A New Tool To Combat Wildlife Trafficking in Vietnam

A customs officer uses WildScan to identify a protected Hamilton’s turtle

WildScan was first launched in Thailand last year, but the new availability of the application in Vietnamese language and its upgrade to include many additional species and information related to Vietnam, will support ongoing efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam. The launch is the beginning of a pilot phase to test the upgraded application, and continue to improve it based on feedback and suggestions from relevant agencies.

The mobile application contains a unique identification function, high resolution photos and critical information for over 300 endangered species and illegal wildlife products commonly trafficked into and throughout Southeast Asia, as well as essential animal care instructions and a simple reporting system. It is designed to enable frontline wildlife law enforcement agencies to efficiently and accurately identify, report, and handle animals and animal products caught in the illegal wildlife trade, without the need for large reference books.

The Vietnamese upgrade of WildScan and its launch in Vietnam was supported by the Biodiversity Conservation Agency (BCA) under the Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE); working in collaboration with Freeland, a Bangkok-based counter trafficking organization; under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking (ARREST) program. Read More 

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn

Eco-viaducts are built to facilitate movements of wildlife, but do they work?

A black giant squirrel utilising a wildlife crossing beneath a viaduct.

Banded leaf monkeys photographed under a viaduct – Gopalasamy Reuben Clements

Eco-viaducts are built to facilitate movements of wildlife, but do they work as such? With that question in mind, biologist Dr Gopalasamy Reuben Clements embarked on a research with the Wildlife and National Parks Department.

Between 2011 and 2013, he monitored animal movements through camera traps at 10 viaducts each at the Aring-Tasik Kenyir road in Terengganu and at the Gerik-Kupang road which traverses the Bintang Hijau Range in Perak and Kedah. (Only three of the viaducts were specifically built for animal crossings; the rest are normal viaducts which can also function as such because of the passageway underneath.)

Gopalasamy found the animal crossings being used by almost half the mammal species recorded in nearby forests.

“However, this does not mean that the viaducts are effective crossing structures because some species were recorded just once under the viaduct during our entire study. Also, the same number of species may be crossing the road without the viaduct,” says the associate professor at Kenyir Research Institute in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. Read more

Source: thestar.com.my

World Rhino Day 2014

Birthday package of snake and toads

IPOH: The Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) has seized a “birthday present” containing a viper, 12 toads and various insects at the post office here.

State Perhilitan director Fakhrul Hatta Musa said the gift-wrapped package with words “Happy Birthday” and Selamat Hari Jadi written all around it had three separate transparent plastic containers to keep the animals and bugs.

“The Malaysian Quarantine Inspection Services Department uncovered the animals with a scanner during a routine check at the post office today (Friday) at about 10.30am.

“We discovered that the animals were kept inside the supposed birthday present,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

He said the package, which had been shipped from Taiwan, arrived at the post office on Thursday. Two of the transparent containers for the reptile and amphibians had holes poked in them to allow air in. “We believe that the animals were meant to be kept as pets.

The other box contained the insects which are believed to be used as food for the animals. “We are not sure about the market value for these animals but it is wrong to smuggle them in without permits from the authorities,” he said, declining to reveal the address of the recipient.

Fakhrul Hatta added that they would investigate the matter with other agencies. “The birthday box is a new method used by smugglers to confuse us. “This is the first time we encountered such modus operandi,” he said.

He said anyone found guilty of importing or exporting such animals can be fined a maximum of RM100,000 for each animal and not more than RM1mil on aggregate. They could also face a maximum jail term of seven years together with the fine, he added.

Source: thestar.com.my

No place to hide for Africa's pangolins amid China buying spree

A giant pangolin walks in the woods in Lope National Park in Gabon in this picture provided by Panthera September 14, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/LAILA BAHAA-EL-DIN/PANTHERA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

Slaughtered pangolins are seen on the ground after they were seized by the authority, at an underground garage in Guangzhou, Guangdong province September 11, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER

(Reuters) - Alongside dirt roads twisting through the dense tropical forests of Gabon, the scaly bodies of lifeless long-snouted pangolins dangle from sticks stuck in the ground by hunters.

The pangolin, a mammal that looks like an anteater but has the tough scales of a crocodile, has long been prized in central Africa as a bushmeat delicacy.

But growing demand for it from Asia, where pangolin scales are used in Chinese medicine to help women lactate and to cure skin disorders, now threatens to hasten its demise and rob African countries of a precious resource.

Conservationists say the demand boom is due to declining wild populations in Asia as well as high numbers of Chinese workers in Africa's resource and timber sectors, located in remote regions of the continent's interior.

The example of Africa's elephants, whose numbers have been slashed by demand from Asia for their ivory, have prompted conservations to mobilize to protect the pangolins.

"It's always been ivory but the new pressure is on the pangolin," said Lee White, the British-born head of Gabon's national parks agency, which runs the 13 national parks covering just over a tenth of the country's territory.

"We're looking out for workers here putting out orders for pangolin and we've had to train sniffer dogs at the ports." Read more

Source: http://uk.reuters.com