FW:Animals for sale: Endangered species traded in Indonesia

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Animals for sale: Endangered species traded in

Indonesia

April 8, 2002 Posted: 1:31 PM HKT (0531 GMT)

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Peering out from a filthy

cage filled with animal droppings and rotting bits of

food, the siamang gibbon stretches out a long black

hairy arm to grab a banana offered by one of the four

men who keep this endangered primate imprisoned while

they search for a buyer.

 

These animal traders are part of an illegal

multi-million dollar business in Indonesia, which has

more endangered primates than any other country.

 

Animal rights activists say Jakarta's Pramuka Market

-- a five minute walk from where the siamang gibbon is

held in a ramshackle house stacked with cages -- is

Asia's largest black market for rare animals.

 

" You want baby orangutans? " said a market vendor who

identified himself only as Iwan.

 

" How about a siamang gibbon? Better be quick, I've

sold five already today. If there is anything you

want, we can get it for you, " Iwan added.

 

The total value of Indonesia's illegal animal trade is

unknown, but animal activists say hundreds of

creatures are sold each month despite their protection

under the Convention on International Trade on

Endangered Species, known as CITES.

 

Illegal trade rampant

Demand for rare animals is great; they are sold as

pets or valuable collectors' items and for use as food

or medicine.

 

Typical is the siamang, the largest of the gibbon

apes, with long arms for swinging in trees. The cute

siamang babies are popular as pets, but owners often

abandon the full-grown animal, which can be a meter

tall (three feet) and has a loud piercing cry.

 

Environmentalists say a shrinking habitat also

threatens Indonesia's rare species. The lush forests

are rapidly disappearing due to urban expansion and

uncontrolled logging.

 

Corruption and political instability further

compromise animal safety.

 

Often the wild animals wind up at the Pramuka Market,

which covers an area the size of a football field in

East Jakarta. Established in 1967 as a bird market, it

has sold all manner of creatures since the 1980s.

 

Overlooking it is a remnant of failed campaigns to

combat the illegal trade -- a faded billboard

threatening sellers and buyers of endangered animals

with five years imprisonment.

 

Market officials insist that only legal animals are

sold, but shady transactions regularly take place in

the markets' back alleys.

 

" The illegal trade of endangered animals is rampant

here, " said Will Smith, an activist with the

Liechtenstein-based Gibbon Foundation, which focuses

its efforts on Indonesia.

 

Endangered animals 'fashionable'

Animal activists face a big challenge in Indonesia.

Protecting endangered animals is not a major concern

of officials, and illegal items made from animals are

openly marketed.

 

Department stores display jewelry and knickknacks

fashioned from giant turtles and elephants' tusks, and

hawkers approach drivers at busy downtown

intersections, offering terrified animals like the

cuscus, a small marsupial, for as little as 250,000

rupiahs ($25).

 

Newspapers and online media sites publish classified

ads under " collector's items " offering rare animals or

just parts of them.

 

A stuffed Sumatran tiger has one of the largest price

tags at around $2,500. Even pieces of this magnificent

creature are for sale -- tiger's penises are sold as

aphrodisiacs, and ground up bones, claws and teeth go

into traditional Chinese remedies for arthritis and

rheumatism.

 

The World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia is planning a

major campaign starting next month to raise awareness

of endangered animals, focusing on the plight of the

tigers along with as orangutans and rhinoceroses.

 

The fund says an average of 33 Sumatran tigers are

killed every year and the species could become extinct

by 2010. The Javan Rhino, once abundant in Southeast

Asia, is now on the critically endangered list.

Hunters slaughter it merely for its horn, a valued

ingredient in Asian medicine.

 

Fewer than 20,000 orangutans are left in Indonesia

because hundreds of the orange-haired apes are

smuggled each year to the United States and other

industrialized countries, fetching up to $30,000.

 

Baby orangutans are the most popular -- and most

vulnerable. Smugglers usually ship five babies

together, sedated in a cardboard box, to ensure that

at least one survives the long, arduous journey by

boat.

 

Chairul Saleh, a senior campaigner for the nature

fund, said the new campaign of information about rare

species must go beyond the usual cooperation with

authorities to catch smugglers.

 

" We want to cut off the trade from the consumer side, "

he said. " We want to make endangered animals deeply

unfashionable. "

 

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.

 

 

 

 

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