;)
The campaign, which features a permanent display at the airport about wildlife trade, is estimated to have been viewed by around 4 million passengers who fly through Noi Bai each year.
The campaign was implemented in part thanks to funding from the Intrepid Travel tour company, whose generous donations support TRAFFIC’s work in South-East Asia.
Intrepid Travel has its own reason for celebrating this month: on 17th May, Intrepid received the 2011 Global Tourism Business Award at this year’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, held in Las Vegas, USA.
The Intrepid Travel tour company, which emphasizes social, cultural and environmental responsibility in its operations, won the prestigious award in recognition for its practices in sustainable tourism.
Based in Australia, Intrepid Travel has offices world-wide and employs 90% local leaders and 100% local guides on its trips.
The company was specifically recognized for its efforts to address climate change through accomplishing carbon neutrality of its business and providing over 45,000 tonnes of carbon offsets since 2007 through its trips and operations.
The associated non-profit Intrepid Foundation has donated more than AUD2.2million (USD2.3 million) since 2002 to organizations that address health care, education, human rights, child welfare, and sustainable development and wildlife conservation.
The Foundation’s donations have supported TRAFFIC’s activities in South-East Asia including capacity building with enforcement officials, market monitoring and research and raising public awareness of wildlife trade issues.
“TRAFFIC congratulates Intrepid on securing this truly impressive award,” said Chris Shepherd, Deputy Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
“We look forward to continued close collaboration with Intrepid in addressing wildlife trade issues in South-East Asia.”
суббота, 21 мая 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Don’t Buy Trouble Campaign, one year on
пятница, 20 мая 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Agreement signed to improve regulation of wildlife trade in Mexico
;)
The new agreement is anticipated to lead to better implementation of national legislation related to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
It also commits CONABIO, Mexico’s CITES Scientific Authority, and TRAFFIC to promote studies on the state of conservation, management and trade in Mexican species and raise awareness to ensure those entrusted with regulating such trade at sustainable levels have access to the best technical and scientific support available.
The signing took place in the City of Oaxaca, where a trilateral Canada-Mexico-United States meeting on the Conservation and Management of Wildlife and Ecosystems is currently underway.
In Mexico, around 2,500 species of wildlife ranging from cacti, orchids, bromeliads, ferns and other plants through to mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, are traded internationally and come under the CITES regulations.
воскресенье, 15 мая 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - World Fair Trade Day
The day is being co-ordinated by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), which represents more than 450 Fair Trade Organizations from 73 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America and Pacific and aims to focus attention on the need for a fair and sustainable economy locally and globally, and for trade to deliver sustainable livelihoods and development opportunities to small producers.
TheFairwild Foundationwill be joining in the celebrations. The FairWild Standard and associated certification system provide an opportunity to apply fair trade principles to sustainable use and trade in wild-harvested plant resources.
Fair trade principles are embedded within the FairWild Standard alongside a range of ecological and social criteria, and the FairWild Foundation aims to harmonise these requirements with other Standards where possible.
The FairWild Foundation works with government authorities, collectors, non-government organisations, and the private sector on implementation of the FairWild Standard, including through promoting certification of wild-plant collection operations.
TRAFFIC is a partner in the FairWild Foundation and is helping promote the FairWild Standard through its Medicinal and Aromatic Plants programme.
FairWild Certification means that buyers know they are supporting fair trading—the products are legally and sustainably sourced, and the benefits are felt by all those involved right down to the local communities harvesting the wild plants.
More information onWorld Fair Trade Day
суббота, 14 мая 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Live leopards and other animals found in luggage
;)
Seven infant animals—four Leopard cubs, a Bear cub, a baby gibbon and a marmoset—were found alive and packed in the 36-year-old suspect’s bags.
And it wasn’t bulky luggage or suspicious behaviour that foiled the trafficker’s audacious attempt. What gave him away was the muffled cry of one of the Leopard cubs stuffed in his bag.
Officers from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crimes Suppression Division of the Thai Police had received a tip off that a passenger bound for Dubai would be attempting to smuggle live animals out of the country.
At about 1 am this morning officers from the division ordered all passengers who were minutes away from boarding a flight for Dubai, to be checked, in the hopes of identifying the individual who was carrying the animals.
It was during that process, that a police officer heard the Leopard’s cry and zoomed in on the suspect. The animals were found in his hand luggage.
The animals are recovering at a National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department rescue centre while the suspect is expected to be charged with smuggling endangered species out of Thailand, its Deputy Director General Dr Theerapat Prayunsitthi told a press conference.
If convicted, the suspect could face up to four years in jail and a THB40,000 (USD1,300) fine.
This is not the first attempt by smugglers to traffic infant wild animals out of Thailand: thisFebruary, and Indonesian man was found to be carrying three suitcases full of animals, while inAugustlast year, authorities found a drugged tiger cub hidden in the luggage of a Thai woman who was attempting to smuggle it to Iran.
The case put the illegal capture and trafficking of young wild animals for the pet trade in the limelight and the problem has since become the focus of a TRAFFIC Southeast Asia– Body Shopcampaignin Malaysia.
четверг, 12 мая 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Illegal bear bile trade rampant in Asia
;)
inChinese
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11th May 2011—Poaching and illegal trade of bears, driven largely by the demand for bile, used in traditional medicine and folk remedies continues unabated across Asia on a large scale, a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, has found.
Bear bile products were found on sale in Traditional Medicine outlets in all but one of the 13 countries/territories surveyed says the report entitledPills, Powders, Vials& Flakes: The bear bile trade in Asia(PDF, 1 MB). The exception is Macao.
Products were most frequently observed in mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar and Viet Nam, where they were recorded in over half of all outlets surveyed. The most frequently encountered products were whole bear gall bladders and pills—found in half of the outlets surveyed.;)
Mainland China was the most commonly reported place of origin for these products across the region.
In Myanmar, internationally sourced gall bladders were reported to come solely from Lao PDR; in Hong Kong, in cases where the source was known, products were reported to have originated in Japan and over half of those offered for sale in the South Korea were from wild sources in Russia.
Domestic trade of bear bile is legal under strict regulation within mainland China and Japan but is illegal in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. Regardless of the legality of trade within countries, international trade is not allowed.
Asiatic Black Bears (predominant in this trade) and Sun Bears are both listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which prohibits international commercial trade in the species, its parts and derivatives.
An analysis of the origin of bear bile products found in these surveys makes it clear that import and export regulations are commonly flouted demonstrating a failure to implement CITES requirements to stop illegal international bear bile trade effectively and protect bears from exploitation.
“Unbridled illegal trade in bear parts and products continues to undermine CITES which should be the world’s most powerful tool to regulate cross-border wildlife trade,” said Kaitlyn-Elizabeth Foley, lead author of the report and Senior Programme Officer of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
The study found that the vast majority of the bear farms surveyed in Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam did not have captive breeding programmes, suggesting they depend on bears captured from the wild.
“The study makes a clear case for authorities to shut down businesses selling illegal bear products and prosecute individuals caught selling, buying, transporting or keeping bears illegally,” said Foley.
“Both the Asiatic Black Bear and the Sun Bear are threatened by poaching and illegal trade. The demand for bile is one of the greatest drivers behind this trade and must be reduced if bear conservation efforts are to succeed,” added Foley.
“Even legal bear bile producers are circumventing domestic and international regulations by exporting products internationally,” said Dr Jill Robinson MBE, Founder and CEO of Animals Asia Foundation, which rescues bears from farms in China and Viet Nam.
“This report, in addition to Animals Asia’s years of research, shows that the bear bile industry is engaging in illegal practices. As pressure mounts on the wild bear population, there are serious questions to be answered on the welfare and pathology of farmed bears, and the risks to human health in those who consume the contaminated bile from such sick and diseased bears,” said Robinson.
ENDS
Notes:
The study’s main findings are:
• Bear bile products were observed in traditional medicine outlets in 12 out of 13 Asian countries/territories surveyed
• Bear bile products were available at 50% or more of traditional medicine outlets surveyed in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar and Viet Nam.
• China is the most commonly reported source for bear bile products
http://prezi.com/y_mqfj2c8acx/the-bear-bile-trade-in-asia/
For further information:
Kaitlyn Elizabeth-Foley, Senior Programme Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Tel: ++603 7880 3940,katiefoley7@myjaring.net
Elizabeth John, Senior Communications Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Tel: ++603 7880 3940,jlizzjohn@yahoo.com
Richard Thomas, Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC. Tel: +44 1223 279068, email:richard.thomas@traffic.org
суббота, 23 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Live pangolins and dried snake skins seized in Thailand
;)
Officers stopped the white truck and its driver at 3 a.m in the town of Pranburi. The Thai national who was arrested is believed to have transported the cargo from the Southern Thai town of Had Yai to Songkla and was headed to Bangkok.
Prachuap Khiri Khan, where the items were seized, is a bottleneck for transportation and an ideal location for authorities to focus their enforcement attention. It is a transit point through which all traffic from Indonesia and Malaysia must pass to access central and northern Thailand, as well as the rest of Indochina.
Thai Press reports say the truck driver was held for violations under Thailand’s Customs regulations and for flouting laws that govern international trade in wildlife under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna.
The endangered Pangolin commonly turns up in seizures around the region and is trafficked in large volumes for the illegal meat and medicine markets.
The suspect and the wildlife seized have been handed over to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department for further investigation and action.
This recent seizure follows close on the heels of the Customs Department’s recent find of 1,800 monitor lizards which smugglers were attempting to traffic across the border from Malaysia in several pickup trucks.
“Thailand’s Customs authorities should be congratulated for catching this shipment,” said TRAFFIC Regional Director Dr. William Schaedla.
“Pangolin trafficking up the Malay Peninsula and along this roadway are regular tragic occurrences. TRAFFIC is hopeful that interdictions like this will become a deterrent that breaks the trade chain that is robbing Southeast Asia of its wildlife,” he said.
In early April, a team of Malaysian wildlife officers in the northern state of Kelantan seized 40 pangolins, weighing a total of 200 kilograms, from a car believed to be heading for China via Thailand.
четверг, 21 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Major ivory seizures in Thailand, China and Viet Nam
Chinese media yesterday reported one of the largest ivory seizures in recent years—a staggering 707 tusks, 32 ivory bracelets and a rhino horn—found during a during a routine inspection of a large truck at a toll station on a highway in Guangxi, China, just a few kilometers from the border with Viet Nam.
The seizure comes hot on the heels of 247 tusks seized by Customs in Thailand concealed in a consignment of frozen fish from Kenya on 1st April, while yesterday, media in Viet Nam reported police had confiscated another 122 ivory tusks from a warehouse in Mong Cai, a port in north-east Viet Nam, right on the border with China.
“The enforcement authorities in all these cases are to be congratulated for making these interdictions, but these tusks attest to the poaching of more than 500 elephants, which is a major conservation concern,” said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s expert on the illicit ivory trade.
“While we still await official confirmation, this pattern of seizures helps corroborate our suspicions that Thailand and China remain the primary end-use destinations for large quantities of ivory being smuggled out of Africa, with Viet Nam now serving as the leading conduit for trade into China,” Milliken added.
Milliken leads work on elephant and rhino trade and manages the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) to track illegal trade in ivory on behalf of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
ETIS is the world’s largest database of elephant product seizure records. The most recent analysis listed Thailand, together with Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo as the three countries most heavily implicated in the global illicit ivory trade, while Viet Nam was identified as one of the major transit countries for illicit consignments of ivory believed to be destined for China.
TRAFFIC sounded an alarm call when the last ETIS analysis showed a seriously escalating illegal ivory trade from 2004 to 2009. Since 2009, however, there has been almost no respite as China, Thailand and Viet Nam alone have seized nearly 20 tonnes of elephant ivory, not counting these latest hauls.
“Sophisticated criminal networks are utilizing every means available—road, sea and air—to smuggle their contraband from African source countries to lucrative markets in Asia, often via circuitous routes to avoid detection,” said Milliken.
“While major seizures, arrests and prosecutions are certainly deterrents to these smuggling operations, the only long-term solution to curtail elephant poaching has to be to reduce the demand for illegally sourced ivory to negligible levels.”
среда, 20 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News -“Where’s My Mama?”
Body Shop and TRAFFIC launch awareness campaign on illegal wildlife trade;)
Now, The Body Shop with the help of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia are calling attention to this problem with the“Where’s My Mama?” campaign, that urges the public to consider the impact of their purchases and choice of pets.
The campaign features the orang-utan, tiger and bear, all of which are affected by the illegal pet trade.
“The illegal pet trade in Southeast Asia is an enormous underground industry,” noted TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Regional Director, Dr William Schaedla.
“Orang-utans, tigers and bears are all victims of this trade, as are many other species from the region. A significant proportion of the turtles, snakes, birds, fish and small mammals available in Malaysian pet shops are sourced illegally and many die in the collection and shipping process.”
To raise awareness on the issue, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia is running an online awareness campaign from itsFacebook page, featuring photos, factsheets, news and articles by experts in the field on the three species.
TheBody Shopwill feature the campaign posters in its 58 stores in Peninsular Malaysia.
An estimated half a million people walk into these stores every month.;)
“At The Body Shop we place great importance in ensuring that all our products come from a natural a source and is obtained without causing any harm to our planet,” Datin Mina Cheah-Foong, Managing Director of The Body Shop West Malaysia.
“We are working to create this awareness with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, as a continuation from our‘Save Belum-Temengor’ campaign in the hopes that people become aware of the importance of saving our wildlife.
“We don’t do this because it’s fashionable; we do it because it has to be done,” she said.
вторник, 19 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Lid lifted on Vietnamese rhino horn trade
Rhino horn openly on sale in Ha Noi markets
April 2011—A hard-hitting documentary hosted by Dan Rather to be screened next Tuesday on HDNet television in the USA and Canada reveals the extent of the rhino horn trade to Viet Nam and how it is fuelling a rhino poaching crisis in southern Africa.
In the above advance clip of the broadcast, Tom Milliken, Director of TRAFFIC’s East and Southern Africa programme explains how a widely circulating“urban myth” about a senior politician supposedly cured of cancer using rhino horn stands behind an escalating slaughter of the species in Africa.
“There is a story in Viet Nam—it’s widely told that a former prime minister was dying of liver cancer, he took rhino horn and was cured,” says Milliken.
“Now, we are trying to put a face and a name to the story, but no matter where we query—government, individuals—we're not able to get to the bottom of it.”
Despite the lack of substance to the story, untold numbers of Vietnamese have been misled into buying rhino horn, spending huge sums of money on the powdered horn in the mistaken belief it has the ability to cure cancer.
As Milliken points out:“in the traditional literature going back centuries in Asia, rhino horn was used to reduce fever. It’s not going to cure you of lung cancer.”
In one sequence, the film crew enters a traditional medicine shop in Viet Nam where they ask about the availability of rhino horn, whereupon the attendant produces a horn from under the counter and explains“that the people who buy it will grind it and drink it.”
“Rhinoceros horn is a type of medicine that is valuable. Sometimes I offer it but only wealthy can use it,” the vendor adds.
“To willingly show banned wildlife goods to a camera crew indicates a serious disregard for the law and a total lack of law enforcement pressure on Viet Nam’s retail markets,” says Milliken.
In another clip, Milliken explains how abuse of rhino trophy hunting quotas in South Africa by Vietnamese visitors led to strict revisions in the country’s law.
Between 2000 and 2007, South Africa averaged about 12 rhino poached each year. In 2008, the figure reached 78, and by 2010 it was an unprecedented 333. Already this year, more than 80 rhino have been poached.
In October 2010, TRAFFIC facilitated amission of South African law enforcement officers to Viet Namfor high-level discussions on growing rhino crime issues.
“Collaborative law enforcement action is needed in both source and consumer countries,” says Milliken.
“The fact that rhino horn remains readily available in Ha Noi markets means that the Vietnamese authorities are not doing their part to stop the trafficking in endangered species products.”
TRAFFIC’s work on rhino poaching has been funded by the Mackenzie Foundation, the US Government and WWF.
The Dan Rather Reports“Horn of Africa” airs onTuesday 19th April at 8 pm and 11 pm Eastern Standard Timein the USA and Canada on HDNet.
суббота, 16 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Vacancy Announcement: TRAFFIC Development and Evaluation Officer
TRAFFIC is seeking an experiencedDevelopment and Evaluation Officerto assist with network programme and funding development. The Development and Evaluation Officer is based in TRAFFIC International in Cambridge, UK, and is a fixed-term position for a period of 18 months, with the possibility to extend. Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK. Applicants are asked to submit their CV and a covering letter in Englishon or before 9 May 2011. Clickherefor more information.
среда, 13 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Future of Asian snakes at stake
;)
Some 60 experts representing close to 20 governments and international and national organizations are meeting to consider conservation priorities and management and enforcement needs related to the trade of snakes.
They will focus on the markets and commercial trade in snakes originating in East, South, and South-east Asia.
Asian snakes are consumed locally and in neighbouring countries for food, traditional medicines and for their skins. They are also sold as pets and found in expensive luxury leather goods and accessories in the boutiques of Europe and North America. Their skins are often processed in various countries of re-export along the way.
According to a wildlife trade policy review conducted in Viet Nam, the income from snake breeding is three to five times higher than the income generated by vegetable and crop cultivation, and dozens of times higher than the income from pig and cattle breeding.
TRAFFIC has previously raised concern over the international exports of Oriental Rat SnakesPtyas mucosusfrom Indonesia, after investigations revealed large numbers were harvested and traded outside of existing government regulations.
TRAFFIC found government-set quotas were being widely-flouted, leading to over-harvesting and illegal trade; and with no marking of skins taking place, it was impossible to track them through the trade chain to point of export.
“TRAFFIC welcomes the current spotlight on the international trade in Asian snakes, which is placing many species on the conservation danger list,” said Dr William Schaedla, Director of TRAFFIC South-east Asia.
“Snakes are clearly vital to natural ecosystems and to the economy of the region—it is in Asia’s interests to ensure snakes have a sustainable future.”
The global trade in snakes involves snake species from many different countries, with specimens taken from the wild or bred in captivity.
However, populations of some snakes have declined significantly through a combination of unsustainable use and habitat loss.
Of the 3,315 snake species globally recognized, one third occur in Asia, many of them endemic to particular countries: Indonesia has 128 endemic snake species, India 112, China 54, Papua New Guinea 42, Sri Lanka 41, and the Philippines 32.
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulates international trade in 130 snake species, 45 of them found in range States in the Asian countries attending the workshop.
John Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES, stated:“the global trade in snakes is an industry of considerable socio-economic importance for rural populations in several Asian countries.
“CITES is the main international tool to regulate effectively international snake trade in many of these species.
“The recommendations coming out of this meeting will be critical in addressing the wildlife conservation, sustainable use and livelihood aspects of such trade, and putting forward expert recommendations to CITES governing bodies for future directions.”
The technical workshop runs until 14th April under the leadership of CITES and brings together government experts, members of the CITES Animals Committee and organizations including IUCN and several of its Species Survival Commission specialist groups, TRAFFIC, WCS, UNCTAD-BioTrade, the China Wildlife Conservation Association and China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
суббота, 9 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - China celebrates 30 years of CITES membership
;)
The important event was celebrated by an event in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, involving representatives of 31 Ministries and Departments.
Speaking about the anniversary, John Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General, said:“Our common goal is to save species at risk of imminent extinction by making them subject to particularly strict regulation, and to ensure that international trade in biodiversity remains legal, sustainable and traceable.
“I would like to congratulate and thank the Chinese CITES authorities for their substantial ongoing efforts to address these universal goals, particularly in the fields of national legislation, law enforcement, scientific research, capacity building and public awareness.”
Representatives from two non-governmental organizations—TRAFFIC and WWF—also attended the anniversary event.
“TRAFFIC was honoured to be invited to the celebrations, which coincide with the tenth anniversary of TRAFFIC’s formal presence in China under the auspices of WWF’s China Programme Office,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC International.
“During that time, we have been working closely with the Chinese government in support of their efforts to ensure that wildlife trade is sustainable and to prevent illegal trade and we have a shared commitment to continue assisting the Chinese authorities in capacity building, trade monitoring and public awareness campaigns.”
The rapid economic development experienced by China in recent years has created new challenges and opportunities for the conservation and sustainable use of wild animals and plants, such as snakes, crocodiles, ginseng, tropical timber species, turtles, seahorses and other marine species.
China has taken significant domestic measures to meet those challenges and the resources it devotes to the implementation of CITES trade regulations are significant. Its 130 full-time staff and 22 branch offices in mainland China, in addition to the offices in the Special Administrative Regions, makes China’s CITES Authority one of the largest in the world.
“The Chinese Government has paid great attention to the conservation of wild fauna and flora. Entering into a new century, we have made a huge investment in ecological development programmes, including the Natural Forest Protection Programme and the Wildlife Protection Programme, which have effectively restored forest ecosystems and recovered protected wild fauna and flora,” said Minister Jia Zhibang, State Forestry Administration.
Recent examples of China’s high-political commitment to CITES include an international workshop on the conservation and sustainable use of the Saiga antelope hosted by China last September, and the attendance of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao at the International Tiger Forum last November in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Next week, China will host the first major international workshop on the conservation and management of and trade in Asian snakes.
среда, 6 апреля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Soldiers suspended over hornbill killing
Incident highlights issue of army involvement in illegal hunting;)
The news has raised a storm of national and international protest.
In a recent statement to the press, Malaysia’s Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zaid Hamidi said his Ministry’s investigations showed that the bird had been shot by other hunters.
“The bird fell to the ground and upon seeing the dying bird, they slaughtered it,” he was quoted as saying by the National Press Agency, Bernama.
Ahmad Zahid told press that although the army personnel were not the ones who shot the hornbill, they should have tried to save it.
The case came to public attention after local media featured stories about the Facebook photo in which four soldiers were seen smiling and holding up the dead hornbill.
Investigations into the case were launched after TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and WWF-Malaysia lodged police reports. The issue was also raised in Parliamentary debates in Malaysia.
The case is under now under investigation by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and WWF-Malaysia commended the Defence Ministry for bringing the soldiers to justice they also urged them to recognize the incident as a symptom of a larger problem.
“This case is just one example of army involvement in illegal hunting,” said Dr William Schaedla, Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
TRAFFIC raised the same issue last July when an army corporal was accidently shot by his colleague while the duo were out hunting deer in the Temengor Forest Reserve—a protected area in the northern state of Perak.
“We look to the Army to ensure security, so it is profoundly disappointing to see this trust abused over and over again,” Schaedla said.
WWF-Malaysia also said it had received many unofficial reports of soldiers hunting in the Royal Belum State Park throughout the course of its work in the Belum-Temengor forest complex where it has had projects since 2007.
Its Executive Director/CEO Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said locals had relayed reports to WWF-Malaysia claiming that soldiers based in the area would hunt totally protected animals such as Malayan gaur and pangolin, Sambar deer and Barking deer.
WWF-Malaysia urged the Defence Ministry to thoroughly investigate these claims and take action to reduce illegal hunting of already threatened wildlife.
Both groups called for the armed forces to raise awareness of conservation issues among their personnel by including it as a subject in training modules and offered assistance in designing course content and carrying out training.
четверг, 31 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Successful project to combat illegal and unsustainable trade in Mexico
;)
The two-year Improving governance of wildlife resources through enhancement of CITES implementation and sustainable use practices in Mexico saw enforcement officers in more than 80% of seaports, airports and borders crossings in the country receiving high quality tools, information and training on priority wildlife trade issues.
The project’s training and development of materials focused on relevant national and international legislation and on wildlife trade issues, including marine turtle trade, identification of cacti, orchids and reptile skins, and how to handle raptors, parrots and other birds.
More than 1,100 pieces of specialist animal handling equipment and tools to enable identification of tropical timbers were donated to 72 border checkpoints and official wildlife centres in Mexico.
The project, undertaken in collaboration with the General Attorney for the Protection of Environment (PROFEPA) and the Wildlife Directorate (DGVS) of Mexico’s Environmental Ministry (SEMARNAT), was so successful it is being used as a model for similar activities in countries elsewhere in the region, including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
“The Improving Governance project demonstrates the United Kingdom’s keen interest to help establish the necessary conditions to ensure Mexico’s extraordinary biodiversity is conserved,” said Robert Fitchett, Deputy Chief of Mission with the British Embassy in Mexico.
Mexico is a country with exceptionally high biological diversity, although like many developing nations these resources are under extreme pressure, reinforcing the need to establish best practices to combat illegal trade and non-sustainable use of flora and fauna.
“Mexico is the world’s fourth most biologically diverse country and number two in terms of ecosystem diversity,” said Adrian Reuter, TRAFFIC’s National Representative in Mexico.
“A staggering ten percent of the world’s animal and plant terrestrial species live in Mexico: it is a global natural treasure that we simply cannot afford to lose.”
среда, 30 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Reptile and amphibian reporting needs tightening: new study
;)
Authors Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University and Chris R. Shepherd of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia examined how records supplied to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on the commercial trade in reptiles and amphibians exported to Thailand between 1990 and 2007 reflected changes in trends, species composition and numbers of wild-caught versus captive-bred specimens.
The study’s most startling find was that Thailand reported the import of more than 10,000 captive-bred, live individuals (of 51 species) originating from Kazakhstan between 2004 and 2006, yet Kazakhstan reports no direct exports of these species to Thailand.
The exports included 2,700 frogs, 4,078 chameleons, 700 lizards and 2,600 tortoises.
There were similar discrepancies, although involving much smaller numbers, with the reported import of reptiles into Thailand from Macao.
“Such discrepancies either indicate a high degree of misreporting or possibly violations of the rules and intentions of CITES,” said Nijman.
Nijman points out that the bulk of captive-bred specimens imported into Thailand were from Kazakhstan and Lebanon.
Lebanon is not a signatory to CITES and all exports of captive-bred reptiles and amphibians from Kazakhstan to Thailand were either re-exported via Lebanon or Macao—a Special Administrative Region of China, hence not itself a Party to CITES.
“The capacity for facilities in Lebanon to produce the claimed number of captive-bred tortoises in trade has previously been called into question, and it appears the same concerns apply to the trade in captive-bred amphibians and reptiles too,” said Shepherd.
“These findings should be setting off alarm bells among CITES authorities. The findings call for intense scrutiny into the global trade of reptiles and amphibians declared as captive-bred.”
According to the study,The role of Thailand in the international trade in CITES-listed live reptiles and amphibians, between 1990 and 2007, Thailand imported 75,594 individuals of 169 species of reptiles and amphibians, 27 of them globally threatened species. Four out of every five animals was listed as captive-bred.
Wild-caught individuals were mainly sourced from Africa, particularly Madagascar, and included hundreds of Endangered and Critically Endangered species such as Golden, Blue-legged and Green Mantella frogs.
The authors found a rapid increase in both numbers of reptiles and amphibians and the species diversity imported into Thailand after 2003, plus wide variation in the proportion of captive-bred animals reported—varying between zero and 80% some years—and significant discrepancies between exports and imports.
Thailand was chosen for the study because of its role as a key hub in the global wildlife trade, importing reptiles from Africa and South Asia for onward distribution within South-East Asia and East Asia. The ever increasing role of South-East Asia in the global pet trade has been attributed at least partly to the rising affluence in the region.
вторник, 29 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Indian Tiger numbers burning brighter
;)
“Today’s figures are an encouraging sign that the Indian government’s measures to curtail poaching may be beginning to have a real impact on Tiger numbers,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC International.
The latest total includes 70 Tigers found in the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, which was not counted in the previous survey because of the difficulty of surveying mangrove habitats. This time round, camera-traps and DNA analysis were used to estimate Tiger numbers in the Reserve.
But even without the Sundarbans, the latest figures indicate a 12% rise in the overall Indian Tiger population, which Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh described as“a very encouraging sign.”
India, with more than 45,000 square km of forest area within 39 designated Tiger reserves, hosts approximately half of the world’s wild Tiger population.
“While the latest figures from India are certainly encouraging, we should not be complacent,” said Broad.
“Any gains in Tiger numbers will soon be undone unless Tiger habitats are maintained and increased, and Tiger poaching and trade is suppressed; there is still a long way to go to achieve the stated international ambition of a doubling in Tiger numbers by 2020.”
Numbering more than 100,000 at the turn of the last century, Tigers have lost more than 97 percent of their population and 94 percent of their home range in the past 100 years, and are under high poaching pressure because of the demand for Tiger parts, including bones, claws and skin from East Asia, where they are used in traditional medicine.
“Although there are signs of hope from India, the Tiger nevertheless remains in crisis across much of Asia,” said Broad.
The latest Tiger census figures were released at the start of a three-day international conference on Tiger conservation taking place this week in Delhi.
The conference brings together Tiger experts to review implementation of the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP), a worldwide plan finalized by world leaders at the historicTiger summit last November in St. Petersburg, Russia, to bring Tigers back from the brink of extinction.
In Delhi, high-level government representatives from Tiger range countries will present their national priority actions for implementation of the GTRP in 2011, with international partners outlining their support to assist these actions.
Partners include the World Bank’s Global Tiger Initiative, the Global Tiger Forum, and CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) plus key NGOs including TRAFFIC and WWF.
вторник, 22 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - 180 kg of wildlife seized in Central Viet Nam
The seizure on 7th March included 173 turtles weighing 152 kg, among them 8 Big-headed TurtlesPlatysternon megacephalumwhich is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
The haul also included two porcupines (16.5 kg) and two monitor lizards (9 kg).
According toDan Trinewspaper, the driver, a Vietnamese national from the neighbouring province of Ha Tinh, confessed to transporting the animals from Lao PDR to be eaten in Nghe An Province.
The case has been transferred to the provincial Forest Protection Department.
Nghe An Province is located in north-central Viet Nam on the border with Lao PDR. It is also the site of an increasing number of wildlife seizures, often as wildlife from Lao PDR is transported to major cities and markets in Viet Nam.
Vietnamese officials are increasingly cracking down on the illegal trade in wild animals.
Last week the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism issued an instruction that could potentially rescind the international travel business licenses of travel agencies that organize tours to bear farms where bears are illegally kept and bile is extracted.
Although illegal, tours to bear farms for bear bile extraction are popular, especially among Asian tourists. Thousands of bears are known to be kept in enclosures on“bear farms” for the extraction of bile.
четверг, 17 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Tiger parts seized during restaurant raid
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Officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) in Pahang, a state on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, found close to 17 kilogrammes of Common Barking Deer meat, two skinned Mouse Deer, 54 Argus Pheasant feathers, a White-breasted Waterhen when they raided the man’s house and shop in a raid yesterday (15th March).
The dried Tiger parts were found in a sealed glass jar along with dried parts of several other animals, which will be sent for forensic analysis.
The find of Tiger parts in the suspect’s possession is significant because his village of Kubang Rusa in Merapoh, lies within the country’s most important Tiger corridor, said Pahang Perhilitan Director Khairiah Mohd Shariff.
This corridor, Sungai Yu, is a critical link between the Taman Negara national park and the Main Range, two of Malaysia’s most important Tiger landscapes, as identified in the country’s Tiger Conservation Action Plan.
The suspect is a second-time offender, having been convicted in 2008 for possession of Barking Deer meat without a permit. He could face two charges under Section 68 of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 for keeping the Tiger parts and Argus Pheasant feathers without a permit. Unlawful possession of some totally protected species such as Tigers, also carries a mandatory jail requirement under this law.
The suspect also faces another three charges under Section 60 of the same Act for keeping the protected White-breasted Waterhen and exotic meats without a permit. He is out on bail pending trial.
In two other operations this month, Perhilitan Pahang seized Wild Boar meat from two houses in the town of Triang and are expected to charge two local men and a woman for being in possession of the meat without a licence. And earlier in February, officers also seized a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and two Blue-crowned Hanging-parrots from a man in the town of Janda Baik.
All suspects face heavy fines under the new law which came into force last December.
So far this year Perhilitan Pahang has also seized four guns from people who have committed hunting offences in the State, including one home-made gun.
Khairiah expressed concern over the abuse of weapons for illegal hunting and told a press conference that the Department would not hesitate to use its powers under the new law to confiscate guns under these circumstances and seek police assistance to revoke an offender’s licence to carry and use a gun.
"It is wildlife traders such as this one that have given Malaysia a reputation as being a poaching hotspot and trade hub. These criminals are posing a serious threat to the continual survival of many increasingly threatened species,"says TRAFFIC Southeast Asia's Regional Deputy Director Chris R. Shepherd.
"The authorities are to be applauded for taking action, especially in such a critical Tiger landscape. TRAFFIC urges the authorities to penalize this man and others like him to the full extent of the law to deter further such crime, and to demonstrate just how serious they are about protecting Malaysia's natural heritage,"he said.
среда, 16 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Strengthening wildlife law enforcement in India
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The meeting informed enforcement officers from Customs, CID personnel and officials from the West Bengal Forest Department about the latest tools and techniques available to fight illicit wildlife trade and also gave them an overview of the scale of organized wildlife crime worldwide.
In India, the products most frequently encountered in illegal wildlife trade are mongoose hair, snakeskin, rhino horn, Tiger and leopard claws, bones, skins, whiskers, elephant tusks, deer antlers, turtle shells, musk pods, bear bile, medicinal plants, timber and birds such as parakeets, mynas and munias.
Kolkata, being well connected with sea, air and land routes provides ample opportunities for smuggling of wildlife goods. It is a major route for ivory, live birds and the pet animal trade. Kolkata is also a centre for illicit trade in Star Tortoises and just before the workshop, on 9th March, more than 100 tortoises were found on a train in Howrah.
Inaugurating the workshop, Dr A K Raha (PCCF- West Bengal Forest Department) said that such multi-agency training is necessary for strengthening enforcement efforts that will help conserve the precious biodiversity of the country.
Mr Samir Sinha, Head of TRAFFIC India stressed the need for increased co-operation between various enforcement agencies for fighting wildlife crime. He also talked about broadening the scope of conservation to beyond just the well-known charismatic species that are threatened by illegal wildlife trade.
Resource material provided to the participants included a printed compendium, CDs on various related themes and other materials including a copy of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, CRPC manual and various books and posters pertaining to wildlife law and enforcement issues.
A wildlife forensic sample collection kit developed jointly by the Wildlife Institute of India and TRAFFIC was also distributed to participants to enable field staff to collect samples for forensic analysis.
The workshop was the fourth in a series organized as part of a collaborative effort between the Government of India, the UK Government, TRAFFIC and the Wildlife Institute of India, for dissemination of knowledge and skills for combating wildlife crime across the country.
For more information, please contact: Mr Samir Sinha, 09868144462 and 011- 41504786/43516290.
среда, 9 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Voices from the Amazon
TheVoices for sustainable forestrySpanish-language videos form an educational series that can be viewed on the internet and are useful for community radio shows, in schools and for media use.
“Hearing and seeing an expert explain an issue can be a far more effective form of communication than reading a written technical document,” says TRAFFIC South America’s Ana Puyol, co-ordinator of the programme.
“The videos make it easy to gain access to the best information available.”
Although the lectures are focused on Ecuador, many of the topics and challenges facing forestry communities are shared with other countries in the region.
“These common problems are regional. Many of the challenges we experience in Ecuador are the same in other countries where the Amazonian forest is under threat.”
Topics covered range from explaining forest ecosystems, the dilemmas faced by indigenous communities, forest laws and most importantly forest governance.
Puyol hopes the videos may one day become part of the national teacher-training curriculum and is also at work making short online courses aimed at giving the media sound background information on forestry issues.
четверг, 3 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - WCO’s Operation GAPIN yields spectacular results
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The seizures included came from more than 31 species, including one live Barbary MacaqueMacaca sylvanus, two dead macaques, 295 pieces of ivory (statues, jewellery, chopsticks, etc), 57 kg of raw ivory, four rhino horns, 4,726 kg of pangolin meat, 323 seahorses, and one leopard skin.
Most of the seizures and/or detentions were made in Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa with the balance made in countries outside Africa: Belgium, China, the Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Viet Nam.
More than 100 seizures of wildlife protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) were made during the two-week transregional operation in January and February 2011 to combat the illegal cross-border trade in great apes and other wildlife species including their derivatives.
This initiative was conducted within the Framework of Project GAPIN—Great Apes and Integrity—which is financed by the Swedish Government and designed to stem illegal trade flows whilst cracking down on corrupt practices that help to fuel illicit trafficking.
Increasing wildlife crime and associated corruption is a matter of grave concern to governments and the international community; being on the frontline at international border crossings enables Customs to play a critical role in the fight against transnational organized crime which is more often than not linked to the smuggling of endangered species.
Other products detained during the operation and undergoing further investigation to determine their exact CITES status include: 5,300 kg of shark fins, 12,056 pieces of seashells, 11,250 kg of sea cucumbers and 1,000 kg of eel intestines.
“The World Customs Organization and its 177 Member Customs administrations remain committed to protecting the earth’s natural heritage through effective border enforcement,” said WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya.
“Enhancing Customs’ application of export controls on protected wildlife through capacity building and raising the awareness of frontline Customs officers on the dangers posed by corruption has ensured the success of this important transregional operation.”
Operation GAPIN was preceded by a one-week intensive, specialized capacity building training session in Mombasa, Kenya, for frontline Customs officials in December 2010, which focused on building the capability of officers to tackle wildlife smuggling more effectively and to identify integrity and corruption issues more readily.
Some of the countries participating in the training session made significant interceptions during the actual operation and moreover, Viet Nam Customs seized 1.2 tonnes of ivory shipped from Tanzania via Singapore just prior to the start of the operation.
“The WCO will continue its drive to build the capacity of Customs administrations across the globe to protect endangered wild fauna and flora through efficient and effective border enforcement in cooperation with its international, regional and national partners,” said Secretary General Mikuriya.
A total of 14 African countries participated in the operation, supported by 25 countries in Asia and Europe as well as the CITES Secretariat, the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices, the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, and national CITES management authorities, wildlife enforcement agencies and in some countries the police.
“The WCO are to be congratulated on the success of Operation GAPIN which underlines the value both of training of enforcement officers and international co-operation in tackling transnational wildlife crime,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.
среда, 2 марта 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Too little done to address trade threat to Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtles
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Seventy experts who gathered in Singapore last week for theConservation of Asian Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles Workshopto evaluate the current status of these species in Asia found the vast majority of are nearing extinction in the wild, and very little has been done to address the problem.
The meeting reported that illegal and unsustainable trade was the greatest threat to the survival of this highly threatened group of species and found that laws and conventions in place to protect these animals were simply not being enforced.;)
Seventy-two of Asia’s 86 species of tortoises and freshwater turtles were assessed at the Singapore meeting, which was hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore Group and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), in collaboration with the Turtle Survival Alliance, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, San Diego Zoo Global and the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
The Malaysian Giant TurtleOrlitia borneensis, one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world and found only in Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, is now listed as Critically Endangered due to illegal collection and export for its meat. The Burmese Star TortoiseGeochelone platynota, endemic to Myanmar, is thought to be possibly extinct in the wild due to relentless poaching for the international pet trade.
Being driven to extinction by unregulated trade: the Southeast Asia Box TurtleCuora amboinensisClick photo to enlarge© Chris R Shepherd / TRAFFIC SOutheast AsiaAnother key finding of the meeting was the need for research to be carried out on wild populations to understand their status in the wild, natural history and current distribution better.
Experts also highlighted the need for increased monitoring of the trade that is considered the leading threat to all of these species. The urgent need for rescue centres and ex-situ assurance colonies was also raised.
Alarm bells were first sounded for Asia’s freshwater tortoises and turtles following a meeting of experts in 1999, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, alerting the world to what was dubbed the Asian Turtle Crisis.
Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtles were being harvested in massive quantities to supply the demand for meat and use in traditional medicines, mostly in East Asia. These species are also in demand as pets. Much of the trade is carried out illegally.
Approximately ten years later, experts again met and found the situation has gone from bad to worse.
Of Asia’s 86 species, close to 70 species (approximately 80%) are considered threatened. This is a dramatic increase since these species were assessed in 1999—a 90% increase in the number of Critically Endangered species alone.
While there have been some successes over the past decade, overall the battle is still being lost, said experts who also discussed current threats and prioritized actions necessary to save species from extinction.
“At the current rate of decline, we will lose many of Asia’s tortoises and freshwater turtle species forever, if international and national laws and conventions are not enforced,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Deputy Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
“Trade is the single greatest threat to tortoises and freshwater turtles– a species group that has been around since the days of the dinosaurs. Their future is now in the hands of policy makers, enforcement agencies and conservation bodies. To date, efforts to protect these species have been far from adequate. If effort and motivation to save these species is not greatly increased, we are going to lose many of these species .”
Shepherd urged authorities to make full use of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) under which many of Asia’s freshwater turtle and tortoise species are protected.
“The last ten years has shown that while it is possible to save these species from extinction, the threat of trade is still present and ever-growing,” said Colin Poole, Director, WCS Regional Hub.
“Of particular concern is the increasing impact of the pet trade on a number of tortoise species and the growth of the demand for dried carapace from softshell turtles sourced primarily in South Asia.”
Notes:
• The status of tortoises and freshwater turtles, as well as other useful information can be viewed by species at the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, at www.iucnredlist.org
• The report,Turtles in Trouble: the World’s top 25+ most Endangered Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles, can be downloaded athttp://www.turtlesurvival.org/
понедельник, 28 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - More than 1 tonne of ivory and rhino horns seized in Thailand
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This brings the total ivory seized at this airport since the beginning of 2010 to more than five and a half tonnes.
The ivory and rhino horn passed through Doha, Qatar, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before reaching Bangkok.
The illegal cargo’s last leg of shipment was from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and was meant to be picked up by a company located in Central Thailand. However, the shipment was left unclaimed.
The Suvarnabhumi Airport Cargo Clearance Customs Bureau with the help of officers from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation counted 118 elephant tusks and three rhino horns in the 11 cases that made up the shipment.
Customs said the shipment was declared as“craft work” in the airway bill.
This is not the first time a combination of ivory and rhino horns has been seized or transited in Thailand and Malaysia.
In July 2009, Kenyan authorities stopped a shipment of 16 elephant tusks and two Black Rhino horns which were scheduled to transit in Thailand before being flown to a destination in Lao PDR.
Last August, five rhino horns and two tonnes of elephant ivory bound for Malaysia was seized by authorities in Kenya raising concerns about the former’s role in the global ivory trade.
The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) lists Thailand as one of three countries most heavily implicated in the illegal global ivory trade and Malaysia as a country of concern because of its role as a significant transit point.
ETIS is the world’s largest database of elephant product seizure records, comprising more than 15,400 ivory seizure cases compiled over the last 21 years and is compiled by TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES.
In an effort to address the problem,Customs Authorities in Thailand teamed-up with TRAFFIC Southeast Asiato raise awareness among Customs Officers based at airports and other key checkpoints about ways to tackle the illegal ivory trade.
Thailand’s Customs Department has also seen a series of successful raids at Suvarnabhumi Airport since stepping up its efforts.
“The authorities involved are to be congratulated,” said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Regional Director Dr William Schaedla.
"This successful seizure highlights, once again, a flow of illegal ivory through Thailand and Malaysia. Customs authorities from both these countries must work with their counterparts in Africa to stem the tide of elephant and rhino poaching.
"Airport seizures are welcome, but there must also be a concerted long-term effort to investigate and shut down the criminal networks that enable the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade in the region.”
Forphotographsof the latest seizure, please contactRichard Thomas, TRAFFIC's Global Communications Co-ordinator, +44 1223 279068, mob +44 0752 6646 216, email: richard.thomas@traffic.org
воскресенье, 27 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Trade alliance formulated in China
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Mr Liu and other TCM traders from across China and beyond are sampling TCM plant products today in Beijing, where they are meeting with collectors of wild TCM plants from the Yangtze River area.
They aim to establish a‘trade alliance’ between local producers and traders for the sustainable production of wild medicinal plant species.
The inaugural conference on international trade alliances held by TRAFFIC, WWF and the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS) will help establish links between producer associations in mountainous villages and national and international traditional Chinese medicine traders.
Around 15 representatives from TCM manufacturers in the Netherlands, Russia, USA, Korea and Brazil as well as China and 15 representatives from three producers associations in three pilot study sites have helped establish the foundations for the trade alliance.
They have exchanged information on international TCM export requirements and sustainable harvesting.
The meeting is the latest development in a collaborative WWF China, IUCN and TRAFFIC China project‘Sustainable Management of Traditional Medicinal Plants in High-biodiversity Landscapes of Upper Yangtze Ecoregion’ through the European Union’s China Biodiversity Programme (ECBP), funded by the European Union Development Programme (EUDP).
Mountain landscapes in the upper Yangtze River basin are internationally recognized for their biodiversity values and listed as the top priority area for biodiversity conservation in China.
An estimated 75% of commercially harvested Chinese medicinal plant species are found in the region, but many are endangered due to overharvesting.
In order to mitigate the degradation of populations of TCM species and improve local plant harvesters’ livelihoods, in 2007 WWF, IUCN and TRAFFIC launched the project within the ECBP in China.
Local producers in villages in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces have been introduced to the concept and skills needed for sustainable harvesting of wild TCM plants.
Guidelines for the certification of wild-collected products have been introduced and producers helped with marketing of their sustainably harvested medicinal plant species.;)
“We now have more a stable supply of Schisandra by supplementing our existing supplies with sustainably wild-harvested fruit,” said Mr. Wang, Manager of the winery, who addressed the meeting in Beijing.
“Once the winery gets into full production capacity, hundreds of additional jobs will be made available to local villagers.”
Thanks to the joint work of these conservation organizations, 6 producers associations have been established in the villages of the three Provinces, representing about 970 local families and 3322 villagers, who treat wild collection as an important income.
“Three years after TRAFFIC/WWF and our partners introduced standards of sustainable management of wild medicinal plants to producers in the Yangtze region, our work is beginning to bear fruit,” said Professor Xu Hongfa, Director of TRAFFIC’s programme in China
суббота, 26 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - South African measures to restrict cycad trade inadequate
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But TRAFFIC says the measures don’t go far enough and is calling on the South African authorities to introduce a blanket trade ban on cycads.
“While the South African government is to be applauded for considering action against the illicit trade in cycads, TRAFFIC is concerned that the measures simply won’t stop the wild extinction of yet more cycad species,” said David Newton of TRAFFIC East and Southern Africa.
Cycad species affected are those in the genusEncephalartos, several of which are commonly known as bread palms or bread trees because their stems can be used to prepare a bread-like starchy food.
“Cycads among the oldest living seed plants, but are today are among the most highly threatened groups of species. South Africa is a global hotspot for cycads, and 31% of the country’s species are classified as Critically Endangered, principally because of severe over-harvesting to supply private horticultural collections,” said Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN's Species Survival Commission.
IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, classifies around 70% ofEncephalartosspecies in Africa as threatened with extinction—four species no longer exist in the wild.
AllEncephalartosspecies are listed in Appendix I of CITES, which precludes their international commercial trade.
However, trade in artificially propagated plants from South Africa is still permitted, and despite existing regulations to restrict trade, including new CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulations promulgated in 2010, the plunder of wild cycad populations has continued.
According to the CITES trade database, over 5,000 cycad plants (Encephalartosspecies) were reported as exports from South Africa in 2009 alone. All were reported to be artificially propagated.
“Even just monitoring that number of exports to ensure they are all cultivated plants and not illegally wild-sourced is a massive challenge,” says Newton.
He also points out inconsistencies in the government’s proposals, such as no requirement for Critically Endangered cycad species under a certain size to be microchipped, unlike less threatened species.
According to Newton, the proposed new rules would do little to improve regulation of the international trade in cycads.
“The South Africa government recently delisted Abalone {a type of mollusc} from CITES because they were unable to meet the CITES export inspection requirements for farmed Abalone. So why do they now think they will be able to inspect and monitor size limited cycad exports, as proposed in the government gazette, given they have been unable to do so in the past?”
Under CITES rules, the Scientific Authority in South Africa would have to demonstrate what levels of plants could be traded without posing a conservation risk.
Such a study is known as a Non-Detriment Finding (NDF), but these have not yet been completed for all South Africa’s cycads.
“TRAFFIC calls on the South African government to impose a complete ban on the export of cycads until the completion of non-detriment findings and the establishment of biodiversity management plans that will ensure cycads' correct management by all stakeholders,” says Newton.
“This drastic measure is now required given the poor management of this trade over the years and the fact that an increasing number of cycad taxa are becoming extinct in the wild.”
In December 2010 the European Union (EU) imposed a ban on trade in cycad species from South Africa.
For more information, please contact:
Richard Thomas, Global Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC. + 44 1223 279068; +44 752 6646216.
пятница, 25 февраля 2011 г.
TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Officers in Andhra Pradesh receive training on wildlife law enforcement
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The meeting took place in the State of Andhra Pradesh which, due to its abundant biodiversity, has always been a significant target for illegal wildlife trade.
Red Sanders, a protected tree species is a near endemic to the State that is in high demand. Large seizures of this wood have recently taken place at the Indo-Nepal border and in Jammu& Kashmir. In October 2010, Mumbai customs arrested a man on suspicion of attempting to smuggle about 10 tonnes of Red Sanders logs to Dubai.
There are also recent reports of tarantula spiders being illegally captured from southern and eastern parts of the State, the rampant poaching of Red Sandboa and the State is a major route in the smuggling of star tortoises.
The two-day workshop organized by TRAFFIC India aimed to make enforcement officers aware of the latest tools and techniques available to fight such illicit wildlife trade and also to provide an overview of organized global wildlife crime.
The workshop was inaugurated by Mrs C. S. Ramalaskshmi, Director General-CEFNARM (Centre for Forests and Natural Resource Management). Fifty participants from various enforcement agencies including the forest department of Andhra Pradesh, police, railway protection force, Customs, State postal and transport departments participated.
Mr Raghuveer, Director APFA emphasized that such multi-agency training helped in the co-ordination of the various departments that play a key role in curbing illegal wildlife trade.
Khalid Pasha of TRAFFIC India spoke about the regional and global reach of organized transnational wildlife crime and the need to update skills and knowledge continuously to meet the challenges this presented.
The workshop was held at the Andhra Pradesh Forest Academy, Dulapally, Hyderabad, and was the third in a series organized by the Indian and UK governments and TRAFFIC for dissemination of knowledge and skills for combating wildlife crime across India.
The programme is supported by Defra, under the UK-India Sustainable Development Dialogue (UK-India SDD) between the Governments of India and the UK.