Source : The Nation, Thailand, 04 Feb 2007
By : Kamol Sukin
  

"Both the magnitude of the trade and its suppression are increasing," Police Lt-Colonel Thanayod Kengkasikij, chief of the Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU), said recently.

Criminal cases have risen from just five per year during 2003 and 2004 to 14 last year.

"The growing number of arrests is largely the result of our higher efficiency in suppression," Thanayod said.

Cooperation among key authorities involved in wildlife-trade suppression improved considerably after the global Cites meeting was hosted by Bangkok in December 2005 and the government pledged to be the leader in tackling the illegal wildlife trade in the Asean region.

Thailand initiated the first meeting among Asean environment ministers and established the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-WEN).

"Unlike before when the authorities worked separately, they now work as a team under our technical consultation. Now we see a positive move in suppressing this illegal trade," said Tassanee Vejpongsa, a communications officer at the environmental group WildAid.

"In the past, we lacked information on the illegal wildlife trade. Once we learned more about it, it was not difficult for us to take responsibility in dealing with the problem," customs officer Kreecha Kirdsriphan said.

The three key players in the wildlife-trade suppression effort are the National Police, the Customs Department and the Office of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). The National Park, Fisheries and Agriculture departments also have important roles.

"We sent our officials to stand by at important checkpoints, airports and ports around the country, to work closely with customs officers and police. The monitoring got a lot stricter during the past year and will be even tighter from now on," Cites official Watana Vetayaprasit said.

WildAid's Tassanee said the biggest venue for illegal wildlife sales is right in Bangkok, at the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

"The fashion of keeping exotic pets is the main catalyst for the huge demand in the illegal wildlife trade," she said.

Among the various rare species on sale, birds are the most popular, especially black-crested bulbuls, she said.

"Those buyers don't know that how cruelly the species were captured and how many of them perished before reaching Chatuchak. We will focus on educating the public about this issue, informing people about the ecological damage if these species disappear," Tassanee said.

Cites official Watana said his office would soon launch a publicity campaign to stop illegal wildlife trafficking at the heart of the trade, Chatuchak.

Among the exotic pets sold at Chatuchak are endangered pig-nosed turtles, star tortoises and arapaima fish.

Last Wednesday, 1,043 endangered pig-nosed turtles, 248 snake-necked turtles, 131 star tortoises and 33 arapaima were rescued at the Pran Buri checkpoint in Prachuap Khiri Khan. The animals were being smuggled by bus heading for Bangkok, Thanayod said.

Thailand is also a transit country for cross-border illegal wildlife trading, customs officer Kreecha said.

According to Kreecha and Thanayod, tigers and pangolins are also heavily trafficked, although not so much as exotic pets.

Last June, 245 pangolins were intercepted at Bangkok International Airport together with 63 black marsh turtles and a Malayan snail-eating turtle.

The scaly anteaters were on their way from Penang, Malaysia to Vietnam and were probably ultimately destined for China, the biggest customer of pangolins.

"It is a Chinese traditional belief that eating pangolins is good for health and luck. Their scales are also used as an ingredient in Chinese medicine," Tassanee said.

For tigers, both live animals and bones have been recovered. Tiger bone is also used for medicinal purposes, the wildlife campaigner said.

"We are now trying to improve cooperation among Asean countries to stop this illegal trade," Thanayod said.

For five days beginning tomorrow, Thanayod will join Thai representatives at a meeting in Cebu in the Philippines to report on progress under Asean-WEN and to encourage each member country to appoint a "focal-point authority" to wage the battle against illegal wildlife trading in the region.

After the Cebu meeting, the second official Asean-WEN meeting will be held in Indonesia, Tassanee said.

"Apart from Thailand, four other Asean countries have established task forces to interdict illegal wildlife shipments. They are the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia," she said.

Despite impressive progress, authorities are facing budget and human-resource limits.

"We work based on a normal budget and save money as much as possible," Watana and Kreecha said.

"Our 400 [natural resource] police receive only Bt800 per person to work. It's not enough to investigate such complicated cases," Thanayod said.

The wildlife police chief said he was turning his focus on ferreting out the real traders.

"Today we can catch only workers or drivers. We will work harder on tracing back to the traders, with greater cooperation among authorities domestically and regionally," he said.

Thanayod said the trade pattern would shift from selling through public markets like Chatuchak to direct sales in the near future. An animal's photo will be taken and sent to a customer via the Internet before the price is negotiated and the product delivered.

"This will make our work a lot more difficult," he said.

"The problem is becoming more and more complex. Yes, we might not be able to stop the trade now. But I believe that all of our efforts will make the traders realise that trading wildlife in Thailand is not as easy as before," Tassanee said.

Cites official Watana said, apart from suppression, his office will try to stop the illegal wildlife trade by educating the public as well as by promoting research into commercially raising certain endangered species in order to stop the trading of endangered species in the wild.