Fw: primfocus: Indonesia: Hub for Endangered Primates

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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-exp-endangered-animals04

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Indonesia: Hub for Endangered Species

By LELY T. DJUHARI .c The Associated Press

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Peering out from a filthy cage filled with animal

droppings and rotting food, the siamang gibbon stretches out a long black

hairy arm to grab a banana offered by one of the four men who keep it

imprisoned while they search for a buyer.

 

These animal traders are part of an illegal multimillion dollar business in

Indonesia, which has more endangered primates like the siamang gibbon 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.

 

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 3 feet tall 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.

 

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 $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 pricetags 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 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 Oriental 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.''

 

On the Net:

 

Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species:

http://www.cites.org/

 

World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia: http://www.wwf.or.id/

 

Gibbon Foundation: http://www.gibbon.or.id/

 

04/21/02 12:02 EDT Copyright 2002 The Associated Press