Wildlife crime profound threat to nations, says report

The global illegal trade in wildlife

is worth $19bn (£12bn) a year and is threatening the stability of some governments according to new research. Carried out for conservation group WWF, a report highlights a "new wave" of organised wildlife crime by armed groups operating across borders. It says funds from trafficking are being used to finance civil conflicts. The study comes as Malaysian officials captured about 20 tonnes of ivory in one of the biggest seizures ever made.

According to Jim Leape, WWF International director

Fens are rare wildlife 'hotspot'

Ouse Washes is a Special Area of Conservation

The Fens are home to 25% of Britain's rarest wildlife and 13 globally rare species, according to a new report.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia studied over one million records collected by scientists and amateur enthusiasts that date back to 1670. The Fens Biodiversity Audit details evidence of 13,474 species of plants, insects, birds, fish and mammals. The area covered 3,800 km sq, spanning the Fenlands of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. Christopher Panter, an ecologist from the school of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and one of the authors of the audit, commented: "One of the most surprising things was that, despite it being a very large area, most of the area was previously unrecorded."

 
Fantastic fens

Predatory Great Raft Spider - East Anglica.

Data was collected from well-known fen sites such as

Scientists say billions required to meet conservation targets

The most threatened species tend to be relatively cheap to save because of small range sizes.

Reducing the risk of extinction for threatened species and establishing protected areas for nature will cost the world over $76bn dollars annually. Researchers say it is needed to meet globally agreed conservation targets by 2020. The scientists say the daunting number is just a fifth of what the world spends on soft drinks annually. And it amounts to just 1% of the value of ecosystems being lost every year, they report in the journal Science.

“Nature just doesn't do recessions, we're talking about the irreversible loss of unique species and millions of years of evolutionary history” Donal McCarthy RSPB