LEARNING ABOUT BIODIVERISTY: Information and activities for teachers and learners

Its time to stop the illegal trading of animals and plants

By Sarah Whitelaw The illegal trade in animals and plants is said to be the third largest illegal trade in the world, only surpassed by the arms and drug trade. This alarming statistic highlights the extent to which the illegal trade has grown in recent years. One of the biggest problems that authorities face in trying to apprehend the offenders is that many of the smugglers have qualifications and degrees and know what species are rare and valuable. Another problem, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), is that up to 90% of the illegally traded species are purchased from recognized breeders. Ignorant people are also advised to buy reptiles from illegal sources, which encourages the trade. national department, 15 members in each of South Africas nine provinces, and 300 park rangers. Whilst the Green Scorpions are still only catching 5% of the smugglers, this still represents a massive improvement on earlier statistics when the Green Scorpions saw just 0,005% of smugglers convicted. It is believed that South Africas illegal trade industry is controlled ABOVE: Sarah Whitelaw is an ambassador for by a few big players through a our biodiversity. See below to find out how you network of corrupt officials and could become an ambassador for biodiversity suppliers, many of whom have too. Photo: Sue Jessop. been active in the trade business for over 30years. Whilst organizations like Environmental Management Inspectors are to be lauded for their good work, they face an uphill battle to stop such a profitable and destructive industry. The small budget the Green Scorpions have to work with only makes slowing down the illegal trade much harder. More needs to be done to educate the public about the dangers of depleting our natural biodiversity. Our plants and animals play a hugely important, and often underestimated, role in our ecosystem and South Africa cannot afford to continue to lose so much of its natural heritage. The author Sarah Whitelaw is a member of the Cape Reptile Club, and has done a South African Reptile Conservation Assesment (SARCA) Project trip, which was a memorable and fascinating experience. She works in the horse racing industry and is a freelance journalist for several publications.

Become active citizens in a changing world. Exercise your social and environmental rights and responsibilites.
The profit margin in, for example, reptile smuggling can be larger than that of drug dealing. The rarer the species, the more people are willing to pay thus providing the smugglers with great incentive to continue trading. Reptiles have become increasingly popular as pets, as they usually take up relatively little space. Many reptiles, some of which are endangered, are also prized for their skins, which get used to produce bags, shoes and wallets. The muthi trade is another reason why the illegal harvesting of reptiles and plants continues to thrive. Reptiles are regularly smuggled inside the clothes or stashed in overhead compartments some wrapped in foil to prevent detection from the airport scanners. An Australian man recently attempted to export four green tree pythons from South Africa, wrapped in pillow cases and surrounded by shredded paper. As much as 10% of the captured reptiles die in quarantine, and animals are often deprived of food and water in order to reduce their weight for shipping purposes. Some reptiles are also destroyed by customs officials. As grim as the situation looks, it looks worse when taking into account that many of the reptiles being illegally exported are extremely rare or endangered. According to a number of independent investigations, between 40% and 60% of animals gathered from the wild for the pet trade die before being exported. Not only do many of the smugglers kill and maim their prey, they also damage the surrounding environment. Digging to unearth animals and plants damages sensitive areas, and the use of poisonous chemicals by the smugglers renders the soil useless, as well as killing many nearby animals. What can be done? Several animals and plants traded worldwide are CITES listed in an attempt to regulate international smuggling and illegal trading, particularly of endangered species. (See www.cites.org.) In South Africa, the Endangered Species Protection Unit or ESPU used to deal with general enquiries on illegal trading and provided statistics regarding various natural heritage crimes throughout the country. The ESPU was integrated into the South African Police Services in 2005 and became the Environmental Management Inspectors (EMI) or more commonly, the Green Scorpions, which are now South Africas highly specialized environmental police force. South Africa now has over 866 inspectors working throughout the country, although the fact that the number of arrests made for smuggling outnumbers convictions remains a cause for concern. The ranks of the EMI include 30 members in the

ABOVE LEFT: Angulate Tortoise. All indigenous tortoises are protected by law in South Africa and no person may capture, transport of keep a tortoise in captivity without a permit. Photo: Sarah Whitelaw. ABOVE RIGHT: The epiphytic Leopard Ochid (Ansellia africana) is in great demand as a muthi and garden plant. No one may collect or transport wild plants in South Africa unless they are in possession of a valid permit and this is issued by the provincial authorities .

CURRICULUM-BASED ACTIVITES Interpreting the enviromnental focus in the Life Orientation curriculum for Grades 1012. Life Orientation equips learners with skills, knowledge and values to respond to lifes challenges. Relevant issues to explore could be the impact of natural resource loss as outlined in this article by Sarah Whitelaw as well as the article on page 22 on the muthi trade in Limpopo province. Ask the learners to investigate how the illegal trade in plants might contribute to the degradation of their local biodiversity, and how they can encourage people to be responsible about acquiring plants. They can present their findings as a poster or an article. Submit it to Veld & Flora and receive a free subscription to the Botanical Society of South Africa (BotSoc) which includes four issues of Veld & Flora each year. For more information on how to submit your article, see contacts on page 2.
MARCH 2011 | VELD&FLORA 23