CAMBRIDGE, UK, Mar 08 (IPS) - Willow Outhwaite is Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network* In recent years, the focus on wildlife trade between Africa and Asia has been almost exclusively on poaching of iconic mammals and the smuggling of their parts.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 08 (IPS) - The grandiose sounding Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be signed in Santiago de Chile today, 8 March. Instead of doing something to advance the condition of women on International Women's Day, trade representatives from 11 Pacific rim countries will sign the CPTPP, which some critics argue will further set back the progress of humanity, including women who hold up ‘half the sky'.

HARARE, Mar 08 (IPS) - This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day on March 8.Tapiwa Moyo, 40, religiously leaves her home each day when the first cock crows and joins a throng of women who have taken up artisanal mining in her community.

ROME, Mar 08 (IPS) - The Esquilino market, built at the end of the 1800s, is a pillar of Roman traditional daily shopping. It managed to survive the Fascist period and two world wars: it's a veteran of the city.

RÍO DE JANEIRO/SÃO PAULO, Mar 07 (IPS) - This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day on March 8, which this year has as a theme: "Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women's lives."Here we empower women and we do not tolerate domestic violence, which we treat as our own, not as an intra-family, issue," says Lurdinha Lopes, a leader of the squatting movement in Brazil.

NEW YORK, Mar 07 (IPS) - This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day on March 8.
 
 
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza is Chief Executive Officer/International Coordinator, Global Network of Women PeacebuildersI am one of millions of women who posted #MeToo on social media. The call to post was like a flash of light that brought back vivid memories of cat calls, male colleagues making passes, lewd jokes, men rubbing their bodies against mine in packed buses and trains and a man in an act of public sexual self-gratification on the subway.

PENANG, Malaysia, Mar 07 (IPS) - Martin Khor is Executive Director of the South Centre, a think tank for developing countries, based in GenevaThe new agreement that eleven countries are signing on 8 March in Chile in place of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement  (TPP) is like old wine in a new bottle --- without the United States but retaining most of its controversial elements.