"Asia's wildlife is being sold on a massive scale throughout the region for food, medicines and pets, and populations of many species are declining or facing local extinction," said WCS scientist Dr Melvin Gumal, a participant at COP-7 and Director of WCS's Malaysia Program.
The trade includes everything from small songbirds sold as pets, to reptiles sold on a massive scale for their skins and their meat, to animal parts for medicinal use. Even species once thought of as common are becoming rare as they are being trapped, shot or snared and sent to the marketplace. The result is loss of wildlife across the region.
"In many parts of Asia, it is easier to see animals in the markets than in the forest," said COP-7 delegate Dr Kent Redford, Director of WCS's Conservation Institute and originator of the "empty forest syndrome" concept, used to describe forests after hunters decimate their animal populations. "As animals that perform vital roles in the forest as predators, pollinators and seed dispersers disappear, other species will also go."
In last 40 years, 12 species of large animals have become extinct or virtually extinct in Vietnam due mainly to hunting and wildlife trade. Even protected areas are losing their wildlife. In Sulawesi, the ranges of the anoa (a small species of wild cattle) and babirusa (a member of the pig family) are shrinking because of hunting pressure. In Thailand's Doi Inthanon and Doi Suthep National Parks, all tigers, elephants or wild cattle have been hunted out.
Some actions are being taken. Thailand and Lao PDR have both recently conducted major enforcement operations to try t
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Contact: John Delaney
jdelaney@wcs.org
718-220-3275
Wildlife Conservation Society
9-Feb-2004