Illegal trade endangering many species

Undercover operations to expose the illegal trade in protected species are rescuing thousands of animals and decreasing demand for their pelts and body parts, but the operations also are provoking violence from criminal gangs.

A recent report by the international environmental organization Wild Aid revealed a series of gang-style killings related to the shark-fin trade in East Asia, a market dominated by Chinese triads.

In August, five person were killed in Fiji, apparently fighting for space in the black market. In February, a man sentenced to house arrest was slain in his home in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the “Chinese mafia shark-fin war,” the report said.

The Russian mafia and Latin American drug cartels also participate in illegal wildlife trade, while some poaching groups specializing in smuggling plants and animals or their parts using drug- and gun-smuggling routes.

In Europe, enforcement agents have been shot in gunfights with gangs, and in Latin America, several drug shipments have been discovered mixed with animals or plants. Snakes with bags of drugs inside are just a sample, according to a previous report by Traffic, of the World Wildlife Fund.

It showed, too, that the past two Chinese anti-poaching leaders in Tibet have been slain and that anti-poaching teams in many countries are often targets of assassination.

This type of trade is attracting organized criminals because of the high profits (up to 800 percent in some cases) and the lack of serious punishment, which leads to an estimated trade worth at least $6 billion annually in the world black markets.

“It’s the most profitable illegal trade after drugs and guns,” said Peter Knights, executive director of Wild Aid.

An example is rhinoceros horns, with prices of up to $40,000 per kilo, more than five times the price of gold, according to the organization Asian Conservation Awareness Program (ACAP). Not surprisingly, 97 percent of the world’s rhinos were lost in the past 30 years.

Animals are wanted for food; for their skins, organs and bones; as exotic pets; or for traditional medicine in Asia. Several species are being pushed to the edge of extinction. The main markets are probably the United States and China.

In Cambodia, from 2001 to 2002, Wild Aid rescued 8,250 animals from illegal traders, helped apprehend 239 criminals and confiscate 1.3 tons of fresh meat and two tons of dried animal parts.

About 100 million sharks and shark-like fish are caught every year, and about 50 percent of them have their fins sliced off while still alive. Then, they are thrown back into the sea, where they sink and slowly die, so the rest of their bodies is wasted.

The fins are used for soup, an expensive delicacy in some parts of Asia, but finning has increased so much in recent years that fins are used even for canned cat food, said the Wild Aid report.

Wild Aid recently urged the United Nations to ban this widespread practice in international waters because all shark species have declined by more than 50 percent (in some cases by 80 percent) in the past 15 years.

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