BANGKOK -- The
multibillion-dollar trade in illegal wildlife — clandestine trafficking
that has driven iconic creatures like the tiger to near-extinction — is
also threatening the survival of great apes, a new U.N. report says.
Endangered chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos are
disappearing from the wild in frightening numbers, as private owners pay
top dollar for exotic pets, while disreputable zoos, amusement parks
and traveling circuses clamor for smuggled primates to entertain
audiences.
More than 22,000 great apes are estimated to have been traded
illegally over a seven-year period ending in 2011. That's about 3,000 a
year; more than half are chimpanzees, the U.N. report said.
"These great apes make up an important part of our natural heritage.
But as with all things of value, great apes are used by man for
commercial profit and the illegal trafficking of the species constitutes
a serious threat to their existence," Henri Djombo, a government
minister from the Republic of Congo, was quoted as saying.
The U.N. report paints a dire picture of the fight to protect
vulnerable and dwindling flora and fauna from organized criminal
networks that often have the upper hand.
Apes are hunted in their own habitats, which are concentrated in
central and western Africa, by sophisticated smugglers who transport
them on private cargo planes using small airstrips in the African bush.
Their destination is usually the Middle East and Asia.
In countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
and Lebanon, great apes are purchased to display as show pieces in
private gardens and menageries.
In Asia, the animals are typically destined for public zoos and
amusement parks. China is a main destination for gorillas and
chimpanzees. Thailand and Cambodia have recorded cases of orangutans
being used for entertainment in "clumsy boxing matches," the report
said.
Lax enforcement and corruption make it easy to smuggle the animals
through African cities like Nairobi, Kenya, and Khartoum, Sudan, which
are trafficking hubs. Bangkok, the Thai capital, is a major hub for the
orangutan trade.
Conditions are usually brutal. In February 2005, customs officials at
the Nairobi airport seized a large crate that had arrived from Egypt.
The crate held six chimpanzees and four monkeys, stuffed into tiny
compartments. The crate had been refused at the airport in Cairo, a
well-known trafficking hub for shipment to the Middle East, and returned
to Kenya. One chimp died of hunger and thirst.
The proliferation of logging and mining camps throughout Africa has
also increased the demand for primate meat. Adults and juveniles are
killed for consumption, and their orphans are captured to sell into the
live trade. Villagers also pluck primates out of rural areas to sell in
the cities.
Humans also have been encroaching upon and destroying the primates'
natural habitats, destroying their forest homes to build infrastructure
and for other purposes. That forces the animals to move into greater
proximity and conflict with people.
Sometimes animals are even the victims of war.
Arrests are rare largely because authorities in Africa, where most
great apes originate, do not have the policing resources to cope with
the criminal poaching networks. Corruption is rampant and those in
authority sometimes are among those dealing in the illegal trade.
Between 2005 and 2011, only 27 arrests were made in Africa and Asia.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulates the trade of animals and plants to
ensure their survival. Under the agreement, trade in great apes caught
in the wild is illegal. But traffickers often get around that by falsely
declaring animals as bred in captivity.
The orangutan is the only great ape found in Asia. One species, the
Sumatran orangutan, is critically endangered, with its population having
dropped by 80 percent over the last 75 years. Their numbers are in
great peril due to the pace of land clearance and forest destruction for
industrial or agricultural use.
The report estimates that nearly all of the orangutan's natural habitat will be disturbed or destroyed by the year 2030.
"There are no wild spaces left
for them," said Douglas Cress, a co-author of the report and head of a
U.N. sponsored program that works for the survival of great apes.
"There'll be nothing left at this rate. It's down to the bone. If it
disappears, they go, too."
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