Greatest threat to Asia's wildlife is hunting, scientists say

KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, THAILAND -- Citing such examples as Vietnam, where a dozen large mammals and birds have gone locally extinct since the end of the Indochina War, a group of experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have declared uncontrolled hunting and trade the greatest threat to wildlife and wild lands in Asia. The group, which held a workshop in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park last week, said that recent data from long-term studies show that throughout Southeast Asia and Indochina, current patterns of hunting and wildlife trade are not sustainable, and could lead to more extinction of wildlife. The workshop brought together WCS wildlife experts from nine countries across Asia (China, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India), joined by global wildlife hunting and trade experts from WCS's headquarters at the Bronx Zoo in New York. WCS conservationists noted that the global scale of illegal wildlife trade is enormous; the annual trade in wildlife related products is about U.S. $8 billion, a scale surpassed only by the illegal trade in drugs and arms. At the same time, local subsistence consumption of wild game (frequently called "bushmeat" continues to grow at an alarming level.

"Asia is way ahead of the curve when it comes to wildlife trade: in Africa bushmeat is a critical problem because wildlife is still locally abundant," said Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, director of the WCS Hunting and Wildlife Trade Program and co-organizer of the meeting. In Asia decades of unconstrained hunting and trade mean that we are seeing the end of the game in many countries across the region, This is just the first stage of the losses, warns WCS. "Across Asia, many species are living in only a small fraction of their original habitat. If hunting persists in these areas we will see a huge wave of extinction in the next two decades." noted Dr. Joshua Ginsberg, director of WCS's Asia and Africa Programs.

"All that will be left are silent forests, empty of the birds and mammals that are critical to the health of the forest," added Dr. Madhu Rao, co-organizer of the workshop.

Throughout the 1980's and 1990's many conservationists and development experts argued that sustainable use of wildlife would lead to its conservation. But recent data show that Wildlife trade is rampant, and often uncontrolled, across South and Southeast Asia. That hunting and wildlife trade can lead to extinction of wildlife species is a real, not a theoretical problem.

Some examples: hunting has put half of Asia's turtles on the endangered species list, and threatens tigers and their prey across the continent. Over a million kilograms (more than 2 million pounds) of snakes are imported to Shanghai, China, each year serving as a luxury food item for that city's burgeoning middle class. The international trade in birds is astonishing in its scale, with over 350,000 sold in a Jakarta, Indonesia market annually, and 276 species sold annually in Bangkok's Weekend Market.

For those people in Asia who still rely on wildlife for their daily protein, uncontrolled trade is threatening their livelihoods, according to WCS. Trans-boundary trade in wildlife threatens food security in parts of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. In a single province in Laos, $3.6 million of wildlife is exported annually, including pangolins, cats, bears and primates (Lao PDR GNP is U.S. $1 billion).

Immediate action is needed to ensure the survival of Asia's wildlife, and Asia' forests. Wildlife Conservation Society workshop participants made three core recommendations:

• Every country in the region (except Lao PDR) is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Governments must renew their commitment to meeting their treaty obligations under CITES.

• Commercial trade of wildlife must be severely restricted or eliminated across much of the region, through both national policies and international collaborations.

• Governments throughout the region must strengthen their capacity to protect wildlife in protected areas and forest reserves, through good law enforcement and education.

FOR ELECTRONIC IMAGES AND FACT SHEET: WWW.WCS.ORG/ASIAHUNTING

CONTACT: (U.S.) STEPHEN SAUTNER (718-220-3682; ssautner@wcs.org) (Asia) DR. ELIZABETH BENNETT(lizwcs@pd.jaring.my) DR. ANTONY LYNAM (+66-1-823-3606 tlynam@wcs.org)

---

---