CONSERVATION-ASIA: Region’s Affluence Spurs Demand for Wildlife

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Aug 22 2004 (IPS) - Conservationists fighting to stop wildlife trade, are now turning their attention to Asia, where they say affluence has made the region a top market for endangered species.

”Asians are growing richer and fuelling the demand for exotic and rare wildlife. The region is now both an important supply source and a growing market – and this is alarming,” says Masayuko Sakamoto, an environmental lawyer and head of the Tokyo-based Asian Conservation Alliance.

At a workshop organised by Sakamoto and several other Asian non-governmental organisations last week, activists highlighted the need to protect Asian elephants and other species such as rare tortoises and birds that are traded in Japan and other countries in the region.

Global trafficking in wildlife is worth an estimated eight billion U.S. dollars annually, a scale surpassed only by the illegal international trade in drugs and weapons, said the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

The Wildlife Conservation Society says that hunting has put half of Asia’s turtles and tortoises on the endangered species list.

For example, some 29,000 live tortoises are imported legally every month into Japan, accounting for 54 percent of the international market for the animals, according to TRAFFIC, Japan – an NGO campaigning against wildlife trade.

Sakamoto also said investigations have revealed China is now a growing market for wildlife, to supply its lucrative exotic food and medicinal market.

More than one million kilogrammes of snakes are imported to Shanghai annually and served as a luxury food, the Wildlife Conservation Society said.

Another case in point is the Malayan flat-shelled turtle, native to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, and now proposed by the United States to be protected as an endangered species. The turtle is traded in large numbers in food markets in southern China and between 2,000 to 3,000 kilogrammes are sold daily.

The one-day workshop also touched on the issue of buying or exporting wildlife for scientific research or for non-commercial purposes. This, the workshop participants say, has encouraged the sending of animals to zoos as gifts to cement friendship between two countries.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES allows this trade for research. But the workshop delegates brought out that these are loopholes in CITES that favoured wildlife traders.

”Young elephants are sent to Japan from Asian countries for breeding purposes in zoos or as gifts between important people. This practice contributes to the destruction of elephant populations that are already facing extinction in their countries,” points out Fusako Nogami, head of ALIVE – a group that monitors wildlife trade in Asia.

According to Thai speaker Soraida Salwala, head of the Friends of the Asian Elephant, the country’s dwindling elephant population faces the risk of further extinction.

Many are still taken from the wild to be used in the logging industry, says Salwala.

”Thai elephants are increasingly falling prey to poachers who hunt them for their tusks,” she adds.

Also, Salwala points out many young elephants are sold to amusement parks for the entertainment of tourists.

”Young elephants are taken away from their mothers and sold to zoos and circuses abroad under the guise of ‘ non- commercial purposes’,”says Salwala who also built the world’s first hospital for injured elephants.

Salwala, is a bitter critic of the practice of sending young elephants, that are owned by traders, as gifts abroad.

She says this practice places a high risk on the elephant population as baby elephants are captured in the wild and kept domesticated for a few months to be registered for the trade.

”Proponents of the elephant trade, often rich businessmen who have close links to politicians, provide fake documents that show the captive elephants are domestic animals. To change this, the government must carry out investigations which are (often) not done,” she points out.

It is estimated that there are 1,975 wild elephants in Thailand, according to a 1993 survey – down from around 40,000 in 1950. Deforestation leading to the loss of natural habitat, and poaching are the most serious threats to the elephant population in the country.

Japanese activists also point out that breeding programs promoted in rich countries is another grave problem.

Research by ALIVE shows Japanese zoos import Asian elephants, tigers and other rare animals for captive breeding. But often, according to the NGO, these programmes turn into commercial ones to attract visitors.

Nogami argues that only one elephant has been bred in captivity in 2002 despite the import of more than 70 Asian elephants.

”Even the calf that was born was not looked after by its mother but by its keepers – a situation that shows how difficult it is to breed them,” she points out. ”The trade in wild animals for breeding does not take into consideration their comfort.”