As Interpol carries out its largest anti-ivory poaching operation ever, executive director of police Bernd Rossbach called for a tougher crackdown on wildlife crime at a law enforcement summit last week. Calling ivory poaching and illegal logging "serious, organized and often transnational," Rossbach said there was increasing evidence that environmental crimes were connected to other forms of crime. A United Nations Environment Programme report said that illegal logging comprised 15-30 percent of timber worldwide, and that deforestation accounted for 17 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions. John Scanlon, executive secretary of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species, said that trade in endangered species has caused significant losses in wildlife species, and that "rhinoceros horn is now more valuable than gold." The summit stressed the need for greater enforcement of environmental laws and for greater intelligence in the pursuit of traffickers. For the full story, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/29/interpol-environmental-crime-ivory-poaching