Wildlife smuggling trails go ever deeper

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Wildlife smuggling trails go ever deeper

Second biggest problem after illicit drugs
Published: 27/06/2011 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News
 
The illicit wildlife trade has become Thailand's second most lucrative illegal business, after drug trafficking, but few people are aware of the crime, a police officer says.

"Many people, including police themselves, don't know about the illegal wildlife trade," said Attapon Sudsai of the Central Investigation Bureau's natural resources and environmental crime suppression division.

"That's why the problem has never been addressed vigorously at the national level, despite Thailand being monitored overseas as one of the major hubs for the trafficking of wild animals."

He said China is a major market for smugglers selling illegal wildlife products, especially pangolins and tigers.

Many Chinese believe the consumption of certain rare and exotic wild animals can endow them with physical strength, longer life or sexual prowess.

This has made China a major destination for wild animal trafficking, where meat from certain protected animals is considered a delicacy.

Pol Lt Col Attapon said few pangolins and tigers remain in Thai forests, though their numbers are relatively high in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Their dwindling numbers have made Thailand a major hub for wildlife trafficking. Both live and dead animals, and animal parts, are smuggled from local forests and sold on China's black market.

"A tiger can fetch more than 1 million baht, because all of its parts can be sold," Pol Lt Col Attapon said.

He said skin taken from a tiger was worth hundreds of thousands of baht, depending on its pattern and size.

A tiger's penis _ the single most valuable part of the beast _ typically sells at 30,000-50,000 baht apiece.

The meat and bones are sold together and commands around 5,000-6,000 per kilogramme.

The price of the animal's blood, which goes into making ya dong (medicinal herbs soaked in rice whisky), is subject to negotiation.

Tiger's teeth are made into amulets and sold locally, Pol Lt Col Attapon said.

Many endangered species were smuggled out of the country by land, rather than by sea or air.

"Wildlife trafficking networks often use pickup trucks or cooling trucks to transport animals from Satun or other southern border provinces," Pol Lt Col Attapon said, adding that they will then cross the Mekong River into Laos and on into China via Vietnam.

Although there are hundreds of places along the Mekong River where smugglers can ship illegal products, certain riverside locations in Bung Kan province's Bung Khla district and Nong Khai's Ratana Wapi and Phon Phisai districts are the most popular.

Their thick forest terrain helps the culprits evade detection and arrest.

Bung Kan provincial police chief Pol Maj Gen Chaiyatat Roongjang admitted police find it tough catching wildlife smugglers. The river runs along the province's 120km-long northern border.

Police stations in Bung Kan have erected 14 random checkpoints at key areas along the river.

"Gangs previously used six-wheeled trucks to carry many animals on each trip," Pol Lt Col Attapon said.

"Now, they tend to take cars, but they use several cars to avoid attracting the attention of authorities."

Policy makers have to take wildlife smuggling as seriously as they do the illegal drug trade, or the scourge will persist, he said.

Another problem is weak wildlife protection laws. The maximum punishment for possessing protected wildlife species is four years in prison and a 40,000-baht fine, which fails to act as a sufficient deterrent, he said.