Recent media coverage of TRAFFIC
Bangkok Black Market in World's Rarest Tortoise Uncovered
BANGKOK, Thailand, April 25, 2008 (ENS) - The Royal Thai Police raided the Chatuchak market in Bangkok earlier this month and seized a wide variety of illegally traded wildlife, including three of the world's rarest tortoises, after the findings of an investigation by a wildlife monitoring network operated by international conservation organizations was shared with them. But the black market in these species continues even after the raid, say conservationists.
The report was published Thursday by the wildlife monitoring network, TRAFFIC, a joint program of the global conservation organizations WWF and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, which maintains the Red List of Threatened Species.
A variety of rare tortoises for sale at Bangkok's Chatuchak Market (Photo by Chris Shepherd courtesy TRAFFIC)
"We congratulate the Royal Thai Police on their recent raid," said Chris Shepherd, senior programme officer for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and a co-author of the report. "But recent information indicates the illegal trade continues, and we encourage the authorities to keep the pressure on."
The police siezed wildlife including 18 radiated tortoises and three ploughshare tortoises, prized as pets. The ploughshare tortoise, Astrochelys yniphora, is considered the world’s rarest tortoise, and all international trade in ploughshare tortoises is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES.
Surveys by TRAFFIC investigators of Chatuchak Market, also known as the JJ or Weekend Market, found that 25 out of 27 freshwater turtles and tortoises species for sale were non-native, most of them illegally imported into the country.
During one visit to the Chatuchak Market, a dealer told a TRAFFIC researcher, without any prompting, how to smuggle turtles and tortoises out of Bangkok.
"Dealers stated openly that many specimens were smuggled into and out of Thailand," said Shepherd. "They even offered potential buyers advice on how to smuggle reptiles through customs and onto airplanes."
The most commonly seen species at the Chatuchak Market was the radiated tortoise, Astrochelys radiata, a species found in the wild only on the African island of Madagascar.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-25-01.asp
China Cracks Down on Illegal Online Wildlife Trade
Eliza Barclay for National Geographic News
29 February 2008
Authorities in China recently launched a crackdown on Web sites that openly trade in animal products made from threatened species, experts say.
The move follows pressure from two international wildlife advocacy groups, which found thousands of items made from protected species for sale on major Chinese Internet auction sites in 2007.
As a result of the investigation, Chinese officials have already shut down several online auctions selling banned goods, said Grace Gabriel, Asia regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), who is based in Beijing.
"There has been progress in identifying auctions selling illegal products," she said.
"But Chinese authorities still need a lot of help with enforcement."
Thousands of Ads
IFAW and TRAFFIC, the international wildlife-trade monitoring network, conducted two recent studies of China's Internet auctions that led to this year's crackdown.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080229-china-internet.html
Group: Tiger Parts Sold in Indonesia
By MICHAEL CASEY – Feb 12, 2008
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — The critically endangered Sumatran tiger will become extinct unless Indonesia takes swift action to clamp down on the illegal sale of the big cats' body parts across the Southeast Asian country, conservationists say.
TRAFFIC, a British-based international wildlife trade monitoring network, said it found tiger bones, claws, skins and whiskers being sold openly in eight cities on Indonesia's Sumatra island in 2006, despite tough laws banning such trade.
The group estimated that 23 tigers had been killed to supply the parts found for sale in souvenir, Chinese medicine and jewelry stores. Prices ranged from the equivalent of $14 for a tiger claw to about $52.50 per pound of tiger bones.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j7G_khJGuIiLXDdVGeWy9ulCHmKQD8UP6J8O2
Refugee link to wildlife decline
BBC News
22 January 2008
By Richard Black, environment correspondent, BBC News website
A report from the wildlife trade monitoring body Traffic says wild meat is covertly traded, cooked and consumed in Tanzanian refugee camps.
Traffic suspects species affected may include chimpanzee, buffalo and zebra.
Tanzania hosts more refugees than any other African nation, a legacy of conflicts in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The UN says there are more than half a million refugees in the country, mainly living in camps near the western border.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7201603.stm
SEAsia's illegal pet trade threatens turtles: experts
AFP
8 January 2008
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — A surge in demand for exotic freshwater turtles and tortoises in Southeast Asia is fuelling rampant illegal trade in the animals in Indonesia, wildlife experts warned Tuesday. TRAFFIC Southeast Asia said its investigators discovered that 48 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises were sold in Indonesia's capital Jakarta and the vast majority were illegally obtained. The wildlife trade monitoring group said they included all six of Indonesia's fully protected freshwater turtles and five non-native species listed in the CITES convention, which bans all commercial international trade.
TRAFFIC's senior programme officer Chris R. Shepherd urged Indonesia to step up enforcement to stop the illegal trade and nab the criminals.
"The open trade in protected species indicates a lack of enforcement effort and blatant disregard for the law. Dealers admitted to TRAFFIC that freshwater turtles and tortoises are smuggled in and out of Indonesia with ease," he said...
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6n0q_M96AFt2ujlR7iFfs6Hg-SQ
China Spurring Illegal Timber Trade in Tanzania
Eliza Barclay in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
for National Geographic News
December 21, 2007
China's growing hunger for timber may wipe out much of Tanzania's commercially valuable forests in two decades, scientists warn...
...China accounted for all indigenous hardwood logs and three-quarters of sawn wood and raw material exported between July 2005 and January 2006, according to a report released in May by TRAFFIC International, a joint program of the conservation nonprofit WWF and the World Conservation Union (IUCN)...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071221-tanzania-logging_2.html
Regulating fishing on the agenda
Camacho: End the destructive fishing practices
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News 03/12/2007
About two dozen countries and several island governments that have stakes in the continued viability of tuna stock across Pacific Ocean are meeting on Guam this week.
...As the session opened, a report by conservationist groups WWF Australia and TRAFFIC International calls attention to the stock status of bigeye tuna.
In the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, bigeye tuna is fully exploited, according to the report "With an Eye to the Future: Addressing Failures in the Global Management of Bigeye Tuna."... http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/NEWS01/712040309/1002
Wild Salmon Illegally Caught in Russia and Shipped to the U.S.
Russian salmon export figures don't add up according to TRAFFIC and
World Wildlife Fund
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- East Asian countries are
importing between 50 and 90 percent more Russian Sockeye salmon than Russia
is reporting as caught and much of it is destined for the U.S. according to
a new report from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and WWF.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/11-13-2007/0004703990&EDATE=
