Bear paws, pangolin scales: Wildlife trade flourishing in Mekong (Southeast Asia)
Bear paws, pangolin scales: Wildlife trade flourishing in Mekong (Southeast
Asia)
Aljazeera
June 4, 2021
See link
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/4/bear-paws-pangolin-scales-wildlife-trade-flourishing-in-mekong
for photos.
A new study by TRAFFIC, a group that monitors the illegal trade in
wildlife, has found thousands of animal parts and products – from pangolin
scales to ivory and bear bile – for sale in five countries in mainland
Southeast Asia, underlining the region’s struggle to address wildlife crime
and the need to intensify anti-trafficking efforts.
The group says its researchers found close to 78,000 illegal wildlife parts
and products for sale in more than 1,000 outlets in select towns and cities
in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar throughout 2019 and 2020.
The parts and products originated from a wide array of animals including
bears, big cats, helmeted hornbills and pangolins, but TRAFFIC said ivory
products were among the most prominent.
“The variety and prevalence of illegal wildlife trade in several locations
emphasised that the circumstances facilitating illegal trade have not only
remained but, in some cases, proliferated,” Agkillah Maniam, a TRAFFIC
consultant said in a statement.
The lower Mekong region has long been recognised as a hub for the illegal
wildlife trade and has been a focus of efforts to improve enforcement and
policy interventions, as well as providing officials with the tools to
effectively combat such crimes.
In 2019, the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency found Vietnam’s
“out-of-control, illegal wildlife trade” had helped drive demand globally,
and that the Southeast Asian nation was now “the leading destination for
illicit ivory”.
Poachers operating in Malaysia’s forests, often from Vietnam or Cambodia
and working for buyers in China and elsewhere in the region, are blamed for
helping push the Malayan tiger to the brink of extinction.
TRAFFIC’s research found that wildlife markets across the five Mekong
countries continue to operate in the open, including in the Special
Economic Zones (SEZs) that governments have set up to boost foreign
investment and create jobs.
Although restrictions associated with COVID-19 did have some effect on the
illegal trade, TRAFFIC says surveys carried out late last year showed
illegal products remained easily available.
In December 2020, Vietnamese authorities seized 93kg of African rhino horns
from a warehouse near Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport. “It would
be naïve to think that the pandemic alone will dampen wildlife crime in the
long term,” said Kanitha Krishnasamy, director for TRAFFIC in Southeast
Asia. “Monitoring and investigations must continue.
“There’s also a need for strengthening collaboration and public commitment
from all governments in the region. The illicit wildlife trade problem here
is not something countries can tackle on their own.”