Online illicit wildlife trade thriving

A screen grab of a Facebook group in which a user posted a slow loris for sale.

KUALA LUMPUR: As illegal wildlife traders seek to expand their businesses, they have resorted to promoting wildlife animals online. Kanitha Krishnasamy, Southeast Asia programme manager for Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said in Malaysia, trade via social media, Facebook in particular, was growing. 

In January, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) detained seven suspects aged between 19 and 30 in Op Taring. Sixty-four totally protected animals were seized, including sun bear cubs and leopard cat cubs. “In July, Perhilitan officers arrested a man and his accomplices in Klang by setting up a meeting at a hotel via social media. “They rescued two baby Orang Utans, which were to be sold for RM40,000,” Kanitha told the New Straits Times. However, she said online trade was relatively new in Malaysia and there were difficulties in monitoring due to the frequency and sheer volume of wildlife being traded. “Anyone can sit in their home anywhere in the world and place an order for any totally protected animal without having to meet up. 

The items are shipped out with just as much ease.” Kanitha said since online trade via social media often took place in closed groups or forums, enforcement depended on information from the public that had access to such information. “Therefore, we urge the public to report suspicious activities. The volume and frequency are high and no agency can deal with the problem alone. “Collaboration with police and the Multimedia and Communications Ministry is crucial.” Kanitha said poaching and wildlife trade were thriving in Malaysia as it was a key consumer and trader (import, export and transit country). 

However, she said, a number of species took a bigger hit, such as tigers, deers (Sambar and Barking species), pangolins, sun bears, freshwater tortoises and turtles. “In June, the Malayan Tiger moved from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Critically Endangered’ classification under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. “This is the same category that the Sumatran rhinos and leatherback turtles are in. If we don’t do something, we know how this will end for Malaysia’s iconic animal. “Sabah and Sarawak face similar challenges. 

Wildlife consumption and trade continue to be an issue. For example, trade involving bear parts and products, such as gall bladder, is more prominent in East Malaysia than it is in the peninsula.” Meanwhile, Sabah Wildlife director William Baya said online trade was not rampant in the state, but it was harder to stop the practice.

Baya cited an example of a Facebook group that advertised the trade of protected wildlife. “The authorities have been monitoring this group said to be trading Sunda clouded leopard, sun bears, slow loris, pangolins, hornbills and owls. “Only one case has been traced, apprehended and prosecuted with the help of an agent provocateur.” A check by the NST found a number of Facebook groups advertising protected wildlife as pets, such as “Free/jual/beli/swap haiwan peliharaan (Labuan)” (Free, sell, buy and swap pets) and “Laman jual beli haiwan peliharaan” (Pets trading website). 

Some groups were closed. The groups, some with thousands of followers, were selling endangered species, such as slow lorises, civet cats, turtles and parakeets. Sellers even provided their contact numbers and pictures of the animals to attract buyers.

Source : nst.com.my

Muslim Council Issues Fatwa Against Poaching

A Malaysian state’s religious ban on illegal hunting mirrors one Indonesia issued last year.
By Jani Actman, National Geographic

If a country wants to crack down on wildlife crime, it usually focuses on strong laws, effective enforcement, and widespread public support. But if those don’t work, there’s another tool in the box: religion.

Enter the fatwa, or Islamic edict. In November, the fatwa council in Terengganu, a state in northeastern Malaysia, issued one that prohibits the state’s approximate 970,000 Muslim residents from poaching.

Islamic clerics and scientists put the fatwa together out of concern over the fate of the vulnerable sambar deer and its predator, the critically endangered Malayan tiger, hunted for its supposed medicinal properties and in retaliation for killing villagers’ livestock.

“People can escape government regulation. But they cannot escape the word of God,” Hayu Prabowo, chair of the Council of Ulama, Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body, told National Geographic last March. That was after the council issued a fatwa prohibiting illegal wildlife trafficking in Indonesia, marking what’s believed to be the first one invoked to protect wildlife.

Terengganu’s fatwa, first reported by Malaysian newspaper New Strait Times, declares the illegal hunting of a species to extinction to be haram, or forbidden. It highlights the tenets of Islam that call on Muslims to protect Allah’s creations and forbid followers from hunting any species to extinction. Read more.

Three detained, RM50,000 endangered species seized

Photo credit: sharimi.com

HULU TERENGGANU: Three people, including a woman, were detained by the Terengganu Wildlife and Parks Department for being in possession of RM50,000 worth of endangered wildlife of various species, following three separate raids.

Department deputy director Suhainah Pejalis@Farhana said that her officers seized 40 turtles and 20 frogs (katak demam) following two raids at a pig abbatoir at Wakaf Tapai in Marang on Dec 7 and 8. "We picked up a man and a woman, both aged 60, at the same abbatoir on those two days. They did not have any valid licence to trade in wildlife. We believe the catch will be sold to local restaurants," she said. Suhainah added in the third raid yesterday (Monday), her officers detained a 27-year-old man at his home in Seberang Takir, Kuala Nerus for dealing in protected species via online sales. The officers, she said, had kept watch on his unlicensed activities for a month and they managed to recover a hornbill and three burung murai batu (humming bird).

All three cases are being investigated under the Wildlife Protection Act, 2010 (Act 716) which upon conviction under Section 60(1)(a) has a fine of not more than RM50,000 or maximum two years jail, or both. "For this year alone, we have made ten arrests under the Act for various offences. The biggest offender was a man from Besut who was fined RM30,000 for being in possession of ten pythons, three giant tortoises, nine leatherback turtles and 26 katak demam. 

Source: nst.com.my

Malaysian businessmen smuggled orangutan skulls, bird beaks, into U.S., Portland prosecutors allege

A langur monkey skull (left). | An orangutan skull (right).

The head of a Rhinoceros Hornbill

Eoin Ling Churn Yeng (left)   | Galvin Yeo Siang Ann (right)

By Bryan Denson | The Oregonian/OregonLive 

Two Malaysian businessmen appeared in Portland federal court Monday to confront charges that they illegally smuggled orangutan skulls and other parts of protected wildlife into the U.S.

Federal agents arrested Eoin Ling Churn Yeng, 35, and Galvin Yeo Siang Ann, 33, Friday after they flew into Portland to meet with a business associate who last August became a cooperating witness in an undercover federal wildlife investigation, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The two fell under investigation in 2013 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after what the government describes as a routine cargo search turned up mandible of a a Helmeted hornbill. The beak of the large bird was being shipped to a home in Forest Grove, the government alleges. 

"Helmeted Hornbills are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora," better known as CITES, government prosecutors wrote in a news release.

The criminal complaint charges Ling and Yeo of illegally importing wildlife into the U.S., which carries a potential punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents initiated an undercover operation named 'Operation Pongo,' which was inspired by the orangutan's genus Pongo,"according to the government news release. "The investigation revealed that Ling and Yeo were co-owners of an online business that regularly smuggled endangered wildlife into the United States from 2004 to 2015."  Read more

Source: oregonlive.com

Crime Blotter: Orangutan Skulls, Turtle Eggs, and More

A weekly roundup of wildlife crimes.

By Jani Actman, National Geographic
Every Sunday, we note some of the previous week’s wildlife crime arrests and convictions around the world.

A male orangutan clings to a tree in a national park in Borneo. Two Malaysian citizens are accused of smuggling orangutan skulls and other animal parts into the U.S.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RALPH LEE HOPKINS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

IVORY TRAFFICKING: Authorities in Gabon, home to half of Africa’s endangered forest elephants, arrested two men in connection with the seizure of 440 pounds (representing about 20 elephants) of ivory, reportedThe Guardian. One of the men worked for Gabon’s water and forest department.

ORANGUTAN SMUGGLING: Two Malaysian citizens were arrested in Oregon and accused of owning an online business that regularly smuggled endangered wildlife into the United States, announced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They allegedly used mail parcels to smuggle orangutan skulls and other animal parts.

LION POISONING: Two herdsman from the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya were arrested for allegedly planting the body of a dead cow laced with poison in response to an earlier lion attack on their herds, National Geographic reported. Eleven vultures and three lions, which were part of the Marsh Pride—a family of cats featured in the BBC documentary Big Cat Diaries—died from the poisoning.

ILLEGAL LOGGING: Law enforcement in Cambodia’s Mondolikiri province arrested five men—two Cambodians and three ethnic Vietnamese—after finding more than 40 lengths of illegally logged wood in their vehicles, according to The Cambodia Daily. The same day, authorities in the Pursat province also arrested two soldiers moving illegally logged wood in the back of a truck.

TURTLE SMUGGLING: Forest officials in Odisha, an eastern Indian state on the Bay of Bengal, foiled an attempt by poachers to smuggle a sack of narrow-headed soft shell turtles, reported The TeCake, a news website in India. The smugglers escaped but left behind at least 12 turtles in good condition.

ENDANGERED SPECIES SALES: A judge sentenced a trader based in Lancashire, England, caught dealing in rare and endangered species—including a dolphin skull and sperm whale’s teeth—to 24 weeks in prison, according to the Lancashire Telegraph.

TURTLE EGG TRAFFICKING: Two people from Hemet, California, have been indicted in connection with the smuggling of more than 900 eggs from olive ridley and kemp’s ridley sea turtles into the U.S. from Mexico, says Fox San Diego. It’s illegal to trade those species or their parts without permission from both governments.

TIMBER SMUGGLING: Police seized 1,000 tons of timber in the state of Kachin and in Sagaing region in Myanmar that was bound for the Chinese border, reported the Myanmar Times. Authorities don’t know the identity of the smugglers.

Fact of the Week: By the turn of the century, the sale of animal skulls and bones by mail-order operations and over the Internet was no longer an obscure hobby, according to the New York Times, which called it a “growing worldwide business.”

Source: This story was produced by National Geographic’s Special Investigations Unit, which focuses on wildlife crime and is made possible by grants from the BAND Foundation and the Woodtiger Fund. Read more stories from the SIU on Wildlife Watch. Send tips, feedback and story ideas tongwildlife@ngs.org.