Jakarta Store Openly Trading in Protected Species

This handout photo taken on June 9, 2013 and released by Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program on June 10 shows a slow loris in a private zoo on the outskirts of Kandang, a town in Sumatra’s Aceh province, where animals are displayed for visitors and buyers. (AFP Photo/Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program/Paul Hilton)

Jakarta. The special crimes directorate of the National Police has closed down a business trading in endangered animal parts, arresting its owner.

“The person is the owner of the ‘Golden Shop’ in Jalan Pluit Timur Raya, North Jakarta, with the initials L.W.,” Sr. Comr. Alex Mandalika, the deputy director of the economic crimes unit, said on Friday. “He has been charged under the 1990 Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation Law.”

L.W. faces up to five years in jail, but only a relatively modest maximum fine of Rp 100 million ($9,000). His store allegedly sold tigers’ teeth, shark fins, turtle shells and tobacco pipes made of ivory. Police confiscated several tigers’ teeth and 27 ivory pipes.

“They were sold expensively in rupiah and dollar denominations,” National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said. “The owner also had an online store at www.jakartagoldenkong.com.” Smuggling and trade in endangered animals is rampant in Indonesia and neighboring countries.

Last month, Philippines authorities said they seized nearly 100 exotic animals smuggled into the south of the country, the second such haul in just two weeks. A total of 93 animals from Indonesia and Australia were seized by maritime police in the waters off the island of Mindanao and included vulnerable and critically endangered species.

Among the creatures confiscated were 66 wild birds including a rare Pesquet’s parrot — found only in the New Guinea highlands — as well as assorted reptiles and mammals, including a long-beaked echidna, also native to New Guinea.

The seizure came just a week after wildlife officers, also in the southern Philippines, found almost 100 similar animals from Australia and Indonesia being transported by van to Manila.

In January, Aceh Police said they confiscated specimens of protected wildlife that had been preserved to be sold to collectors. In that case police arrested two people on charges of trading in protected animals.

The stuffed animals seized included two Sumatran tigers, a honey bear, a leopard, a hornbill, a clouded leopard, a muntjac or barking deer, antelopes and two golden cats.

At the time, the Aceh Police said investigators would move to expand the case. Based on information received from the suspects, the preserved animals were meant to be sold to a specific network of buyers of preserved animals. News of further arrests has, however, not been forthcoming.

Police officers said that stuffed Sumatran tigers sell for around Rp 80 million, while a clouded leopard is worth around Rp 20 million. Twice last year Jakarta Police raided warehouses of stuffed protected wildlife, including Sumatran tigers, leopards, deer and antelopes.

Source: thejakartaglobe.com

Exotic Animals for Sale Price List

Wildlife Trafficking

 ** Click to view value source

1. Illegal Wildlife Trade Value:                                                $19 Billion
• African Elephants Poached per Day :                  Nearly 100 per day
• Number of Rhinos Killed in 2013 :                                             1,004
• Price of Elephant Ivory :                                     $850 per kilo in Asia

• EXOTIC ANIMALS PRICE in U.S. DOLLARS

• Abalone:$52 per kilogram
• African Grey Parrot:$2,000
• Arowana Fish:$20,000
• Australian Lizard:$7,500
• Baby Elephant in Thailand:$7,000
• Bear - Complete :$4,500 in Taiwan
• Bear Bile:$200,000 per pound
• Bear Paws:$50 for set of 4
• Black Cockatoo:$31,000 in Australia
• Butterfly (Queen Alexandra):$8,195
• Chimpanzee (Live):$50
• Clouded Leopard:$5,700 in China
• Dog Meat:$29 in Vietnam
• Elephant:$28,200
• Elephant Tusk:$1,800 in Vietnam
• Frog Legs:$11 for a dozen pairs in France
• Geckos from New Zealand:$1,300 in Europe
• Geckos in the Philippines:$2,300
• Gila Monster:$1,500
• Gorillas:$400,000
• Iguanas:$10,600
• Ivory:$850 per kilo in Asia
• Ivory with Carvings:$3,000 per kilo
• Komodo Dragon:$30,000
• Leopard:$5,000
• Leopard Tortoise:$403
• Monkey in Europe:$123
• Monkey in Thailand:$55
• Orangutan:$45,000
• Owl:$250 in India
• Pangolin:$1,000
• Pangolin - Meat:$300 per kilogram
• Pangolin - Scales:$3,000 per kilogram
• Panther:$5,000
• Ploughshare Tortoise:$4,000
• Polar Bear Skin:$7,760 to $9,930
• Puppies trafficked from Ireland:$255 to $1,275 in the UK.
• Rhino Horn Dagger:$14,000
• Rhino Horns:$97,000 per kilogram
• Rhino Horns (Crushed for medicine powder):$10 in Vietnam
• Shark Fins:$100 per kilogram
• Sloths:$30 in Colombia
• Snake Venom:$215,175 per liter
• Snakes (Banded kraits):$2,190 in India
• Snow Leopard Pelt:$1,000 in Afghanistan
• Spotted Salamander:$103 on the Internet
• Tiger (Dead):$5,000
• Tiger (Live):$50,000
• Tiger - Baby:$3,200
• Tiger Bone:$2,000
• Tiger Bone Wine:$88
• Tiger Penis:$1,300
• Tiger Remains:$70,000 in China
• Tiger Skin:$35,000
• Tortoises:$10,000 in Madagascar
• Totoaba Fish - Bladder:$200,000 in China
• Turtle - Chinese Golden Coin:$20,000
• Turtle Eggs:$1 in Costa Rica

       Source:havocscope.com

Countries fail to protect endangered species from illegal trade

WILDLIFE CRIME SCORECARD 2012 © WWF / Martin Harvey

Geneva – Poor performances by key countries are threatening the survival of wild rhinos, tigers and elephants, a new WWF report has found. The analysis, released as governments gather in Geneva this week to discuss a range of issues related to wildlife trade, rates 23 of the top African and Asian nations facing high levels of poaching and trafficking in ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts.

The report, entitled Wildlife Crime Scorecard: Assessing Compliance with and Enforcement of CITES Commitments for Tigers, Rhinos and Elephants, examines of the many countries considered as range, transit or consumer countries for these species. It gives countries scores of green, yellow or red for each animal, as applicable, as an indicator of recent progress. WWF has found that illegal trade persists in virtually all 23 countries reviewed, but the scorecard seeks to differentiate between countries where it is actively being countered from those where current efforts are entirely inadequate.

Worst scored countries 

Among the worst performers is Viet Nam that received two red scores, for rhinos and tigers. Viet Nam is identified in the report as the top destination country for rhino horn, which has fuelled a poaching crisis in South Africa. A record 448 South African rhinos were killed for their horns in 2011 and the country, which itself receives a yellow for rhinos, has lost an additional 262 already this year. According to the report, many Vietnamese have been arrested or implicated in South Africa for acquiring rhino horns illegally, including Vietnamese diplomats.

“It is time for Viet Nam to face the fact that its illegal consumption of rhino horn is driving the widespread poaching of endangered rhinos in Africa, and that it must crack down on the illegal rhino horn trade. Viet Nam should review its penalties and immediately curtail retail markets, including Internet advertising for horn,” said Elisabeth McLellan, Global Species Programme manager at WWF.

Inadequate enforcement of domestic ivory markets in China is also highlighted in the report. China receives a yellow score for elephants indicating a failure by the country to effectively police its legal ivory markets. “The ongoing flow of large volumes of illegal ivory to China suggests that such ivory may be moving into legal ivory trade channels,” the report says. Read more : panda.org

Kenya: Illegal Trade Is a Threat to Wildlife

 

If we were to go by the recent wildlife-related news headlines, we might easily conclude that Kenya's fabled wildlife resource is being rapidly depleted. And from this it would be tempting to extrapolate that very soon we will read of the death of the last rhino or the last elephant living in the wild. As it happens, nothing could be further from the truth. Kenya's wildlife populations may have suffered a catastrophic decline over the past 30 years or so: but that was more or less inevitable, given the steep rise in our human population, leading to a widespread human-wildlife conflict, which the wild animals were bound to lose. We are now pretty close to stablising these wildlife populations.

And although it is quite common to see the nation's wildlife written about in grandiose poetic terms ("our priceless heritage" etc.) if you want to understand what is happening to Kenya's wildlife populations, you have to abandon poetry and consider the issues in a cold, dry light. Game parks have to be seen as an "alternative land use" to small scale farming or ranching; the wild animals must be seen as a "natural resource"; and the whole setup of wild animals and panoramic landscapes have to be considered as "environmental assets".

Without such a perspective, it is impossible to have a serious discussion on the science and the economics underlying the existence of Kenya's wildlife and game parks. Now in Kenya, the continued survival of our wildlife is threatened by three factors, none of which yield to easy solutions: First is the rapid human population increase. It is true that our current average is about four children for every adult woman (down from seven children per woman just two decades). But, for a country in which most people are still reliant on small-scale agriculture for their income, we are still too many people living on too little land.

The second threat is the general poverty of the rural population. And given that it is these rural places that the game parks and wildlife conservancies are to be found, it is actually quite amazing that the levels of poaching are not higher than they presently are. Why would a poor man, whose family has a pretty good chance of going hungry on any given night, restrain himself from killing an antelope which would be, effectively, a week's supply of free meat? And why would not a group of villagers, if approached by a middle-man, not seek to bring down an elephant if they knew that this animal's tusks would fetch them more money than their small farms can make them in a year? Read more: allafrica.com