Made Arya Kencana Jakarta Globe 4 Jul 11;
Denpasar. Bali is fast becoming a key hub in the illegal primate trade, with more than 200 endangered Javan lutungs trafficked through the resort island every month, animal rights activists claimed on Sunday.
In a protest at Denpasar’s Badjra Sandhi monument, activists from the group ProFauna brandished posters reading “Stop the Trade in Primates” and “We Are Not for Sale.”
Rosek Nursahid, chairman of the nongovernmental organization, said most of the endangered primate species being traded both within the country and overseas were caught in protected habitats, thus threatening the survival of many species in the wild. He said that Bali was growing in prominence as a trading hub for lutungs, which he claimed were poached from the Baluran and Meru Betiri national parks in Banyuwangi district in neighboring East Java.
More than 200 of the primates are trafficked through Bali each month, mostly for human consumption, according to ProFauna, citing research it has done.
“This is a dire threat to the survival of the species,” Rosek said. “Their meat is widely believed to be a cure for asthma, although there is no scientific evidence to support this view at all. It’s also considered to go well with the local moonshine.”
He urged a massive public awareness campaign by the Bali administration to help stop the trade in lutungs. Rosek cited the success of a similar campaign to save the green sea turtle, which had previously been threatened by poaching for food and as sacrificial animals in Balinese Hindu rites.
“We hope the Balinese authorities can do for the lutungs what they did for the turtle some years ago, when they ended the trapping and hunting of the animal for food,” Rosek said.
In addition to the lutung, he added, other species facing extinction due to the illegal wildlife trade included the Sumatran orangutan, the silvery gibbon and the Javan slow loris. All three are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which outlaws their trade. The silvery gibbon and Javan slow loris are classified as vulnerable species, while the orangutan is classified as critically endangered — just one step away from extinction.
Rosek said that despite the prohibition, these primates were being illegally exported to the Middle East, Taiwan, Hong Kong Malaysia and Singapore, fetching from Rp 200,000 ($23) for a lutung or loris to Rp 1 million for a gibbon and Rp 2 million for an orangutan.
“Our concern is that once they arrive in these importing countries, the animals are ‘laundered’ for sale in the legal pet trade, which is where the dealers make their profit,” he said.
