30 March 2012: The Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has reported that Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture confiscated a shipment of 4,704 saiga antelope horns and arrested the wildlife traffickers guilty of the crime.

According to CMS, Kazakhstan has demonstrated commitment to implement the CMS Saiga Antelope Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), administered with CITES to control international trade in saiga horn, which is used in Chinese Traditional Medicine. Only male saiga antelope bear horns, making them the target of poaching to the detriment of the overall population. With just over 100,000 saiga left in the wild, the CMS reports that these migratory antelope are critically endangered.

In an effort to combat poaching, CMS reports that Kazkhstan has established new protected areas and amended national laws to target wildlife crime, which CMS states is “becoming increasingly more serious and organized.” The intercepted saiga horn shipment also contained muskrat skins and plant roots used in Chinese Traditional Medicine. [CMS Press Release]