Body Part Trade Seriously Threatening Wildlife

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http://www.anc.org/wildlife/wildlife_article.cfm?identifier=2002_0409_parts

by The Associated Press

Posted on April 9, 2002

 

A rampant trade in animal parts such as rhino horns and bear paws for use in

medicines and gourmet food is the single greatest threat to wildlife in

Asia, an international conservation group warned on Tuesday.

 

The extinction of species hunted for their parts or captured by traffickers

in exotic animals is " a real, not theoretical problem, " said a statement by

Wildlife Conservation Society, which is based at the Bronx Zoo in New York

City.

 

The statement summarized the findings of a four-day meeting held last week

in Thailand by the society's field staff from nine Asian countries and

experts from its New York headquarters.

 

Global trafficking in wildlife is worth an estimated $8 billion annually, a

scale surpassed only by the illegal international trade in drugs and

weapons, said the society. It urged governments in Asia to protect their

wildlife by passing tougher laws, strengthening their enforcement and

improving education.

 

Parts and meat from threatened species - including rhino horns, tiger skin,

bear paws and snake flesh - are valued in many Asian countries as gourmet

foods or ingredients for traditional Chinese medicines and aphrodisiacs.

 

The Wildlife Conservation Society said that hunting has put half of Asia's

turtles on the endangered species list and threatens the existence of tigers

across the continent.

 

" In these areas if hunting persists we will see a huge wave of extinction in

the next two decades, " Joshua Ginsberg, director of the Society's Asia and

Africa programs, was quoted as saying.

 

Over 2.2 million pounds of snakes are imported to Shanghai, China, annually

and served as a luxury food, the statement said.

 

An international trade in exotic birds is the best documented part of the

illegal global trafficking of wildlife, it said. More than 350,000 birds are

sold every year in Indonesia's capital.

 

The statement detailed the increasing impact of the wildlife trade in Asia.

 

Twelve large mammals and birds have been hunted to extinction in Vietnam

since the end of the Indochina war. Indonesia's Sumatran and Java rhinos and

Thailand's Siamese crocodiles are nearly extinct. Over a ton of water snakes

are harvested every day in Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake to feed crocodiles in

nearby farms.

 

 

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