The poster that may save India’s parrots

Blanket ban on trading in all Indian bird species

February 2012: A parrot in captivity is one of the more visible symbols of illegal trade in India, where all native wildlife receives full protection. To help enforcement officers identify native parrot species, TRAFFIC India has produced an identification poster.

Identification of parrots and other species in trade is a major challenge, but the new poster will help enforcement officers identify the 12 native Indian parrot species. The posters will be distributed to Police, Customs, Forest Departments, Railway Protection Forces, educational institutions such as schools and colleges.

Despite the blanket ban since 1990-91 on trade in all India's bird species, hundreds of parrots are collected and traded each year. They are taken from the wild and smuggled to various parts of the country and beyond. The bulk of the trade is in three to four week old chicks.

Huge demand in the pet tradeParrots are caught using nets and bird-lime. Adult parrots are traded throughout the year, with chicks arriving in trade between December and June. For every bird that reaches the market place, several are believed to die en route.

For centuries, parrots have been kept as pets mainly because they are straightforward to look after and easy to replace because of the large numbers in trade. This has in turn created demand that has led to an organised illegal trade in parrots.

Abrar Ahmed, ornithologist and a bird trade consultant to TRAFFIC India said: ‘The Alexandrine Parakeet is one of the most sought after species in the Indian live bird trade and is traded in large volumes throughout the year. The chicks are collected from forested areas and transported to bird markets in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Patna, Lucknow and Kolkata.

Read more:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/india-parrot.html

1,500 live turtles found crammed into suitcases

Seized at Indonesia's Mopah Airport

February 2012: Close to 1,500 live pig-nosed turtles have been seized at an airport in Indonesia.

The 1,495 turtles were concealed inside two suitcases and discovered at Mopah Airport en route to Jakarta, the nation's capital and a major hub for illicit wildlife trade.

Valued as pets, and possibly consumed as meat in some countries, pig-nosed turtles are smuggled out of Indonesia by the thousands.

Kept as pets, eaten, or used in traditional medicineSources allege that shipments such as this one are common, with dealers in Jakarta buying the turtles from hunters and agents in Papua, then selling them on to dealers and retailers abroad. Many are destined for the pet markets of East Asia, to places such as Hong Kong, where demand for this species is rising. The turtles are often concealed in shipments of tropical aquarium fish.

There are also indications that many of the turtles are bound for the kitchen table, or to be used in traditional medicines.

Although pig-nosed turtles are totally protected in Indonesia, making collection for export illegal, the trade large scale persists.

Illegal reptile trade is rife in IndonesiaClose to 3,500 pig-nosed turtles were seized in February 2010 in Jakarta, while in October last year, more than 600 seized in Hong Kong were returned to Indonesia for reintroduction to the wild. Most, however, once removed from their native habitat, never make it back.

‘The authorities involved in intercepting this shipment are to be congratulated,' said Chris Shepherd, deputy regional director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

‘However, the fact that dealers continue to smuggle shipments of this size indicates a serious problem in Indonesia, where illegal reptile trade is rife.'

The Pig-nosed turtle is threatened by habitat degradation and by illegal and unsustainable harvest for local consumption and international trade. It is listed as Vulnerable to extinction in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Many protected animals are openly for saleObservations by TRAFFIC in December 2011 of three wildlife markets and a reptile expo in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, found a host of protected and endangered turtles and tortoises openly for sale, plus other protected species of reptiles, mammals and birds.

Among them were 19 green turtles and eight Malaysian giant turtles, both listed as Endangered by IUCN and Totally Protected in Indonesia.

A host of non-native species were also seen, including a single ploughshare tortoise and ten radiated tortoises, both critically endangered species endemic to Madagascar.

‘Illegal and unsustainable trade in turtles and other reptiles in Indonesia is a serious threat to the conservation of many species. Indonesia's enforcement agencies must take firm action against traders in Indonesia flouting the law,' said Shepherd.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/turtle-trade2012.html

2011 Was A ‘Horrible Year For Elephants’

Conservation group TRAFFIC said on Thursday that in the past 12 months a record number of large ivory seizures across the world have taken place.


TRAFFIC said that it has been a “horrible year for elephants” and there had been at least 13 large-scale seizures in 2011, totaling at least 23 tons of ivory.

In 2010, there were just six large seizures, totaling just under 10 tons of ivory.

“In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data for ETIS, this is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures — 2011 has truly been a horrible year for elephants,” Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s elephant expert, said in a statement.

The group said once the details of hundreds of smaller ivory seizures were collated, “2011 could well prove to be the worst year ever for elephants” since the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) database was set up in 1989.

TRAFFIC said most of the illegal shipments of African elephant ivory will end up in China, where it is ground up and used in traditional medicine.

Milliken said the increasing quantities of ivory being traded reflect a rising demand in Asia as well as the increased sophistication of the criminal gangs who sell it.

The gangs constantly change their routes to Asia to avoid detection, including switching from air to sea freight.

“As most large-scale ivory seizures fail to result in any arrests, I fear the criminals are winning,” Milliken said in a statement.

International trade in elephant ivory was banned in 1990, and ETIS holds the details of over 17,000 reported ivory and other elephant product seizures across the world since.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112447124/2011-was-a-horrible-year-for-elephants/