakhstan

About 10,000 saigas have been found dead in Amangeldy district of the Kostanay region in Central Kazakhstan.

19 May 2015

Illegal Take and Trade of Marine Turtles in the IOSEA Region

Illegal take of marine turtles can assume various forms, from poaching of animals and eggs on nesting beaches to illegal take of animals at sea.   Typically, green and leatherback turtles are hunted for their meat; the hawksbill turtle is hunted for its carapace as the raw material for craftwork; while the eggs of loggerhead and olive ridley turtles are considered a delicacy.  Turtle meat consumption reportedly occurs in 75% of IOSEA Signatory States, while trade in shell products seems to be predominant in East Asian countries.  Whereas numerous investigations in this regard have been unde

18 January 2018

Assessment of the conservation status of the leatherback turtle in the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia

For ease of comparison, the following text is structured using the same headings of the 7-page synthesis section of the 2006 Assessment of the conservation status of the leatherback turtle in the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia, compiled by Hamann et al. , which has been reproduced in  Appendix 1. Blue-coloured blocks interspersed throughout the document contain text extracted verbatim from the original report, reflecting the situation as it was known in 2006. All of the other text in this document represents more recent information that has been compiled for this update.

10 December 2021

Devastating Blow to Captive Breeding Efforts for the Critically Endangered Saiga Antelope

The leading captive breeding centre for Saiga antelopes (Saiga spp.) has lost almost its entire stock of animals as a result of an unidentified disease. The Centre for Wild Animals of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation is known internationally for its contribution to saiga research and conservation, thereby playing an important part in implementing the CMS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Saiga Antelopes.

09 April 2015

Flyway Action Plan for the Conservation of the Balkan and Central Asian Populations of the Egyptian Vulture

BSPB is the BirdLife International partner in Bulgaria. They have successfully led a previous collaborative project with UNEP/CMS entitled “Capacity Building to support the conservation of migratory Egyptian Vultures from the Western Palearctic on their wintering grounds in Ethiopia, Sudan and Chad” in 2012-2013.  Subsequently, they have been granted support by the European Union Life+ fund to develop an international Flyway Action Plan (FAP) for the Balkan Region.

27 November 2017

Saiga Crossing Options

Guidelines and Recommendations to Mitigate Barrier Effects of Border Fencing and Railroad Corridors on Saiga Antelope in Kazakhstan

30 September 2016