Closer cooperation results in nine seizures of contraband, including record haul of ivory
Nirmal Ghosh Straits Times 16 Apr 11;
BANGKOK: Newly forged cooperation between Asean and African countries has given a boost to the authorities battling wildlife trafficking through Bangkok, a notorious hub for the illegal trade.
And in Asean, networks set up to combat the trade, while initially slow, are now gaining traction and beginning to show results.
A meeting in Bangkok last November between enforcers from the seven-nation Lusaka Agreement - headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya - and the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-Wen) led to closer engagement and exchanges of intelligence.
That produced almost immediate dividends in Thailand, with a string of nine seizures of contraband, mainly ivory, from Africa. These included more than a tonne of ivory and rhino horns in February, and another two tonnes of ivory last month - the biggest shipment to be intercepted in Thailand.
Nairobi is a major gateway for illegal wildlife products shipped out of Africa, and Bangkok is a major gateway to markets in this region, including China and Japan, where ivory carvings and hanko seals, respectively, are still popular.
The 118 tusks and 50 cut pieces of ivory seized in February had travelled from Nigeria's capital Lagos, via Doha in Qatar and Kuala Lumpur, in containers marked 'craft works' destined for an address in Pathum Thani, Thailand.
Last month's shipment came from Nairobi - 247 tusks cut from at least 123 dead elephants, hidden in a consignment of frozen mackerel.
The spate of seizures highlights the value of information sharing and coordination, say wildlife trade experts. Sharing information and coordinating crackdowns have always produced good results in the battle against the trade, valued at between US$15 billion (S$18.7 billion) and US$20 billion annually. The biggest markets are the European Union, the United States and China.
In late 2009, an operation across six African countries led to the seizure of 1,086kg of ivory and the arrest of dozens of suspected illegal wildlife dealers, including 65 in Kenya alone.
The new relationship between enforcers in Africa and those in Thailand is putting a dent in the profits of traders, said Mr Steve Galster, the executive director of conservation group Freeland Foundation who has worked on wildlife in Thailand and the region for 10 years.
'Seizures are the beginnings of an investigation, not the end of it. What's new is (Thai enforcers) are going after and getting bigger shipments, and moving up the ladder to making arrests of importers and exporters,' he said. 'Stocks of old African and Asian ivory have dried up, but demand has not gone down. So the shipments are still coming and the price mark-up is very high, but the traffickers are starting to lose money now.'
Last month's seizures led directly to Thai enforcers raiding two illegal carving workshops in the Thai province of Nakhon Sawan, where they found 3kg of hippopotamus teeth and walrus tusks, as well as African elephant tusks. Two Thais were arrested.
Thai enforcers and investigators had been 'impressed' and motivated by their African counterparts' commitment last November, Mr Galster said.
The new alliance is due to be further cemented with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Lusaka Agreement and Asean-Wen, said Mr Bonaventure Ebayi, who heads the African network. 'We are sharing a lot more information than before,' he said over the phone. 'We expect our cooperation with Asean-Wen to be further enhanced once the MOU is agreed on.'
Meanwhile, in Thailand this week, the Freeland Foundation, with the help of US$8 million in funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAid), will now act as the focal agency for the closer cooperation among Asian wildlife enforcers, starting with building links between Asean-Wen and its counterparts in China and South Asia.
A statement from USAid on April 7 said: 'If the current illegal activity continues, over 40 per cent of South-east Asia's animal and plant species could disappear this century. Asean-Wen is now a model for collaborative wildlife enforcement networking, which other regions need to replicate.'
Freeland will act as 'middleman and facilitator' to help 'turn information into intelligence' and enable mid-level enforcers to engage more with their high-level officials and political bosses.
