16
Apr 2009 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Lack
of law enforcement against illegal trade
in Indonesia threatens the survival of orang-utans
and gibbons on Sumatra, a new study by the
wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC
shows.
Despite considerable
investment in wildlife conservation, numbers
of the critically endangered orang-utans
captured mainly for the pet trade exceeded
the levels of the 1970s. A lack of adequate
law enforcement is to blame, TRAFFIC says.
Records of orang-utans
and gibbons put into rehabilitation centers
serve as an indicator of how many of these
animals were illegally held. Meanwhile numbers
continue to decline in the wild, with the
most recent estimate of just 7,300 Sumatran
Orangutans surviving.
Orang-utans, which can
weigh up to around 90 kilograms and reach
1.5 metres in length, end up in such centers
after they become too old and big to be
held as pets. But owners of the reddish-brown
coloured apes do not face any legal consequences.
“Confiscating these
animals without prosecuting the owners is
futile,” said Chris R Shepherd, Acting Director
of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
“There is no deterrent
for those committing these crimes, if they
go unpunished. Indonesia has adequate laws,
but without serious penalties, this illegal
trade will continue, and these species will
continue to spiral towards extinction.”
An estimated 2,000 orang-utans
have been confiscated or turned in by private
owners in Indonesia in the last three decades
but no more than a handful of people have
ever been successfully prosecuted.
Between 2002 and 2008,
for example, the newly opened Sibolangit
rehabilitation centre in Sumatra took in
142 Sumatran orang-utans, while its predecessor,
Bohorok rehabilitation centre accepted just
30 animals between 1995–2001 (when it closed),
and 105 orang-utans between 1973–1979.
“When the first rehabilitation
centres were established for orang-utans
and later for gibbons it was hoped that
with more apes being confiscated, levels
of illegal trade would fall,” said Vincent
Nijman, a TRAFFIC consultant and author
of the report, based at Oxford Brookes University.
“But with hundreds of
orangutans and gibbons present in such centres,
and dozens added every year, it is hard
to view these numbers as anything other
than an indictment against Indonesia’s law
enforcement efforts,” he said.
The report also documents
the 148 Sumatran gibbons and siamangs and
26 Sumatran orang-utans kept in Indonesian
zoos.
“Proper enforcement
of laws protecting orang-utans is critical
in Indonesia” said Wendy Elliott, species
manager at WWF International. “If the situation
continues, the Sumatra orang-utan could
well face extinction.”
The report recommends
that the root causes of trade be examined
and that laws be better implemented for
the protection of orang-utans, gibbons and
the island’s other wildlife.
Sumatra’s wildlife is
also threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation,
logging, land conversion, encroachment,
and forest fires.
WWF is working to reduce
the destruction of wildlife habitat in Sumatra
by working with industry to ensure High
Conservation Value Forests are not converted
for agriculture, empowering local communities
to manage natural resources in a sustainable
way, and providing alternatives.
+ More
Forty percent of global
fisheries catch wasted or unmanaged – WWF
15 Apr 2009 - Gland,
Switzerland - Nearly half of the world’s
recorded fish catch is unused, wasted or
not accounted for, according to estimates
in a new scientific paper co-authored by
WWF, the global conservation organization.
The paper, Defining
and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch,
estimates that each year at least 38 million
tonnes of fish, constituting at least 40%
of what is taken from our oceans by fishing
activities, is unmanaged or unused and should
be considered bycatch.
“The health of our oceans
cannot be restored and fisheries sustainably
managed if 40% of the global fishing catch
is unused or unmanaged,” says James P. Leape,
Director General, WWF International.
When fishing vessels
go to sea, they go after their so called
“target” catch, but as most fishing gear
is unselective, fishing fleets also catch
millions of tonnes of other marine life,
commonly known as bycatch. The catch of
so called “non-target” fish and marine creatures
often occurs with no oversight or management.
In redefining bycatch
as anything fishers take from our oceans
that is “unused or unmanaged,” the paper’s
estimates go well beyond previous global
estimates, which focus mainly on catch which
is thrown away and vary from 7 to 27 million
tonnes a year.
“In many cases, fish
and marine animals are thrown back to sea
dead or dying and currently even if bycatch
is used there is no way to tell whether
it was sustainable to remove it in the first
place. It is an insidious and invisible
form of over-fishing.” says Amanda Nickson,
Leader of WWF’s Bycatch Initiative and co-author
of the paper.
The paper, to be published
in an upcoming edition of the leading journal
of ocean policy studies, Marine Policy,
estimates the proportion of bycatch in 46
fishing countries and two global fisheries,
tuna and shark fin.
In the north-east Atlantic,
for example, a fifth of that region's total
marine catch is tossed overboard. It is
likely that the worst case of wasteful fishing
is seen in fisheries that target sharks
exclusively for their fins where 92% of
what is caught is discarded back in the
ocean.
“In addition to ensuring
that all fishing activities are appropriately
managed, simple, proven methods, such as
more selective fishing gear and observers
on fishing vessels, already exist to reduce
bycatch.” adds Ms Nickson. “But they must
become the rule, as part of long-term sustainable
marine management, and not the exception.”
According to WWF, bycatch
costs fishers time and money contributing
to overfishing, jeopardizing future revenue,
livelihoods, and long-term food security.
It’s also a major killer of marine wildlife,
putting several species at risk of extinction
and drastically altering the sensitive balance
of marine ecosystems.
The conservation organization
believes that every form of fishing, and
the removal of all marine life from our
oceans, should be managed for sustainability,
and that anything taken from the ocean by
fishing activity is considered part of that
fishing effort.
