Straits Times 1 Jan 11;
SUN bear cubs, slow lorises and sacks of orchids were just some of the items up for sale when Mr Jacob Phelps visited Thailand's border markets during his field research last year. The National University of Singapore (NUS) graduate student plans to go back and fully document the orchid trade there as part of his doctoral thesis.
More than 2,000 species are traded in this region, he said. But endangered orchids can be hard to tell apart from common ones if they are not flowering, so Cites member countries voted to protect all orchids.
'In fact, we don't know much about how sensitive orchids are to harvest because we know so little about their biology,' he said.
'Each species would respond differently, but we need to take a precautionary approach - if we don't know how they respond to harvest, then we need to be careful and begin to collect data.'
Mr Phelps also commented on what Singapore can do to better monitor and tighten controls on wildlife trade.
'Not only does Singapore represent a market for wildlife products like shark's fin, animal skins, pets, sea horses and animal parts for traditional Chinese medicine; it is a hub of transport, with live wildlife and wildlife products re-exported via Singapore,' he said. For example, Singapore is a major legal exporter of farmed orchids and ornamental fish.
Currently, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) is Singapore's sole Cites authority and has both bureaucratic and independent advisory functions.
That is a potential conflict of interest, Mr Phelps pointed out, and Cites should require some sort of independent review of countries' trade decisions. Currently, there is no requirement that a country's Cites management and scientific authorities be separate.
Mr Phelps and his fellow researchers would like to see local universities and research institutes more involved in Cites work here.
In response, the AVA said it does consult the National Parks Board, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at NUS, and the South-east Asian Fisheries Development Centre for scientific advice, and seeks enforcement help from agencies like the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority and the Police Coast Guard.
Mr Phelps suggested the Singapore authorities should also do more spot Customs checks, train Customs officials to properly identify restricted wildlife, and use DNA techniques to correctly identify traded species.
'Wildlife trade is hugely lucrative and there are significant incentives for traders to bypass regulations. We need to invest resources and effort to catch infractions if we want to protect animals and plants from illegal trade,' he said.
GRACE CHUA
