Illegal storage of animal parts may have been made worse by pandemic, experts warn

Wildlife experts fear stocks will increase during the pandemic at the Chinese and Vietnamese borders as criminal gangs exploit current vulnerabilities.

Despite the deadly consequences of the illegal wildlife trade, poachers and other key players in this lucrative business actively rely on species extinction to increase the value of their stock.

The Independent works with conservation charities, including Space for Giants and Freeland, to protect wildlife at risk due to the conservation funding crisis caused by Covid-19.

As countries in Southeast Asia and China work to curb wildlife trade, the Independent works with our partners to better understand the illegal trade, its history and its future.

While it is not yet possible to determine the impact of the pandemic on wildlife trends, large amounts of pangolin scales are believed to be currently stored in Vietnam, while raw ivory piling also takes place. in Laos and Cambodia, according to the 2020 report of the Wildlife Justice Commission.

The problem of hoarding has also been exacerbated by recent border closures and increased border security, making it difficult to trade and provide physical markets, the report added.

“It’s important to keep in mind that the storage problem started long before the virus appeared,” said Freeland founder Steve Galster, who has decades of experience planning and participating in investigations and remedial programs to end trafficking in wildlife and people.

Despite the efforts of his charity, Mr Glaster still thinks that many people assume that poached wild animals go straight to the market in the form of trophies, food and medicine, “but in fact, some carcasses – like that of rhinos. , elephants, big cats and pangolins – are stored. “

He added: “These traffickers are treating these animals like futures and are betting on extinction. Their enduring body parts, including horns, tusks, skeletons, and scales, are being stored as populations decline and prices rise.

“I am concerned that storage and speculation of rhino horns, pangolin scales, elephant tusks and big cat skeletons have increased during Covid, as traffickers look beyond the pandemic for when they can sell and make up for their losses. We saw evidence of this recently at Thai tiger farms where large refrigerators were filled with tiger carcasses.

In the first nine months of 2020, China prosecuted more than 15,000 people for wildlife crimes, up 66% from the same period a year earlier, prosecutors said.

The crackdown came as the country pledged to take robust action on the wildlife trade from January 2020, after the first cases of the virus were linked to a seafood market in the region. central city of Wuhan, known for selling exotic animal species.

In February, Hong Kong authorities seized 8.2 tons of pangolin scales – a record for Chinese territory while Chinese customs intercepted 2,748 elephant tusks weighing 7.48 tons of ivory on their mainland .

Such storage has taken place in other parts of the region: The shipment of 12.9-ton pangolin scales that was intercepted in Singapore on April 3 last year was the largest single transport seizure worldwide and Vietnam, 9.12 tonnes were also seized in April. – all single shipments.

Shortly after the virus spread in Wuhan city, to more than 11 million people, the Chinese National People’s Congress banned the consumption of wild animals for food.

As previously stated by the Independent, this move was followed by plans to revise China’s wildlife protection law, amend the animal epidemic prevention law, and introduce a biosecurity law.

Just over a week ago, officials revisited the list and added 517 species to the main cohort of protected wildlife – a total of 980 wild animals are now under state protection.

Those who hunt and traffic animals face fines and even jail time for “level one” protected species, such as the critically endangered Yangtze panda, pangolin and finless porpoise. extinction.

Speaking about the new regulations, Mr Galster said, “Reports that the consumption of wild animals will become a thing of the past are unfortunately not yet accurate for many parts of China, and are certainly not. nipped in the bud.

“We actually saw massive loads of pangolin scales being rushed to China (or attempted to smuggle into China) from Africa via Malaysia after China announced the Covid crackdown . This suggests that some traffickers intend to ignore the restrictions.

“But to be clear, however, the Chinese public has never experienced a crackdown and restrictions on the trade and consumption of wildlife like this before.”

Transporting goods by sea is likely to be an alternative option as air transport becomes impossible during this time, says the Wildlife Justice Commission.

One example is a case where Malaysian authorities seized a record 6 tonnes of African pangolin scales on March 31, while intelligence services also reported that ivory had been smuggled into Ho Chi Minh- City by sea also at the end of March.

John M Sellar, former police chief in charge of smuggling, fraud and organized crime issues for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), said Chinese law has historically tended to contain a series of exemptions.

Mr. Sellar, who has also conducted 234 missions to 66 countries, assessing law enforcement on the ground and developing strategies to combat wildlife trafficking, added: “Although consumption, as a food, may be prohibited, it may still be legal or licit to use animals or their parts for traditional medicine, the preparation of alcoholic beverages, the use of skins for decorative purposes.

“In some cases, such commercial use may depend on animals bred in captivity. An example of this is how bears are protected under Chinese laws, but it is still legal, as far as I know, for people to operate licensed bear “farms” where bears are kept in captivity and ” milked ”with their bile; which is then used for medicinal purposes.

“Unfortunately, just because something becomes prohibited does not mean that the demand is gone. This is because the ban can create underground markets and increase prices and profits. Prohibition, while well intentioned, can sometimes play into the hands of criminals. “

Mr Sellar said traders who currently sell their products in legal domestic markets in China may also choose, after a ban, to go to markets in other countries, where trade may continue to be legal.

He said that China’s application of its laws and regulations has at times been the subject of “considerable criticism,” adding, “Even though there is a real will to implement and enforce the new law, the authorities will, as always, face immense challenges. presented by the nation’s large size, porous borders, huge population, difficulty eradicating the tradition of consumption, and considerable corruption.

While Mr Galster agrees that bans can create and displace “underground” markets, he argues that they can work if implemented internationally. “Fewer traders and buyers are willing to go underground and risk being caught in the face of bans and law enforcement, which means the volume of trade is declining, and that means less trafficked animals.

He added: “We have learned that wildlife crime can move from country to country when one country improves enforcement, while weak laws or lax enforcement persist in another. For example, when Japan finally began enforcing the ivory smuggling laws in the 1990s, we saw the ivory trade shift to China. When the fight against poaching has improved in South Africa over the past 3 years, we have seen traffickers move to other African countries to bring their “goods” out. “