EIA’s wildlife campaign delivers lasting protections for some of the world's most iconic species threatened by illegal trade and habitat degradation.
EIA’s wildlife campaign focuses on stopping the illegal and unsustainable killing of, and trade in, threatened and endangered species including elephants, rhinos, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, from the African savannah to Japan’s coastal waters. Since its inception in 1984, EIA has been dedicated to protecting our world’s wildlife, relying on the best available scientific and trade data and intelligence from investigations, to support policies and actions that protect threatened and endangered species. Our impact on wildlife protection has been global, lasting, and profound.
African elephants are in the midst of a global poaching crisis—more than 30,000 elephants a year are being killed for their ivory. Our investigations and research expose the illegal ivory trade where it is found, and we work to ensure that nations pass and enforce stronger regulations to shut down domestic markets. Rhinos face a similar poaching epidemic, fueled by demand for their horns to craft faux medical cures. Using every tool at our disposal, we are committed to ending the current elephant and rhino poaching crisis. EIA also leads global efforts to protect the world’s whales, dolphins, and porpoises (or cetaceans), under attack from threats such as commercial hunting, pollution, marine debris, and a changing climate. We are committed to ensuring these magnificent animals are protected from the vast range of threats they face.
By investigating and exposing ivory trade where it is found, EIA fights for stronger regulations to shut down all ivory trade, including at the domestic level, and increase protections for elephants.
Objectives:
- Ensure a secure long-term future for Africa’s wild elephant populations
- Close down all ivory markets, domestic and international
- End elephant poaching and trafficking of elephant products
By prompting key countries to act, EIA is fighting to stop the out-of-control poaching of rhinos.
Objectives:
- Ensure a secure long-term future for all five wild rhino species
- Close all markets for rhino horn, international and domestic
- End rhino poaching and the trafficking in rhino horn
EIA is working to ensure protection for the white beluga whale, a species that faces an uncertain future in a rapidly warming and increasingly industrialized Arctic.
Objectives:
- Improve understanding of the conservation status and major threats posed to all 29 populations of beluga whales
- Protect the critical habitat of beluga populations from industrial impacts
- Oppose all offshore drilling in the Arctic as unsafe for the environment and the global climate
- Support the establishment of marine protected areas and other lasting spatial and ecological protections for belugas and other species
Impact and Results
“Throughout the entire policy-making process, EIA was perceived as the most active and well-known agent, being ascribed [as]…having an expert status on the topic…committed and well-connected…as builder of the [coalition].”
– “Divide and Conquer – Discursive agency in the politics of illegal logging in the United States,” Global Environmental Change, November 2015
For over a quarter century, EIA has been recognized by government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and independent journals, like Global Environmental Change above, for its extraordinary work on the ground and at the heart of solving global environmental problems. Our team can be found in the field working with civil society collecting information, deeply entrenched in research and data analysis, and at international negotiating platforms poised to propose solutions that work.
Our interlocking campaign program works to protect threatened wildlife, forests, and our global climate. Divided among these three core areas, we are determined to protect the environment with intelligence.
