Animals 24-7 reports that Esmond Martin was murdered in his sleep on February 5, 2018 in connection with a probe of alleged mismanagement at Nairobi National Park. Esmond was well known in Nepal for his 2013 research on the reduction of rhino poaching. His most recent research documented how Laos’s and Vietnam’s ivory markets are booming. See here for more on Edmond’s service to the cause…
Many activists working to stop wildlife crime have been murdered in recent years; for example, take Wayne Lotter, who was shot in Tanzania in 2017. In addition, more than 150 anti-poaching rangers in national parks have been killed in the line of duty at DRC’s Virunga and Garamba National Parks. Furthermore, approximately 991 activists, forest rangers, or indigenous leaders were murdered in wildlife-related crimes between 2002 and 2014. Stay tuned, and we’ll try and dig up Nepal’s numbers…