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INTERVIEWS VIEWS Conversations
On the trail of
wildlife traders
ABOUT 200G OF CANNABIS IS ENOUGH TO PUT
ONE AWAY FOR 20 YEARS BUT WHEN SOMEONE
IS CAUGHT SMUGGLING 200 TURTLE EGGS, THE
MAXIMUM PENALTY WOULD PROBABLY BE A
TWO-DAY JAIL TERM OR RM200 FINE. AZRINA
ABDULLAH, DIRECTOR OF TRAFFIC, A WILDLIFE
TRADE MONITORING NETWORK, SPEAKS TO KAREN
ARUKESAMY ON WILDLIFE SMUGGLING IN MALAYSIA
Tell us about your organisation.
Traffic was set up in the 1970s, after the sign-
ing of the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES). It is an international conven-
tion of which Malaysia is one of its members.
This convention enables countries to coop-
erate in the monitoring of the international
trade of plants and animals, including local
wildlife species. Traffic is a joint programme
with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
and International Union for Conservation
of Nature. We monitor both legal and illegal
wildlife trade including plants. The Southeast
Asia team started off with only three people in
its Kuala Lumpur office which was set up in
1991. Today we have expanded to 25 person-
nel within the region – KL, Hanoi, Bangkok
and Jakarta. We are the biggest Traffic office
in the world and the only NGO that has a
memorandum of understanding with the
Cites secretariat to develop training material
and provide information and resources on the
wildlife trade.
Every so often, we hear reports of wildlife
shipments being confiscated or seized, just
how bad is this trade in Malaysia or the
region?
Malaysia has the Wildlife Protection Act 1972,
which was a good start compared to other
countries, which did not have such laws ear-
lier. Despite the Act and Cites Act passed in
2007, we are seeing an increase in the illegal
wildlife trade in Malaysia. If you look at sales
– I’m not saying that the trade of all species
but some have gone up. The sales of pangolin,
for example, have gone up significantly. It is
the most popular species that is smuggled,
especially to China in frozen form for the
meat trade and the traditional medicine mar-
ket which uses its scales. You cannot breed
pangolins or keep them as pets.
Hence, with the illegal trade itself, it is
a worrying trend in Malaysia and nearby
countries. First, we have an efficient transport
theSun | THURSDAY MARCH 19 2009
network and good ports, that in itself is an
advantage for the smugglers. Basically it fa-
cilitates, indirectly, a lot of smuggling because
you don’t expect the enforcement agency to
scan or check every cargo that passes through
Port Klang, for example.
What animals are protected in Malaysia?
According to the Perhilitan website, in Penin-
sular Malaysia, there are 740 local species and
1,856 exotic species, which are listed under
Cites and protected under the Protection of
Wildlife Act 1972 (Act 76). There are two cat-
egories of protection – “protected” and “totally
protected”. (see full list at www.wildlife.gov.
my)
What made Malaysia not just one of the top
10 global hubs for wildlife trafficking but
also a harvest and transit point?
Yes, we are among the top 10 smuggling hubs
together with the Philippines, Indonesia, Sin-
gapore and the United States. Vietnam is also
catching up.
As for the harvest point … it is because
Southeast Asia is rich in bio-diversity. Recent
seizures of tigers, fresh water turtles and
pangolins reflect their abundance. They are
not from outside but harvested in Malaysia.
Pangolins have a zero quota and are not for
trade even though under Appendix II of the
convention you can trade in them. Yet, you
still find people trying to smuggle it because
of the high demand and value of its meat.
But you do see a lot of species like fresh
water turtles being heavily harvested. It again
goes back to our good infrastructure and geo-
graphical location in the centre of the region.
We have got one of the best infrastructures
in the region and that makes it easy for the
smugglers to transport the animals.
We have seen more reports of seizures at
sea, especially in Johor, and at Kuala Lumpur
International Airport and Penang Internation-
al Airport. However, we have not seen many
seizures in Penang lately, we do not know if